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Cover image for My 12 Favorite VSCode Extensions
Katherine Peterson
Katherine Peterson

Posted on • Edited on • Originally published at blog.katherinempeterson.com

My 12 Favorite VSCode Extensions

One of the reasons VSCode is such an awesome code editor is the huge library of extensions created by the community that increase developer productivity. Below are some of my favorite VSCode extensions.


1. Rainbow Brackets

Rainbow Brackets Example
This simple extension makes your brackets colorful so you can easily find matching pairs.

2. Auto Rename Tag

Auto Rename Tag Demo
There isn't really ever a time where you would want to change an html tag without changing the corresponding opening/closing tag. Automatically change both at the same time with this extension.

3. Relative Path

Relative Path Demo
This extension has saved me so much time writing import statements. Easily get the relative path to any file in your workspace with a simple keyboard shortcut.

4. Prettier

Alt Text
Keep your code style consistent with this formatter. Configure your settings exactly how you like, then format your code with a keyboard shortcut or on save.

5. htmltagwrap

htmltagwrap Demo
Highlight a block of code and use a shortcut to wrap it in any html tag.

6. Markdown Preview Enhanced

Markdown Preview Enhanced Demo
If you ever write markdown files, having a live preview is incredibly helpful.

7. Polacode

Polacode Demo
This extension allows you to take beautiful screenshots of your code.

8. Random Everything

Alt Text
There are so many better uses of our time than coming up with fake placeholder data. This extension allows you to quickly add random pieces of data to your code, such as names, emails, colors, etc.

9. CSS Peek

CSS Peek Demo
"Peek" at the styles for any CSS class, id, or HTML tag. Open the styles inline or quickly jump to the file where they are defined.

10. Turbo Console Log

Turbo Console Log Demo
Easily log variable names and their values to the console with a keyboard shortcut. Can be configured to include things like file name and line number in the log for easier debugging.

11. Simple React Snippets

Simple React Snippets Demo
Snippets for all of the React boilerplate you write over and over again.

12. Snippet Creator

Snippet Creator Demo
There are many snippet extensions like the React one above, but sometimes you might want to make your own custom snippets. This extension allows you to do that easily.

Latest comments (40)

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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Good list of extensions here.

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amar39364236 profile image
Amar

nice :)

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anubra266 profile image
Abraham

This is beautiful, but you should checkout webpack aliases, you won't need No 3

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katherinecodes profile image
Katherine Peterson

Very cool, I didn’t know about that.

I don’t use webpack in all my projects though so it might still be useful to have both?

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anubra266 profile image
Abraham

Yeah, both is good.

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pfacklam profile image
Paul Facklam

Good article and very useful extensions. Thanks for sharing!

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fjsebastiam profile image
fjsebastiam

Snipper creator looks fantastic, i'ts very helpfull

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23ebd41776a64ee profile image
Nick Vasa

Turbo clo’s gonna save tons of my time from now🤩 Thanks

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michelledev3 profile image
michelledev

Thanks Katherine -- U ROCK!

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lucalves profile image
Lucas Alves

Good! :)

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pzelnip profile image
Adam Parkin

I used to also love Polacode, but it appears to now be broken, and hasn't been updated in almost 2 years. Related issue: github.com/octref/polacode/issues/157

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balduinofernando profile image
Balduino Fernando

I use SnapCode Instead... You should try it man.

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pzelnip profile image
Adam Parkin

Hmm, gave it a try, but pasting into the window I don't see my code?

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alimobasheri profile image
MirAli Mobasheri

Great suggestions! Thanks.