10 VSCode extensions that make your life easier [2020]
Tags: vscode, codenewbie, javascript, beginners
Published: 2020-06-27 19:56:36

I’ve been using [VSCode](https://code.visualstudio.com/) for almost 2 years now and I like it so much. I’m sure that you like it too. Extensions are a core part of VSCode that adds extra functionality to the editor. I’ve installed about +40 extensions and here is my top 10 list.
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## 10. [Bracket Pair Colorizer](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer)
This extension allows matching brackets to be identified with colors. The user can define which characters to match, and which colors to use.
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![Bracket Pair Colorizer screenshot](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/g9d5i6tpcs7vw4bn0qea.png)
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## 9. [File Utils](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sleistner.vscode-fileutils)
Creating and managing files using built-in methods can be overwhelming. This extension provides a convenient way of creating, duplicating, moving, renaming, deleting files, and directories.
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![File utils in action](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ijwb5bmxqdkgkk7hw0sq.gif)
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## 8. [Better Comments](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=aaron-bond.better-comments)
The Better Comments extension will help you create more human-friendly comments in your code.
With this extension, you will be able to categorize your annotations into:
- Alerts
- Queries
- TODOs
- Highlights
- Commented out code can also be styled to make it clear the code shouldn't be there
- Any other comment styles you'd like can be specified in the settings

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![better comments screenshot](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/b1q6c2j8i09m3vliyg18.png)
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## 7. [WakaTime](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WakaTime.vscode-wakatime)
Did you ever want to check how much time you spend on a project? Or how much time did you spend coding in a specific language? Or coding in general? Well, WakaTime has got your back! It shows Metrics, insights, and time tracking automatically generated from your programming activity.
WakaTime also has a chrome extension that tracks how much you spend browsing the web.
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![wakatime dashboard screenshot](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/p38qmdi4bdsadxkum1p0.png)
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## 6. [change-case](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wmaurer.change-case)
Manually change cases in code can be overwhelming, wait no more! With change-case, you can change the case (camelCase, CONSTANT_CASE, snake_case, etc) of the current selection or current word in just a second!
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![change-case functionality in a gif](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/s7boeimbnitu61ello63.gif)
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## 5. [Auto Rename Tag](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=formulahendry.auto-rename-tag)
I've been using [WebStorm](https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/) before VSCode and one thing I liked about it so much was auto rename tag. with this extension, you can rename a tag (HTML for example) and it will rename the closing tag for you!
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![auto renaming tag in action](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7hsxzks0343ivjzk0638.gif)
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## 4. [Bookmarks](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=alefragnani.Bookmarks)
Bookmarks help you to navigate in your code, moving between important positions easily and quickly. No more need to search for code. It also supports a set of selection commands, which allows you to select bookmarked lines and regions between bookmarked lines. It's really useful for log file analysis.

Here are some of the features that Bookmarks provide:
- Mark/unmark positions in your code
- Mark positions in your code and gives it a name
- Jump forward and backward between bookmarks
- Icons in gutter and overview ruler
- See a list of all Bookmarks in one file
- See a list of all Bookmarks in your project
- A dedicated Side Bar
- Select lines with bookmarks
- Select regions between bookmarks.

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![bookmarks in action](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/7kdrcon02qh5vh4n66xp.png)
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## 3. [Todo Tree](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Gruntfuggly.todo-tree)
Todo Tree quickly searches your workspace for comment tags like TODO and FIXME and displays them in a tree view in the explorer pane. Clicking a TODO within the tree will open the file and put the cursor on the line containing the TODO.
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![Todo Tree screenshot](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/grg8db4wz63jk03rfqpa.png)
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## 2. [Project manager](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=alefragnani.project-manager)
Project manager helps you to easily access your projects, no matter where they are located. So you don't miss those important projects anymore.
You can define your Projects (also called Favorites), or choose for auto-detect Git, Mercurial or SVN repositories, VSCode folders, or any other folder.

Here are some of the features that the Project Manager provides:
- Save any folder as a Project
- Save any workspace as a Project
- Auto-detect Git, Mercurial or SVN repositories
- Open projects in the same or new window
- Identify deleted/renamed projects
- A Status Bar which identifies the current project
- A dedicated Side Bar

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![Project manager in action](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/u2e08aeg31hyb3g18atq.gif)
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## 1. [Quokka](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=WallabyJs.quokka-vscode)
Quokka.js is a developer productivity tool for rapid JavaScript / TypeScript prototyping. Runtime values are updated and displayed VSCode next to your code, as you type. Quokka also has an extension for VSCode that you can use.

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![Quokka in action](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/xpsr5a8drdd2dfj054wk.gif)
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## Honorable mentions
You have probably heard about these extensions in other blog posts. I’m not gonna cover them one by one but they are really popular and very useful to me as well. 

Here are a couple more cool ones:
- [:emojisense:](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=bierner.emojisense) Adds suggestions and autocomplete for emoji to VS Code.
- [GraphQL for VSCode](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=kumar-harsh.graphql-for-vscode) Syntax highlighting, validate schema and more...
- [Import Cost](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wix.vscode-import-cost) This extension will display inline in the editor the size of the imported package.
- [Live Server](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ritwickdey.LiveServer) Launch a local development server with live reload feature for static & dynamic pages.
- [Code Spell Checker](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker) A basic spell checker that works well with camelCase code.
- [GitLens — Git supercharged](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eamodio.gitlens) GitLens supercharges the Git capabilities built into Visual Studio Code.
- [Debugger for Chrome](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=msjsdiag.debugger-for-chrome) Debug your JavaScript code running in Google Chrome from VS Code.
- [Live Share](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MS-vsliveshare.vsliveshare) Visual Studio Live Share enables you to collaboratively edit and debug with others in real-time.
- [ES7 React/Redux/GraphQL/React-Native snippets](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dsznajder.es7-react-js-snippets) This extension provides you JavaScript and React/Redux snippets in ES7 with Babel plugin features for VS Code.

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✨ If you are interested in my theme and icon pack I’m using [Night Owl](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sdras.night-owl) by Sarah Drasner and [Material Icon Theme] (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PKief.material-icon-theme) by Philipp Kief.

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Hey, you made it to the end 🥳 Thanks for reading my first blog post ever! be sure to follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/amirmeimari). I'm posting whatever I learn and a bunch of cool stuff there. cheers 👋😅