En and em dash in VSCode

It turns out we can add some convenient snippets for en dash and em dash in VSCode.

First we need to create a global snippet file by following the steps below:

• Open up the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
• type user snippets
• choose Preferences: Configure User Snippets
• choose New Global Snippets file...
• enter the name for the global snippet json (here I'll use global.code-snippets.json)

And then create the following key-values inside the json.

global.code-snippets.json

{
  "endash": {
    "prefix": "!--",
    "body": "–"
  },
  "emdash": {
    "prefix": "!---",
    "body": "—"
  }
}

prefix is a trigger word for body. So every time you type the prefix for a snippet (or substring of it), intelliSense will show you the snippet name; for example, endash or emdash above. Feel free to choose any prefix you want.

IntelliSense can be triggered by Ctrl+Space in any editor window.