Aurelian S.

VSCode Keyboard Shortcuts (with GIF demos)

By Aurelian Spodarec
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Ever seen how fast these superior than Senior level engineers code? Shortcuts baby!

Shortcuts

These are the most common shortcuts I personally use. Will add more overtime, and if you have any interesting shortcut - let me know, I'll add it in.

Note: Some computers, some keyboards, if a shortcuts doens't work, you might need to try the altarnative key. For example, if you're pressing left Alt, try pressing right Alt instead. Some software is also coded where only the left or right key might work.

Add Selection To Next Find Match

Windows: Ctrl + D
Mac: ⌘ + D

editor.action.addSelectionToNextFindMatch

The Add Selection To Next Find Match shortcut allows you to select the next occurrence of the currently highlighted text, enabling you to edit multiple instances simultaneously. This is particularly useful for making quick edits of the exact same characters across a file without having to manually select each occurrence.

Video Coming Soon

Bonus

VSCode Reference: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/reference/default-keybindings

Wizards practice, so should you - if you want to improve general typing skills https://www.typingclub.com

Conclusion

Coding fast is cool - but what really matters is why we use shortcuts.

The best programmers don't just bash the keyboard as fast as possible, they make fewer strokes because they already figured out a solid solution in their head first. Once the thinking’s done, the typing part should be a smooth one. Shortcuts become muscle memory, and not flashy things, just quietly powerful.

You might save 30+ minutes a day, sometimes even hours depending what you're doing, and that adds up to hours saved over the week.

Think of shortcuts as learning to drive: at first, you’re stiff and hyper-aware. A year later, you’re cruising with one hand on the wheel and a burger in the other arriving at your destination in minutes. And if you crash? Blame the self-driving feature 🤷‍♂️

P.S. In fact, they are soo muscle memory that I even struggled to write this blog post because I had no idea what stuff I even press when programming.