Right-click any word, highlight every occurrence in a color. Highlight a second word in a different color. The Notepad++ feature VS Code never shipped.
In the Extension Development Host, open demo/sample.ts.
Right-click userId → Word Highlighter → Highlight Word.
Right-click user → highlight again. A second color lights up.
Keyboard:
Action
Windows / Linux
macOS
Toggle highlight
Ctrl+Alt+H
Cmd+Alt+H
Clear all
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H
Cmd+Alt+Shift+H
Next occurrence
Ctrl+Alt+N
Cmd+Alt+N
Previous occurrence
Ctrl+Alt+P
Cmd+Alt+P
Click a word that's already highlighted to toggle it off. Highlight with Color... lets you pick gold, sky, pink, and the rest of the palette.
How matching works
Cursor on a word, no selection → whole-word match (user does not light up userId)
Any selection → exact substring match
Case-sensitive by default (wordHighlighter.caseSensitive)
Highlights survive reloads in the current workspace (wordHighlighter.persistHighlights)
Marketplace note
Text Marker already covers this with ~157k installs, but it has not been updated since early 2023. This extension is the smaller, maintained alternative: right-click, colors, done.
Package a .vsix
npm install
npx @vscode/vsce package
Then Extensions: Install from VSIX... in Cursor or VS Code. After you publish, comment on issue #291048 with the marketplace link — everyone who subscribed gets notified.
