Editor Shortcuts

Learning your editor's shortcuts and multi-cursor editing to work faster.

Backend Engineer · Junior Frontend Engineer · Junior Data Engineer · Junior

Also known as: editor shortcuts, hotkeys, multi-cursor editing

Learning your editor’s keyboard shortcuts is one of the cheapest ways to work faster. The goal isn’t memorizing everything. It’s removing the mouse from the actions you repeat all day.

Worth learning first (names differ by editor, and Cmd replaces Ctrl on macOS)

Action	Typical shortcut (VS Code)
Command palette: run any command by name	`Ctrl+Shift+P`
Open a file by name	`Ctrl+P`
Search across the project	`Ctrl+Shift+F`
Go to definition	`F12`
Find all references	`Shift+F12`
Rename a symbol	`F2`
Move or duplicate a line	`Alt+↑/↓`, `Shift+Alt+↓`
Comment or uncomment	`Ctrl+/`
Select the next occurrence (multi-cursor)	`Ctrl+D`
Add cursors with the mouse	`Alt+Click`
Toggle the terminal	Ctrl+`
Format the file	`Shift+Alt+F`

Multi-cursor editing

Placing several cursors lets you edit many places at once, such as renaming a few related names or turning a list into quoted strings:

a            "a",
b     →      "b",
c            "c",

Select the lines, and add a cursor at each line end.

How to learn them

Pick two or three and use them until automatic, then add more.
Notice what you do repeatedly with the mouse, and look up its shortcut. The command palette shows shortcuts beside commands.
Print or keep a cheat sheet nearby for a week.
Customize rarely used ones that conflict with your habits.
Learn the shell shortcuts too: Ctrl+R history search, Ctrl+A/E to move to line start and end (basic shell commands).

Speed isn’t the main point. Staying in flow, without breaking concentration to hunt through menus, is. See IDEs.