Some helpful extensions for beginners in VS Code
Tags: beginners, vscode, productivity
Published: 2022-12-23 02:47:31

Now I'm gonna start this blog post off by clarifying one thing; I am no expert in writing code or the best way to write it, not yet at least. That being said, I'm going to write about a couple of extensions that I have personally found helpful or useful for working in VS Code. If you find any of the following extensions helpful or have any you would like to suggest, please write a comment and let me know!

**CodeSnap by adpyke**

Link to extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adpyke.codesnap
Extension ID: adpyke.codesnap

One thing that has always annoyed me when trying to share snippets of code with people has been how ugly it looks and how certain messaging apps can mess up the formatting. CodeSnap is an extension that aims to fix these two issues. Simply highlight your code, right click it, and click on the "CodeSnap" option and it will generate a beautiful screenshot of your beautifully written code.

_An example of a CodeSnap screenshot:_
![CodeSnap example image](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0x26mzbr757c9476g5bc.png)

And would you look at that? It's a wonderful screenshot of a function I wrote for a code challenge earlier today. If for some reason you don't like the look of these screenshots, you can always go into your settings and change pretty much everything about the way your screenshots look. Happy code sharing!

**Better Comments by Aaron Bond**

Link to extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=aaron-bond.better-comments
Extension ID: aaron-bond.better-comments

Earlier today I was working on a code challenge for my classes with Flatiron School and I had a remarkable discovery. Regular comments in my code looked pretty lame. For me, trying to read my code amongst a sea of green sentences that described what I needed to do and what I had done just wasn't working. Here is where Better Comments comes in to save the day.

__Better looking comments already__
![Better Comments examples](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/mvtpyqtppu7hr8z7373p.png)

With just a few symbols and color changes, comments suddenly become a whole lot easier to read and work with. For me, associating the colors with levels of importance really improves how I do work anywhere. Just like CodeSnap, if you don't like the way these colors look or the symbols used, this is all fully customizable. 

You may currently be asking yourself; "Why didn't this genius just use CodeSnap for that example screenshot?" and that is totally a fair question. I tried using CodeSnap, but unfortunately the colors wouldn't show up with that extension, and I'm sure if someone doesn't have this extension their comments will look boring too. But this is about your workflow, not someone else, so does that really matter?

Those are just two of the extensions I have found that have already helped me with some of my work. I'm sure there are more for me to find and I'm actively looking for any way to help get my programming done more efficiently. These are already being put to work on some fun side projects I'm working on, those may turn into future blog posts. If you have any suggestions for extensions, or have found either of these to be useful, please leave a comment! Happy coding!