Useful VSCode Shortcuts for macOS Programming Newbies

Photo by Aryan Dhiman on Unsplash

There’s nothing like starting a coding boot camp to finally confront the fact that, despite using a computer every day, that you might not be a particularly good computer user. At least that’s how Day One went for me.

Overall, there’s a lot to learn (it turns out they call it “boot camp” for a reason), so it can feel like a distraction to take the time to learn keyboard shortcuts, but trust me: it’s worth it in the long run!

Here are some VSCode (macOS) keyboard shortcuts to start with:

Copy a line: command+c (no selection necessary)

Cut a line: command+x (no selection necessary)

Delete a line: shift+command+k

Move a line up: option+up (no selection necessary)

Move a line down: option+down (no selection necessary)

Copy a line up: shift+option+up

Copy a line down: shift+option+down

Find the next match: command+d (select item to match)

Move to the end of a line: command+right

Move to the beginning of a line: command+left

Move to the end of a word: option+right

Move to the beginning of a word: option+left

Save a file: command+s

Select all: command+a

Open an in-editor terminal: ctrl+`

By no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully, it’ll provide a starting point for some keyboard shortcuts to learn when starting in VSCode (macOS).

Have I made a mistake or omitted your favorite shortcut? Let me know in the comments.

P.s. Don’t forget to practice!