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I have a few VS Code extensions installed, but I came across one that changed how I use the text editor this week.

JavaScript Booster extension in the VS Code Marketplace. Tagline: Make your life easier, use code action to do repetitive tasks for you. They can help a lot, just follow the light bulb.

JavaScript Booster hooks into VS Code actions. What are code actions? They're automated code refactorings which you can access by clicking the light bulb displayed on the left side of the editor window.

VS Code editor window highlight the light bulb close to the line numbers.

VS Code doesn't show the light bulb very often in JavaScript files and I usually ignored it because I couldn't bother leaving my keyboard and clicking the light bulb to see what's behind it.

But after watching the JS Booster's example videos, I discovered that I'm missing out big time!

JS Booster adds an entirely new set of functionality to VS Code. Convert let to const, replace strings with template strings, convert an arrow function to an anonymous function... you name it. Doing all these things manually is not a big deal, but time adds up!

VS Code window showing the available code action of "converting to anonymous function"

But the best thing: it never occurred to me that there could be a shortcut to access these actions. On my machine, it's CMD + . and using it is so good! It's quick'n'easy yet valuable and I'm now always watching for the light bulb to avoid work VS Code can do for me.

I can genuinely say that this discovery changed the way I use VS Code, so if you haven't adopted it yet, go and try it now. 😉

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About Stefan Judis

Frontend nerd with over ten years of experience, freelance dev, "Today I Learned" blogger, conference speaker, and Open Source maintainer.

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