Daily Software Tips & Tricks
Bite-sized knowledge to improve your coding skills daily.
Speed Up Repetitive Editing with VS Code's Multi-Cursor Power
May 27, 2026
If you find yourself manually changing a list of variables or adding the same wrapper to ten different lines of code, stop! In VS Code, you can place multiple cursors by holding 'Alt' (or 'Option' on Mac) and clicking where you want to edit. If you need to select a vertical block of text, hold 'Shift + Alt' (or 'Shift + Option' on Mac) and drag your mouse.
Combining this with keyboard shortcuts like 'Ctrl + D' (or 'Cmd + D' on Mac) to select the next occurrence of the current word will make you feel like you have superpowers. You can edit dozens of lines simultaneously in seconds, saving your wrists from repetitive strain.