Bookmark Studio for Visual Studio

Download this extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace or get the latest CI build from Open VSIX Gallery.

Stop losing your place in large codebases. Bookmark Studio lets you mark, organize, and instantly jump to important locations in your code - across your entire solution.

What You Get

Instant navigation - Press Alt+Shift+1 through Alt+Shift+9 to jump directly to your most important bookmarks. No searching, no scrolling.

Visual organization - Color-code bookmarks by purpose (red for bugs, green for features, blue for TODOs) and group them into folders. See exactly what each bookmark represents at a glance.

Focused Solution Explorer - Filter Solution Explorer to show only files that contain bookmarks, making important files easy to find in large solutions.

Zero learning curve - Uses the same keyboard shortcuts you already know (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K to toggle, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+N for next). Your muscle memory works from day one.

Team sharing - Commit your bookmarks file to source control so the whole team can navigate to key code locations - perfect for onboarding or code reviews.

Getting Started

Mark Important Code

Press Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K or Alt+Shift+Space on any line to create a bookmark. A colored glyph appears in the margin, and the bookmark is automatically assigned the next available shortcut (1-9).

Migrating from Native Bookmarks

Already using Visual Studio's built-in bookmarks? No migration needed. When you toggle a bookmark on a line that has a native VS bookmark, Bookmark Studio automatically converts it - the native bookmark is removed and a Bookmark Studio bookmark takes its place. Just keep working and your bookmarks will migrate naturally.

Jump to Bookmarks Instantly

• Alt+Shift+1 through Alt+Shift+9 - Jump directly to numbered bookmarks
• Ctrl+K, Ctrl+N / Shift+Alt+N - Go to next bookmark
• Ctrl+K, Ctrl+P / Shift+Alt+H - Go to previous bookmark

Organize Your Bookmarks

Open View > Bookmark Manager to see all your bookmarks in one place:

• Search - Filter by name, file, color, or any text
• Folders - Group related bookmarks (drag and drop to organize)
• Labels - Give bookmarks meaningful names
• Notes - Attach a short note to remind yourself why a location matters
• Colors - Right-click to assign Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Purple, Pink, or Teal

Filter Solution Explorer

Open the filter dropdown in the Solution Explorer toolbar and select Files with Bookmarks. Solution Explorer will show only bookmarked files and the folders and projects that contain them.

The filter updates automatically as bookmarks are added or removed. Use the Solution Explorer filter dropdown again to turn off the filter and restore the full solution tree.

Quick Access from the Toolbar

Your numbered bookmarks appear in a dropdown on the Standard toolbar - click to jump instantly.

Common Workflows

Debugging a Bug

1. Bookmark the crash site (red)
2. Bookmark related code paths (orange)
3. Use Alt+Shift+1-9 to jump between them as you investigate

Working on a Feature

1. Create a folder for the feature
2. Bookmark the files you are touching
3. Color-code by status: green (done), yellow (in progress), red (blocked)

Code Reviews

1. Bookmark areas that need discussion
2. Share .bookmarks.json with reviewers
3. Everyone can navigate to the same locations

Onboarding New Team Members

1. Bookmark architectural entry points and key classes
2. Add descriptive labels explaining what each location does
3. Commit to source control - new devs get instant navigation

Customizing Bookmarks

Colors

Right-click any bookmark glyph in the margin or use the Bookmark Manager context menu to change colors.

Moving Bookmarks

Drag the bookmark glyph in the margin to move it to a different line.

Reassigning Shortcuts

From the Bookmark Manager, right-click a bookmark to assign it to a different shortcut slot (1-9), or clear its shortcut entirely.

Adding Notes

Right-click a bookmark in the margin or the Bookmark Manager and choose Edit Note... to attach a short, single-line note. The note appears in italics underneath the bookmark in the tool window and in the tooltip when you hover the glyph in the editor margin. Choose Delete Note to remove it.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Bookmark Studio Shortcuts

Intercepted Visual Studio Shortcuts

These shortcuts work when you opt in to intercept built-in bookmark commands (you'll be prompted on first use).

Settings

Access settings via Tools > Options > Bookmark Studio > General.

Smart Name Suggestions

When Prompt for bookmark name is enabled, Bookmark Studio suggests a name using this fallback order:

1. Selected text when there is exactly one non-empty selection span
2. Classified identifier at the caret location (for example method or type name)
3. Word under the caret
4. File name without extension
5. Current line text (trimmed, up to 50 characters)
6. Bookmark

If the suggested name already exists, Bookmark Studio appends a numeric suffix (1, 2, 3, and so on).

Sharing Bookmarks

Bookmark Studio stores bookmarks in .bookmarks.json. By default, this file lives in the .vs folder (which is typically gitignored).

To share bookmarks with your team:

1. Copy .vs/.bookmarks.json to your solution root or repository root
2. Commit .bookmarks.json to source control
3. Team members automatically use the shared file

Bookmark Studio looks for the file in this order:

1. Solution root
2. Repository root
3. .vs folder (default)

Portable Paths

New Workspace bookmark files save document paths relative to the .bookmarks.json file location. This makes shared bookmark files portable across machines, even when the solution is nested below the repository root or bookmarked files live outside the solution directory.

For example, if .bookmarks.json is stored at the repository root, bookmarks for files elsewhere in that repository are saved as repository-relative paths such as src/App/Program.cs or shared/Shared.cs. Files outside the bookmarks file directory can use ../ path segments when needed.

Bookmark Studio writes "documentPathRoot": "bookmarksFile" to new bookmark files to indicate this behavior. Existing bookmark files without that property keep the previous behavior, where relative paths are interpreted relative to the current solution directory. This keeps older shared bookmark files working unchanged.

Personal bookmarks in .vs/.bookmarks.json continue to save paths relative to the solution directory. The .vs folder is user-specific and usually ignored by source control, so Personal bookmarks do not use bookmarks-file-relative paths.

Global bookmarks are different: they remain machine-specific and keep absolute document paths because they are stored in %USERPROFILE%\.bookmarks.json and are not intended for team sharing.

Global Bookmarks

Global bookmarks persist across all solutions and are stored in %USERPROFILE%\.bookmarks.json. They appear under the Global node in the Bookmark Manager and are always available, regardless of which solution is open.

Bookmarking Files from Anywhere

Right-click the Global node and select Add File... to bookmark any file on disk - even files outside your current solution. This is useful for:

• Quick access to frequently edited config files (hosts file, global gitconfig, etc.)
• Reference documentation or specs stored anywhere on your machine
• Files in other projects you frequently need to consult

The file name becomes the bookmark label, and the full path is shown in the tooltip. Global file bookmarks don't have shortcut numbers assigned by default.

Contribute

Issues, ideas, and pull requests are welcome.