I see experienced developers flying through their editors while I'm still clicking through menus. What are the most essential programming shortcuts for beginners that I should prioritize learning? I'm overwhelmed by all the keyboard shortcuts available and need to know which ones will give me the biggest productivity boost.
For programming shortcuts for beginners, start with these essentials in VS Code: Ctrl/Cmd+P for quick file opening, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P for command palette, Ctrl/Cmd+D for multi-cursor selection of same word, and Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+L to select all occurrences of a word. These four will save you more time than any others when you're starting out.
Learn the basic navigation shortcuts first - they're the most universal. Ctrl/Cmd+Left/Right to jump by word, Home/End to go to line start/end, Ctrl/Cmd+Up/Down to scroll. These work in almost every text field everywhere, not just your IDE. Once these become muscle memory, you'll be faster everywhere.
Don't try to learn all programming shortcuts at once. Pick one new shortcut each day and force yourself to use it until it becomes automatic. Start with the most painful tasks you do regularly - if you find yourself constantly right-clicking to format code, learn the format shortcut. If you're always searching for files, learn the file search shortcut.