When you code on a regular basis or even code for a living, it makes a lot of sense to get familiar with your IDE, and its shortcuts. Even better: customise your IDE to your needs.
Essential Shortcuts
To work effectively with any IDE, there are a few things you want to be able to do, without leaving the keyboard. In this article we will go over the most essential shortcuts for search, navigation and editing files.
Since default shortcuts are different on Windows and Mac, I will give you the Command name and my recommended shortcut in a nice formatted table, which you can use as cheat sheet. modifier in this context just means you could use anything like alt, ctrl, opt. You can search the commands under Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts and assign new Keybinding by double clicking. Furthermore I made some sample gifs, showing how it looks in action linked under each table.
You can also watch this short video and use the tables for later reference.
Search
| Command | Recommended Shortcut | How to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Go to File... |
modifier+p
|
search project file |
| Search: Find in Files |
modifier+shift+f
|
search files in project |
| Find |
modifier+ f
|
search in file |
| Go to Symbol in File... |
modifier+ s
|
Go to symbol |
The commands above help you quickly find a certain function in your code. If you know which file it is in, use modifier + p and jump to the file, then use symbol search modifier+s to jump to the function. If you do not know the file, search the whole project with modifier+shift+f.
Navigation
| Command | Recommended Shortcut | How to remember |
|---|---|---|
| View: Quick Open View |
modifier+1
|
Open View in 1st Panel |
| View: Open Previous Editor |
modifier+q
|
sidestepping left with WASD controls |
| View: Open Next Editor |
modifier+e
|
sidestepping right with WASD controls |
| View: Close Editor |
modifier+r
|
remove current editor |
View: Move Editor into directon Group |
modifier+m arrow key
|
move current editor |
View: Focus Editor into directon Group |
modifier+f arrow key
|
focus editor |
| View: Toggle Integrated Terminal |
modifier+t
|
focus terminal |
| Go to Line... |
modifier+L
|
Go to Line |
| cursorWordEndRight/cursorWordStartLeft |
modifier+Arrow Key
|
- |
See VSCode Navigation in Action
With the above commands you can quickly focus any of the side bars with modifier+1 and jump back to editing by opening a file or using modifier+f Arrow Key to focus one of the Editor Groups again. You split the editor view by using modifier+m Arrow Key and move focus between editors using modifier+f Arrow Key. Within each editor you can jump between open files using modifier+q and modifier+e. You can then use previously mentioned symbol search or modifier+L to jump to a certain line. Within any line you move the cursor using cursorWordEndRight/cursorWordStartLeft. Using modifier+t you can focus the terminal to run your application or run any test commands.
Editing
| Command | Recommended Shortcut | How to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Add Selection To Next Find Match |
modifier+n
|
select next occurrence |
| Move Line Down/Up |
modifier+Arrow Key
|
- |
| Expand/Shrink Selection |
modifier+ shift Arrow Key
|
- |
The modifier+n helps you with refactoring and multi-cursor editing. With Move Line Down/Up you can move certain lines or complete code blocks. The Expand/Shrink Selection is quite smart and helps you selecting complete codes of block, before moving/replacing them.
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