Introduction

Learning keyboard shortcuts is one of the best ways to speed up your workflow and make you more productive. Usually when this topic comes up people will talk about the most common keyboard shortcuts, but I’m not going to waste your time with those. Instead, I am going to cover the top 10 lesser known keyboard shortcuts that I use every day that most people don’t know about.

FREE Cheat Sheet

If you want a free cheat sheet that includes not only these 10 keyboard shortcuts, but also over 50 other keyboard shortcuts that I use every day then you can download it for free below.

Download the FREE Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

1. Go To Definition

• Windows: F12
• Mac: F12

This is probably the most well known of the shortcuts in this article, but also one of the most useful. Whenever you are working with a function or variable that is defined in another location/file you can quickly jump to that function/variable definition by pressing F12 while your cursor is inside the function/variable name. This is useful for quickly seeing how a function works or what a variable is set to without needing to search for it manually. You can also put your mouse over the function/variable name and hold ctrl / ⌘ then left click on it to achieve the same effect.

2. Back/Forward Navigation

• Windows:
  • Back: alt ←
  • Forward: alt →
• Mac:
  • Back: ⌃ -
  • Forward: ⌃ ⇧ -

Many of the shortcuts in this article will help you navigate between files quickly, but it is quite easy to become lost after navigating multiple times. To help with this you can use the back and forward navigation shortcuts. Pressing alt ← will take you back to the last place you were in the code and pressing alt → will take you forward to the next place were in the code. This is incredibly useful to quickly get back to where you were after jumping to a function definition.

3. Find All References

• Windows: shift alt F12
• Mac: ⇧ ⌥ F12

Similar to the “Go To Definition” shortcut, this shortcut helps you find all references to a function or variable in your code. When you press shift alt F12 while your cursor is inside a function/variable name it will show you a list in the sidebar of all the places that function/variable is used in your code. This list even splits out the references by file so you can quickly see where the function/variable is used in your project. This can help you avoid breaking changes when refactoring.

4. Search For Symbol In File

• Windows: ctrl shift O
• Mac: ⌘ ⇧ O

A symbol is a function, class, variable, or any other named entity in your code. This keyboard shortcut allows you to quickly search for symbols in the current file you are working on. By pressing ctrl shift O you will open a search box that lets you type in the name of a symbol and it will show you all the symbols that match what you typed in (using fuzzy search) in the current file. This is incredibly useful for quickly navigating to a specific function or class without needing to scroll through the entire file.

5. Reopen Last Closed Tab

• Windows: ctrl shift T
• Mac: ⌘ ⇧ T

If you are familiar with web browsers then you probably know that you can reopen the last closed browser tab by pressing ctrl shift T. This works in Visual Studio Code as well. If you accidentally close a file you were working on you can quickly reopen it by pressing this shortcut. You can even press it multiple times to reopen multiple closed files in the order they were closed.

6. Navigate Between Open Tabs

• Windows: ctrl Tab
• Mac: ⌃ Tab

While we are on the topic of tabs, you can quickly navigate between open tabs in Visual Studio Code by pressing ctrl Tab. This will open a list of all the currently open tabs and you can use the arrow keys to navigate to the tab you want to switch to. This is incredibly useful for quickly switching between files without needing to use your mouse. By default this list will be ordered by the most recently used files making it easy to jump between a few frequently used files.

7. Expand/Collapse the Sidebar

• Windows: ctrl B
• Mac: ⌘ B

This one is another more commonly known shortcut, but it is one I use dozens of times a day. If you want to quickly hide or show the sidebar in Visual Studio Code you can press ctrl B. This is great for when you need more screen space to see your code and don’t need the sidebar open.

8. Move Tab To New Split Pane

• Windows:
  • Move Right: ctrl alt →
  • Move Left: ctrl alt ←
• Mac:
  • Move Right: ⌃ ⌘ →
  • Move Left: ⌃ ⌘ ←

Often when you are working on a project you will want to have multiple files open at the same time side by side. Usually you would need to use the mouse for this, but you can quickly move a tab between split panes by pressing ctrl alt → to move the tab to the right or ctrl alt ← to move the tab to the left. This command will even create new split panes if there are none available while moving the tab to the right.

9. Focus Split Pane

• Windows: ctrl 1/2/3/...
• Mac: ⌘ 1/2/3/...

While on the topic of split panes, you can quickly focus a specific split pane by pressing ctrl 1 to focus the first split pane, ctrl 2 to focus the second split pane, and so on. This combined with the previous shortcut makes it incredibly easy to navigate between multiple files open in split panes without needing to use your mouse.

10. Expand/Shrink Selection

• Windows:
  • Expand: shift alt →
  • Shrink: shift alt ←
• Mac:
  • Expand: ⌃ ⇧ →
  • Shrink: ⌃ ⇧ ←

Often when writing code you will want to select all the code in a specific block or section. For example, you may want to select all the code inside a function or object. Instead of reaching for your mouse, your can quickly expand or shrink your selection by pressing shift alt → to expand the selection of code or shift alt ← to shrink the selection. This can be used as fine grained as expanding your selection to include the variable name you are inside of or as broad as selecting an entire function body.

Bonus: Show All Keyboard Shortcuts

• Windows: ctrl K + ctrl S
• Mac: ⌘ K + ⌘ S

If you want to see a list of all the keyboard shortcuts available in Visual Studio Code you can press ctrl K + ctrl S. This will open a list of all the keyboard shortcuts and their current keybindings. You can even search for specific commands or keybindings in this list. This is incredibly useful for finding new keyboard shortcuts to learn or for customizing your keybindings to better suit your workflow.

Conclusion

This article just scratches the surface of the many keyboard shortcuts available in Visual Studio Code. If you want to master even more keyboard shortcuts, I highly recommend you download my free Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet which includes over 60 keyboard shortcuts that I use every day. Learning these shortcuts will help you become a more efficient programmer and speed up your workflow significantly.