VS Code: 14 Keyboard Shortcuts to Increase Your Productivity
Tags: vscode, productivity
Published: 2021-03-18 22:43:13

While customizing your VS Code with a nice (hopefully dark) theme and handy extensions can make the experience a whole lot better for you, I'm here to share a few of my most used keyboard shortcuts / tricks  to hopefully make your stay in VS Code a little bit better, while also helping you increase your productivity.

*The shortcut keys are specific to Mac, but they should be fairly similar on Windows.*

**Deleting**

**1.  Delete One Word at a Time**

*OPTION + BACKSPACE*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/tjQRQGdMEykVouwqJY/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/tjQRQGdMEykVouwqJY/giphy.gif)

**2. Delete Entire Line to Left of Cursor**
*COMMAND + BACKSPACE*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/dKPuoFGH4y5ldy5AC7/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/dKPuoFGH4y5ldy5AC7/giphy.gif)

**Selecting**

**3. Select One Word at a Time**

*OPTION + SHIFT + LEFT ARROW -or- RIGHT ARROW* 

![https://media.giphy.com/media/a8bGXAG7mVb0rtzhtU/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/a8bGXAG7mVb0rtzhtU/giphy.gif)

**4. Select Everything to Left or Right of Cursor**

*COMMAND + SHIFT + LEFT ARROW -or- RIGHT ARROW*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/vXR5RgKf2KpBprXlPm/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/vXR5RgKf2KpBprXlPm/giphy.gif)

**5. Select Each Occurrence of a Word, One by One**

*COMMAND + D*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/wIiBhjnxpL6bnHljb0/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/wIiBhjnxpL6bnHljb0/giphy.gif)

**6. Select All Occurrences of a Word**

*COMMAND + SHIFT + L*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/Adixkk6DTpiVfMgIcu/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/Adixkk6DTpiVfMgIcu/giphy.gif)

**Multi-Cursor**
*(To exit any multi-cursor mode, just press ESCAPE)*

**7. Place Multiple Cursors in Editor**

*COMMAND + CLICK*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/m5doLhnmtzURrPhqZp/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/m5doLhnmtzURrPhqZp/giphy.gif)

**8. Place Multiple Cursors Up and/or Down From Current Line**

*COMMAND + OPTION + UP ARROW -or- DOWN ARROW*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/1PfvXjpGAPJqhMtot6/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/1PfvXjpGAPJqhMtot6/giphy.gif)

**Moving Code**
**9. Move Line of Code (or selection of code) Up or Down** 

*OPTION + UP ARROW -or- DOWN ARROW*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/aC5k8Rt7HGWSDSPTyk/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/aC5k8Rt7HGWSDSPTyk/giphy.gif)

**Pasting**
**10. Copy *n* Items To Paste *n* Items**

*COMMAND + DOUBLE CLICK (to select), then COMMAND + C to copy, 
then COMMAND + DOUBLE CLICK (to select), then COMMAND + V to paste*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/hcaFyEMlrYDMMNdGgl/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/hcaFyEMlrYDMMNdGgl/giphy.gif)

**Navigation**

**11. Quickly Change Tabs**

*COMMAND + OPTION + LEFT ARROW -or- RIGHT ARROW*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/GApYH2Y6fBO50vfPqu/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/GApYH2Y6fBO50vfPqu/giphy.gif)

**12. Show/Hide Sidbar**

*COMMAND + B*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/4g8lrI5py1kZPcD2Zq/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/4g8lrI5py1kZPcD2Zq/giphy.gif)

**13. Show/Hide Explorer/Files** 

*COMMAND + SHIFT + E*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/EryjWht255O9NP1ypn/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/EryjWht255O9NP1ypn/giphy.gif)

**14. Show/Hide Extensions**

*COMMAND + SHIFT + X*

![https://media.giphy.com/media/4vegtnJWwrsab1xYZd/giphy.gif](https://media.giphy.com/media/4vegtnJWwrsab1xYZd/giphy.gif)

And thats that! Hopefully this list introduced you to something that you can incorporate into your daily use of VS Code to increase your productivity.

As always, refer to the docs for more info:
[VS Code Shortcut Guide](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings)

Feel free to reach out here or on my socials for any questions, suggestions, or to say hello 👋