The One VS Code Setting That Will Double Your Coding Speed

Multi-cursor editing is a superpower

If you're still making repetitive edits one line at a time, this will change everything.

The basics

• Alt + Click (Option + Click on Mac) — place cursors anywhere
• Ctrl + D (Cmd + D) — select next occurrence of the current word
• Ctrl + Shift + L (Cmd + Shift + L) — select all occurrences at once

Real-world example

You have 20 CSS class names to rename. Instead of 20 Find-and-Replace operations, press Cmd+Shift+L on the class name, and all 20 instances get cursors simultaneously. Type the new name once — done.

Power combos

• Cmd+Alt+↓ — add cursor on line below
• Shift+Alt+I — cursor at end of every selected line
• Cmd+Shift+K — delete entire line (no selecting needed)

Spend 10 minutes learning multi-cursor and you'll wonder how you ever coded without it.