Configuring Visual Studio Code for LaTeX

VS Code has very poor LaTeX support out-of-the-box. Here I list useful extensions and other software that will transform VS Code into a much more power LaTeX editor. They also do not conflict with each other, which is great.

Getting it out of the way: LaTeX Workshop

While I have used LaTeX Workshop for a long time, I started experiencing a few issues with it that, over time, got really annoying. The main issue is simply the Enter key not working, which was then replaced by a substantial delay between pressing the Enter key and actually inserting a new line character. Fixing one apparently introduced the other, so, after many tries, I just gave up on LaTeX Workshop.

What I use now

• Code completion: TeXLab VS Code extension. It depends on another program called TeXLab, but the extension usually installs it automatically.
• Syntax highlighting Rich LaTeX syntax highlighting (for use with Texlab).
• Grammar checking: LTeX. Be sure to check the documentation to learn how to configure the extension to check different languages.
• PDF visualization: If TeXLab has not worked out for you when opening PDF files, you can use an extension called Open, which opens a file in its default application.

The TeXLab VS Code extension also provides other useful features, as long as the appropriate programs are installed and in your Linux PATH (or whatever the equivalent in Mac/Windows is). These assorted programs are usually included in TeX Live, but can be installed through your distribution’s package manager, if you are on Linux.

• LaTeX formatting (with latexindent)
• Compilation via the F5 shortcut (with latexmk)
• Linting (with chktex)
• Opening the final PDF file with a shortcut (through the forward search option)