Miscellaneous VS Code Stuff

Temporarily Hiding Comments in VS Code Editor

Date: 29 June 2026

Section Contents

VS Code Built-In Fold and Unfold Comments Features

VS Code built-in feature to collapse multi-line block (/* ... */) comments out of sight. However, when I tried it, it collapsed only some sets of contiguous // comments.

  • Command: Fold All Comments -> Ctrl + K then Ctrl + /
    • First time, I tried above keyboard shortcut it did not work. The command thru command palette worked. Later the keyboard shortcut also worked.
  • Command: UnFold All -> Ctrl + K then Ctrl + J
    • First time, I tried it via command palette, it gave some error related to 'Pylance: Unfold All Docstrings'. Looks like when I typed Unfold All, that command got selected which seems to be different from standard Unfold All. The keyboard shortcut worked right away.

Built-in universal folding shortcut that collapses all comments, functions, and loops down to a single line.

  • Command: Fold All -> Ctrl + K then Ctrl + 0
  • Command: UnFold All -> Ctrl + K then Ctrl + J
    • Same command as above to unfold

VS Code Hide Comments Extension

Hide Comments VS Code extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=eliostruyf.vscode-hide-comments

Commands:

  • Hide Comments: Toggle the show/hide of all comments
  • Hide Comments: Hide all comments
  • Hide Comments: Show all comments

On the editor title (top-right in editor file tabs bar), a toggle button is available to show/hide the comments quickly:
Pic from its documentation page

Installed and tried it. 'Hide all comments' folds some multi-line comments and makes all other comments invisible resulting in blank lines.

Seems useful. The editor title toggle action button works and is very convenient. If required, a key binding can be assigned to the Command: Hide Comments: Toggle the show/hide of all comments.

It has some "Hide additional lines by regex" feature which can be used to hide custom regex lines like console.log lines. I have not explored that as of now.

[Google Search AI review addition:]

⚠️ Important Uninstallation Warning

Keep this in mind for the future: Because this extension works by injecting transparency settings into your VS Code configuration workspace, always click the toggle button to "Show Comments" before you disable or uninstall it. If you uninstall it while comments are hidden, your comments might stay invisible even after the plugin is gone, forcing you to manually clean out your settings.json file. [Ravi: The above mentioned extension page gives details on how to do this manually.]

Converting Line Comments to Block Comments

I was under the impression that both VS Code's native folding engine and the 'Hide Comments' extension may handle block comments (/* ... */) more reliably than long sequences of contiguous line comments (//). However, in testing, it was seen that they fail to collapse some block comments too, even if new lines were added before and after the comment block. I think it made no difference whether contiguous line comments were used or block comments were used. Some contiguous line comments/block comments got collapsed and some didn't.

A large block of // comments can be easily converted into a single block comment using a quick two-step keyboard shortcut.

How to convert:

  1. Highlight all the contiguous lines of // comments you want to change.
  2. Uncomment them: Press Ctrl + / (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + / (Mac) to turn them back into plain text.
  3. Wrap in a Block Comment: While the text is still highlighted, press Shift + Alt + A (Windows/Linux) or Shift + Option + A (Mac).

Note: The block comment shortcut (Shift + Alt + A) acts as a toggle. Highlighting an existing block comment and pressing the shortcut again will instantly remove the /* and */ delimiters.

VS Code folding: Article(s) and Official Documentation

  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51139881/visual-code-fold-comments
  • https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editing/codebasics#_folding has details about VS Code Folding features and customization:
    • Has more fine-grained fold commands list like (they worked well in my testing):
      • Fold (Ctrl+Shift+[) folds the innermost uncollapsed region at the cursor.
      • Unfold (Ctrl+Shift+]) unfolds the collapsed region at the cursor.
      • Toggle Fold (Ctrl+K Ctrl+L) folds or unfolds the region at the cursor.
    • TypeScript/JavaScript region markers worked for VS Code fine grained Fold region but did not work for Fold All Block Comments. So may not be useful for this use case. The markers are:
      • //#region
      • //#endregion

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