Fast, intelligent, and persistent code highlighting for Visual Studio Code.
Rainbow Highlighter goes beyond basic syntax coloring. It allows you to manually paint, highlight, and annotate specific blocks of code, complete with hover notes, sidebar navigation, and a self-healing algorithm that tracks your text as you type!
✨ Features
🎨 Beautiful Universal Palette: Comes with a built-in palette of soft, transparent colors that look gorgeous on both Dark and Light VS Code themes. (Or, use your own custom Hex/RGB codes!)
🧠 Self-Healing Tracking: Unlike other highlighters, if you press Enter and push your code down a few lines, Rainbow Highlighter instantly calculates the math and slides your highlight down to follow your text.
📝 Hover Notes: Attach custom markdown notes to your highlights. Hover over the painted code to read your note and see a beautiful preview snippet.
🧭 Sidebar Navigation: A custom Activity Bar panel on the left side of your screen lists every highlighted file in your workspace. Click an annotation to instantly jump your cursor to that exact line of code.
🎯 Precision Eraser: Click inside a specific highlight and press "Clear" to delete only that highlight, or click on a blank space to safely clear the entire file.
⏪ Dedicated Undo/Redo: Built-in time travel (Ctrl+Alt+Z / Ctrl+Alt+Y) specifically for your highlights, completely separate from your normal typing undo stack!
🚀 How to Use
Highlight Code: Select any text with your mouse.
Right-Click: Choose Highlight: Add Highlight from the context menu.
Pick a Color: Choose a preset or enter a custom hex.
Add a Note: Type an optional note (or press Enter to skip).
View: Look at the scrollbar minimap to see your marker, or open the Rainbow Sidebar (Paint Can icon) to see all your project annotations!
⌨️ Shortcuts
Command
Windows / Linux
Mac
Undo Highlight
Ctrl + Alt + Z
Cmd + Option + Z
Redo Highlight
Ctrl + Alt + Y
Cmd + Option + Y
⚙️ Extension Settings
All data is saved locally to your workspace's globalState ensuring your notes and highlights are permanently saved without cluttering your actual project files with hidden .json trackers.
Enjoying the extension? Leave a review on the VS Code Marketplace!
