🖍️ Highlight-It: VS Code Highlight Extension

This extension allows you to highlight text in your editor using multiple colors, helping you mark important code areas, annotate sections, or visually separate logic blocks.

✨ Features

• Highlight selected text using customizable colors.
• Choose from Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink, and Orange.
• Toggle highlights on/off by selecting the same region.
• Multiple colors can exist simultaneously in a file.
• Highlights persist per file during the session.
• Version control support keeps highlights scoped to the current git branch and workspace folder.
• Automatically adds a blank line if needed for proper display.
• Clear highlights for the current file or stop highlighting completely.

📘 Usage Instructions

1. Open the Command Palette: Ctrl + Shift + P
2. Run one of the following commands:

Start Highlighting

Run the Highlight: Start Highlighting command, then select text in your editor. The selected text will be highlighted with the currently selected color.

Set Highlight Color

Run the Highlight: Set Highlight Color command to choose a color for your highlights. You can select from Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink, and Orange. The selected color will be used for all new highlights.

Clear Highlights

Run the Highlight: Clear Highlights command to remove all highlights from the current file. This will not affect highlights in other files.

Stop Highlighting

Run the Highlight: Stop Highlighting (All Files) command to disable highlighting mode. This will clear all highlights from all files and stop the extension from highlighting any text.

Stop and Clear Highlights

Run the Highlight: Stop and Clear Highlights command to stop highlighting mode and clear visible highlights from every open editor. Saved highlights remain available and can be restored later.

Clear All Highlights Permanently

Run the Highlight: Clear All Highlights Permanently (Current Branch) command to permanently delete saved highlights for the current branch across all files.

Clear All Files Highlights

Run the Highlight: Clear All Files Highlights (Current Branch) command to remove all highlights for every file in the current branch.

Reset Highlight-It

Run the Highlight: Reset Highlight-It (Current Folder) command to reset highlight data for the current workspace folder.

Version Control Support

Highlight-It keeps highlights scoped to the current git branch and workspace folder, so switching branches does not mix saved highlights between versions of the same files.

🧑‍💻 Developer Guide

Source Code

The source code for this extension is available on Highlight-It.

Commands

Ensure the following commands are defined in your package.json:

{
  "contributes": {
    "commands": [
      {
        "command": "extension.startHighlighting",
        "title": "Highlight: Start Highlighting"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.setHighlightColor",
        "title": "Highlight: Set Highlight Color"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.clearHighlights",
        "title": "Highlight: Clear Highlights (Current File)"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.stopHighlighting",
        "title": "Highlight: Stop Highlighting"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.stopAndClearHighlights",
        "title": "Highlight: Stop and Clear Highlights"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.clearAllHighlightsPermanently",
        "title": "Highlight: Clear All Highlights Permanently (Current Branch)"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.clearAllHighlightsForCurrentBranch",
        "title": "Highlight: Clear All Files Highlights (Current Branch)"
      },
      {
        "command": "extension.resetHighlightsForCurrentFolder",
        "title": "Highlight: Reset Highlight-It (Current Folder)"
      }
    ]
  },
  "activationEvents": [
    "onCommand:extension.startHighlighting",
    "onCommand:extension.setHighlightColor",
    "onCommand:extension.clearHighlights",
    "onCommand:extension.stopHighlighting",
    "onCommand:extension.stopAndClearHighlights",
    "onCommand:extension.clearAllHighlightsPermanently",
    "onCommand:extension.clearAllHighlightsForCurrentBranch",
    "onCommand:extension.resetHighlightsForCurrentFolder"
  ]
}

Contributing

1. Fork the Highlight-It Repository
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bugfix
3. Submit a pull request with a clear explanation

Suggestions for new color options, persistent highlight storage, or UI enhancements are welcome!

⚠️ This extension is licensed under the MIT License, but commercial use is not permitted without explicit written permission from the author.

👤 Author

Created and maintained by Sarvesh Mankar
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