Work Faster in VSCode Without Needing a Mouse

Every few years I have a go at learning to use my IDE without a mouse. I've put hours of effort in and always failed. That is until I purchased a ZSA Voyager keyboard a couple of weeks ago.

In this post I'll explain how I have achieved this and provide details on how you can do the same. Although I'm using the Voyager, these tips will work for many keyboards, but you will get the best results with a keyboard that is:

• programmable, preferably with QMK or ZMK
• ortholinear

Why the Voyager

There are a few things that the Voyager brings that have helped achieve (near) zero mouse use in VSCode.

• The compact, ortholinear layout lets you feel your way around easily, never have to stretch your fingers and never lose the home keys. Therefore you never need to look away from the monitor.
• The above means you are so comfortable that moving a hand to the mouse really feels like it is disrupting your flow.
• The ability to program a Hyper key means that you can assign a bunch of VSCode keybindings without constantly clashing with other keybindings.
• Finally, you can program the keyboard to operate as a mouse so that for minor mouse use where you have failed to bind or remember a function you can still keep your hands in place.

Hyper Key Bindings

Having a single key to press ALL the modifier keys simultaneously allows for creating a set of keybindings that do not clash with any existing keybindings in VSCode. There are so many keybindings that it has always been hard to create a useful scheme without finding you have overridden an essential feature.

I have programmed a Hyper key under the left thumb and then assigned all of the right hand to features that navigate between panes and arrange panes in VSCode. These IDE layout functions are the most common ones for which the mouse is frequently used.

The ortholinear layout allows for a relatively intuitive placement of these functions. Here is an image to help remember the placement:

The necessary vscode keybindings to go with this layout can be downloaded from here.

You should merge this file into your user keybindings file. Use the menu command File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts to open your user keybindings. These bindings are designed not to clash with existing defaults and they don't delete any existing bindings.

One problem with trying to memorize the default bindings is that there are separate functions for similar operations. e.g. next error in a Code Editor and next change in a Working Tree editor. Where possible I have used a single keybinding to multiple similar functions, chosen by the context.

Other Useful Keys to Remember

In order to complete the transition to mouse-free use, I created a list of the remaining useful functions that have relatively accessible default keybindings.

This section will not be useful for those that love Vim or some other non default scheme. For someone who likes the defaults or who has never changed them, like me, this list may come in handy. Memorizing these in combination with the above Hyper keys was enough to allow me to stop using a mouse.

Keyboard Configuration

Some bindings below have multiple modifiers. These are good candidates for programming into your keyboard. I have done this in my Voyager config, for those combinations using Alt Shift.

Here's my Voyager keymap:

It is a great idea to have the Application Key configured. This will give you the context menu, equivalent to right mouse click on the currently focused item.

On standard keyboards the application key looks like this:

Breadcrumbs

This deserves its own heading, as it is such a useful way to navigate all the folders in your workspace and all the code sections within each file.

Key	Action
Ctrl Shift .	Focus breadcrumbs
↓ ↑ → ←	Navigate breadcrumbs
Space	Open current file or jump to current section

Selection Management - Especially Multi-Cursor

Key	Action
Alt Shift →	Expand selection
Alt Shift ←	Shrink selection
Alt Shift i	Add cursors to end of all selected lines (the 2 below can easily do cursors on start)
Ctrl ↓	Add a cursor below
Ctrl ↑	Add a cursor above
Ctrl ⏎	Add all found words to selection
Ctrl d	Add current word / next matching word to selection
Ctrl u	Undo last selection / cursor motion

Navigating the Explorer

And other tree views like search results, git history, etc.

To get quick focus on these I suggest adding some more Hyper keys. Indeed the keybindings.json linked above already has some. Or use Hyper I and then a couple of Hyper J to focus on the Activity Bar (extreme left list of icons), then select any of the explorer panes from there, using ↓ ↑ and Enter.

Key	Action
↓ ↑ → ←	Navigate (Shift for multi-select)
letter	Jump to next file starting with letter
Shift letter	Jump to previous file starting with letter
Space	Open the current file in a preview editor, keep explorer focus
Enter	Open a file or all selected files in editors
Ctrl Enter	Open current file in a new editor group to the right
F2	Rename current file
Application Key	Context Menu - VERY useful!

Navigating Code

See Hyper Key Bindings above for navigating changes / errors.

Key	Action
F12	Jump to definition
Application Key	Menu for ALL code inspection options
Ctrl .	Quick Fix - VERY useful!
Ctrl Space	Code completion suggestion

Terminals

See Hyper Key Bindings above for splitting and resizing terminals.

Key	Action
Ctrl Shift `	Open new terminal (back tick)
Ctrl PageUp/PageDn	Switch to prev / next Terminal Group
Ctrl ↑ / ↓	Scroll to previous / next command input
Ctrl Shift ↑ / ↓	Move SELECTION to previous / next command output
Ctrl Shift C / V	Copy / Paste SELECTION

To get the output from a terminal command into an editor window:

• Select the one you want with Ctrl arrows and Ctrl Shift arrows.
• Ctrl Shift C to copy
• Ctrl 1 switch to first editor group
• Ctrl n for new window
• Ctrl v to paste

Above is a good candidate for a keyboard macro if you have such a capability.

Menus

Key	Action
Alt	Show menu bar
Alt Shift O	Open Remotes / Dev Containers menu

Don't Forget

Every single command is available via the command palette Ctrl Shift P. It is really useful for the obscure things like clearing all the pop up notifications, which has no default key binding. It's also great if you forget a keybinding, as it will remind you of the binding once you find the command.

Summing Up

Have I really stopped using the mouse altogether? Not quite, I certainly still reach for it when switching to a browser. I also don't find the selection of text in VSCode terminals that consistent. It is almost brilliant, but falls a little short, so that now selecting text is only time I still use the mouse within VSCode.

On this final, successful attempt to eschew the mouse, I found I reached a tipping point. I had got far enough that each time I got stuck, instead of reaching for the mouse, I looked up and memorized a new shortcut, even outside of VSCode. If you get to that point, you have cracked it!

This has been a huge change for me; my workflow feels significantly smoother and faster, plus my RSI issues are fading fast.

I'm going to continue on this journey of keyboard skills improvement and you can track updates to my notes here if interested.