My Visual Studio Code Setup

Sarah Lean -

One of my goals back in August 2018 when I migrated my blog away from WordPress to Grav was to be able to make use of Visual Studio Code (aka Code) more often throughout my day. All my Grav posts are written in Markdown, and Visual Studio Code is one of the many tools out there that is very good at being a Markdown editor.

I used Code extensively when I am working, I usually have it open most days for one reason or another and I have it set up with a lot of extensions and configurations I've found handy over the last year. Whenever I went to use Code on home machine I'd find it hard to get use to as it was setup differently, or an extension or something or other was missing, which isn't a massive issue but an annoyance. Since discovering a plugin called Settings Sync thanks to Colin Westwater (b|t), that's no longer an issue.

In this blog post I'm going to run through what Extensions I use within Code.

Extensions

I have the following extensions installed in my Code instances:

  • Azure Account - This extension allows me to log into my Azure subscriptions without leaving Code. It basically makes the Azure Cloud Shell available within the Code Integrated Terminal.
  • Azure CLI Tools - This extension helps me write Azure CLI code and helps with IntelliSense, runs commands and lets me see documentation easily.
  • Azure Resource Management Tools - This one helps to give me support when I am writing JSON templates
  • Beautify - This one helps to make my Visual Studio Code a nice look!
  • Code Spell Checker - We've all spent hours debugging code only to discover our mistake has been a simple spelling mistake, right? This plugin helps with that, it highlights things it thinks are spelt wrong so you can check it. It doesn't correct your mistakes but brings them to your attention.
  • docs-markdown - This is used when I am contributing to Microsoft Docs
  • HTML CSS Support - The name of this one kind of gives it away, it helps when I need to modify CSS for my blog or other websites.
  • Markdown Preview Enhanced - This is a great way of helping to preview any Markdown I write and see what the formatting will be like to a reader without me committing/deploying it to my actual website.
  • markdownlint - This one was a great help to me when I was learning Markdown and still does help me. Grav doesn't quite follow traditional Markdown syntax but this extension helps to highlight any best practices my Markdown doesn't conform to.
  • PowerShell - This one is straight forward, installed within my Visual Studio Code environment it helps provide a rich experience when I am working with PowerShell scripts.
  • Settings Sync - This is the one that helps me keep my Visual Studio Code experience look the same on my work and home machines.
  • SQL Server (mssql) - This one helps me to have a good experience with SQL. I can use it to connect to my SQL database when I am updating my speaking stats.
  • Twig
  • vscode-icons - This is a great wee plugin that helps to give me a good visualisation within the Explorer of what type my files/folders are with an icon. Everyone likes an icon, right?
  • Word Count - When blogging this one helps give me an idea of how much content I've written and tries to help me from writing to much in one article.

Call to Action

If you know of any plugins that I should be using please do reach out and let me know!