Evan Cordulack

Moving to VS Code from IntelliJ

August 27, 2021

After years of using IntelliJ, I decided to give VS Code a try. There are some of the extensions and commands I used to ease the transition.

Commands (MacOS)

  • Guide to shortcuts: https://code.visualstudio.com/shortcuts/keyboard-shortcuts-macos.pdf?WT.mc_id=code-online-jopapa
  • Select column: Command + Option + Shift and then use the arrow keys to move the cursors
  • Select instances of some text in a file: Select text the command + shift + L
  • Duplicate line: Shift + Option + down arrow
  • Open terminal: Ctrl +` or Command + J
  • In VS Code, if you have a file open, and switch branches, the code doesn’t change to match what is in the new branch.
  • When a project/directory/folder from the File menu, I wanted it to open in a new window by default. You can get this to happen by going to File > Preferences > Settings > Window > New Window > Open Folders in New Window and selecting “on”
  • Turn off file preview (when you click on a file, it opens in the browser, but doesn’t really open): Settings > Workbench › Editor: Enable Preview
  • How do I auto generate comments for functions that have params, etc. from them? Preferences > Settings > Text Editor > Files > Trim Trailing Whitespace
  • When I close a file, explorer scrolls to a different place: change the setting for “Explorer: Auto reveal” to focusNoScroll
  • How to comment out multiple lines at one time: command + /

Extensions