Emmet in Visual Studio Code

Support forEmmet snippets and expansion is built right into Visual Studio Code,no extension required.Emmet 2.0 has support for the majority of theEmmet Actions including expandingEmmet abbreviations and snippets.

How to expand Emmet abbreviations and snippets

Emmet abbreviation and snippet expansions are enabled by default inhtml,haml,pug,slim,jsx,xml,xsl,css,scss,sass,less andstylus files, as well as any language that inherits from any of the above likehandlebars andphp.

When you start typing an Emmet abbreviation, you will see the abbreviation displayed in the suggestion list. If you have the suggestion documentation fly-out open, you will see a preview of the expansion as you type. If you are in a stylesheet file, the expanded abbreviation shows up in the suggestion list sorted among the other CSS suggestions.

Using Tab for Emmet expansions

If you want to use theTab key for expanding the Emmet abbreviations, add the following setting:

"emmet.triggerExpansionOnTab":true

This setting allows using theTab key for indentation when text is not an Emmet abbreviation.

Emmet when quickSuggestions are disabled

If you have disabled theeditor.quickSuggestionssetting, you won't see suggestions as you type. You can still trigger suggestions manually by pressing⌃Space (Windows, LinuxCtrl+Space) and see the preview.

Disable Emmet in suggestions

If you don't want to see Emmet abbreviations in suggestions at all, then use the following setting:

"emmet.showExpandedAbbreviation":"never"

You can still use the commandEmmet: Expand Abbreviation to expand your abbreviations. You can also bind any keyboard shortcut to the command ideditor.emmet.action.expandAbbreviation as well.

Emmet suggestion ordering

To ensure Emmet suggestions are always on top in the suggestion list, add the following settings:

"emmet.showSuggestionsAsSnippets":true,"editor.snippetSuggestions":"top"

Emmet abbreviations in other file types

To enable the Emmet abbreviation expansion in file types where it is not available by default, use theemmet.includeLanguages setting. Make sure to uselanguage identifiers for both sides of the mapping, with the right side being the language identifier of an Emmet supported language (see the list above).

For example:

"emmet.includeLanguages": {  "javascript":"javascriptreact",  "razor":"html",  "plaintext":"pug"}

Emmet has no knowledge of these new languages, and so there might be Emmet suggestions showing up in non HTML/CSS contexts. To avoid this, you can use the following setting.

"emmet.showExpandedAbbreviation":"inMarkupAndStylesheetFilesOnly"

Note: If you usedemmet.syntaxProfiles previously to map new file types, from VS Code 1.15 onwards you should use the settingemmet.includeLanguages instead.emmet.syntaxProfiles is meant forcustomizing the final output only.

Emmet with multi-cursors

You can use most of the Emmet actions with multi-cursors as well:

Using filters

Filters are special post-processors that modify the expanded abbreviation before it is output to the editor. There are 2 ways to use filters; either globally through theemmet.syntaxProfiles setting or directly in the current abbreviation.

Below is an example of the first approach using theemmet.syntaxProfiles setting to apply thebem filter for all the abbreviations in HTML files:

"emmet.syntaxProfiles": {  "html": {    "filters":"bem"  }}

To provide a filter for just the current abbreviation, append the filter to your abbreviation. For example,div#page|c will apply thecomment filter to thediv#page abbreviation.

BEM filter (bem)

If you use theBlock Element Modifier (BEM) way of writing HTML, thenbem filters are very handy for you to use. To learn more about how to usebem filters, readBEM filter in Emmet.

You can customize this filter by using thebem.elementSeparator andbem.modifierSeparator preferences as documented inEmmet Preferences.

Comment filter (c)

This filter adds comments around important tags. By default, "important tags" are those tags with id and/or class attribute.

For examplediv>div#page>p.title+p|c will be expanded to:

<div>    <div id="page">        <p class="title"></p>        <!-- /.title -->        <p></p>    </div>    <!-- /#page --></div>

You can customize this filter by using thefilter.commentTrigger,filter.commentAfter andfilter.commentBefore preferences as documented inEmmet Preferences.

The format for thefilter.commentAfter preference is different in VS Code Emmet 2.0.

For example, instead of:

"emmet.preferences": {  "filter.commentAfter":"\n<!-- /<%= attr('id', '#') %><%= attr('class', '.') %> -->"}

in VS Code, you would use a simpler:

"emmet.preferences": {  "filter.commentAfter":"\n<!-- /[#ID][.CLASS] -->"}

Trim filter (t)

This filter is applicable only when providing abbreviations for theEmmet: Wrap with Abbreviation command. Itremoves line markers from wrapped lines.

Using custom Emmet snippets

Custom Emmet snippets need to be defined in a json file namedsnippets.json. Theemmet.extensionsPath setting should have the path to the directory containing this file.

Below is an example for the contents of thissnippets.json file.

{  "html": {    "snippets": {      "ull":"ul>li[id=${1} class=${2}]*2{ Will work with html, pug, haml and slim }",      "oll":"<ol><li id=${1} class=${2}> Will only work in html </ol>",      "ran":"{ Wrap plain text in curly braces }"    }  },  "css": {    "snippets": {      "cb":"color: black",      "bsd":"border: 1px solid ${1:red}",      "ls":"list-style: ${1}"    }  }}

Authoring of Custom Snippets in Emmet 2.0 via thesnippets.json file differs from the old way of doing the same in a few ways:

HTML Emmet snippets

HTML custom snippets are applicable to all other markup flavors likehaml orpug. When snippet value is an abbreviation and not actual HTML, the appropriate transformations can be applied to get the right output as per the language type.

For example, for an unordered list with a list item, if your snippet value isul>li, you can use the same snippet inhtml,haml,pug orslim, but if your snippet value is<ul><li></li></ul>, then it will work only inhtml files.

If you want a snippet for plain text, then surround the text with{}.

CSS Emmet snippets

Values for CSS Emmet snippets should be a complete property name and value pair.

CSS custom snippets are applicable to all other stylesheet flavors likescss,less orsass. Therefore, don't include a trailing; at the end of the snippet value. Emmet will add it as needed based on whether the language requires it.

Do not use: in the snippet name.: is used to separate property name and value when Emmet tries to fuzzy match the abbreviation to one of the snippets.

Tab stops and cursors in custom snippets

The syntax for tab stops in custom Emmet snippets follows theTextmate snippets syntax.

• Use${1},${2} for tab stops and${1:placeholder} for tab stops with placeholders.
• Previously,| or${cursor} was used to denote the cursor location in the custom Emmet snippet. This is no longer supported. Use${1} instead.

Emmet configuration

Below are Emmetsettings that you can use to customize your Emmet experience in VS Code.

• emmet.includeLanguages

  Use this setting to add mapping between the language of your choice and one of the Emmet supported languages to enable Emmet in the former using the syntax of the latter. Make sure to use language IDs for both sides of the mapping.

  For example:

  "emmet.includeLanguages": {  "javascript":"javascriptreact",  "plaintext":"pug"}

• emmet.excludeLanguages

  If there is a language where you do not want to see Emmet expansions, add it in this setting which takes an array of language ID strings.

• emmet.syntaxProfiles

  SeeEmmet Customization of output profile to learn how you can customize the output of your HTML abbreviations.

  For example:

  "emmet.syntaxProfiles": {  "html": {    "attr_quotes":"single"  },  "jsx": {    "self_closing_tag":true  }}

• emmet.variables

  Customize variables used by Emmet snippets.

  For example:

  "emmet.variables": {  "lang":"de",  "charset":"UTF-16"}

• emmet.showExpandedAbbreviation

  Controls the Emmet suggestions that show up in the suggestion/completion list.

  Setting Value	Description
  never	Never show Emmet abbreviations in the suggestion list for any language.
  inMarkupAndStylesheetFilesOnly	Show Emmet suggestions only for languages that are purely markup and stylesheet based ('html', 'pug', 'slim', 'haml', 'xml', 'xsl', 'css', 'scss', 'sass', 'less', 'stylus').
  always	Show Emmet suggestions in all Emmet supported modes as well as the languages that have a mapping in theemmet.includeLanguages setting.

  Note: In thealways mode, the new Emmet implementation is not context aware. For example, if you are editing a JavaScript React file, you will get Emmet suggestions not only when writing markup but also while writing JavaScript.

• emmet.showAbbreviationSuggestions

  Shows possible emmet abbreviations as suggestions. It istrue by default.

  For example, when you typeli, you get suggestions for all emmet snippets starting withli likelink,link:css ,link:favicon etc.This is helpful in learning Emmet snippets that you never knew existed unless you knew theEmmet cheatsheet by heart.

  Not applicable in stylesheets or whenemmet.showExpandedAbbreviation is set tonever.

• emmet.extensionsPath

  Provide the location of the directory that houses thesnippets.json file which in turn has your custom snippets.

• emmet.triggerExpansionOnTab

  Set this to true to enable expanding Emmet abbreviations withTab key. We use this setting to provide the appropriate fallback to provide indentation when there is no abbreviation to expand.

• emmet.showSuggestionsAsSnippets

  If set totrue, then Emmet suggestions will be grouped along with other snippets allowing you to order them as pereditor.snippetSuggestions setting. Set this totrue andeditor.snippetSuggestions totop, to ensure that Emmet suggestions always show up on top among other suggestions.

• emmet.preferences

  You can use this setting to customize Emmet as documented inEmmet Preferences. The below customizations are currently supported:

  • css.propertyEnd
  • css.valueSeparator
  • sass.propertyEnd
  • sass.valueSeparator
  • stylus.propertyEnd
  • stylus.valueSeparator
  • css.unitAliases
  • css.intUnit
  • css.floatUnit
  • bem.elementSeparator
  • bem.modifierSeparator
  • filter.commentBefore
  • filter.commentTrigger
  • filter.commentAfter
  • format.noIndentTags
  • format.forceIndentationForTags
  • profile.allowCompactBoolean
  • css.fuzzySearchMinScore

  The format for thefilter.commentAfter preference is different and simpler in Emmet 2.0.

  For example, instead of the older format

  "emmet.preferences": {  "filter.commentAfter":"\n<!-- /<%= attr('id', '#') %><%= attr('class', '.') %> -->"}

  you would use

  "emmet.preferences": {  "filter.commentAfter":"\n<!-- /[#ID][.CLASS] -->"}

  If you want support for any of the other preferences as documented inEmmet Preferences, please log afeature request.

Next steps

Emmet is just one of the great web developer features in VS Code. Read on to find out about:

• HTML - VS Code supports HTML with IntelliSense, closing tags, and formatting.
• CSS - We offer rich support for CSS, SCSS and Less.

Troubleshooting

Custom tags do not get expanded in the suggestion list

Custom tags when used in an expression likeMyTag>YourTag orMyTag.someclass do show up in the suggestion list. But when these are used on their own likeMyTag, they do not appear in the suggestion list. This is designed so to avoid noise in the suggestion list as every word is a potential custom tag.

Add the following setting to enable expanding of Emmet abbreviations using tab which will expand custom tags in all cases.

"emmet.triggerExpansionOnTab":true

My HTML snippets ending with+ do not work

HTML snippets ending with+ likeselect+ andul+ from theEmmet cheatsheet are not supported. This is a known issue in Emmet 2.0Issue: emmetio/html-matcher#1. A workaround is to create your owncustom Emmet snippets for such scenarios.

Abbreviations are failing to expand

First, check if you're using custom snippets (if there is asnippets.json file being picked up by theemmet.extensionsPath setting). The format of custom snippets changed in VS Code release 1.53. Instead of using| to indicate where the cursor position is, use tokens such as${1},${2}, etc. instead. Thedefault CSS snippets file from theemmetio/emmet repository shows examples of the new cursor position format.

If abbreviations are still failing to expand:

• Check thebuiltin extensions to see if Emmet has been disabled.
• Try restarting the extension host by running theDeveloper: Restart Extension Host (workbench.action.restartExtensionHost) command in theCommand Palette.

Where can I set all the preferences as documented inEmmet preferences?

You can set the preferences using the settingemmet.preferences. Only a subset of the preferences that are documented inEmmet preferences can be customized. Please read the preferences section underEmmet configuration.

Any tips and tricks?

Of course!

• In CSS abbreviations, when you use:, the left part is used to fuzzy match with the CSS property name and the right part is used to match with CSS property value. Take full advantage of this by using abbreviations likepos:f,trf:rx,fw:b, etc.
• Explore all other Emmet features as documented inEmmet Actions.
• Don't hesitate to create your owncustom Emmet snippets.