HTML Programming With Visual Studio Code

HTML in Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code provides basic support for HTML programming out of the box. There is syntax highlighting, smart completions with IntelliSense, and customizable formatting. VS Code also includes great Emmet support.

IntelliSense

As you type in HTML, we offer suggestions via HTML IntelliSense. In the image below, you can see a suggested HTML element closure </div> as well as a context specific list of suggested elements.

Document symbols are also available for HTML, allowing you to quickly navigate to DOM nodes by id and class name.

You can also work with embedded CSS and JavaScript. However, note that script and style includes from other files are not followed, the language support only looks at the content of the HTML file.

You can trigger suggestions at any time by pressing ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space).

You can also control which built-in code completion providers are active. Override these in your user or workspace settings if you prefer not to see the corresponding suggestions.

"html.autoClosingTags": false

Auto update tags

When modifying a tag, the linked editing feature automatically updates the matching closing tag. The feature is optional and can be enabled by setting:

// Configures if the built-in HTML language support validates embedded scripts. "html.validate.scripts": true, // Configures if the built-in HTML language support validates embedded styles. "html.validate.styles": true

Folding

You can fold regions of source code using the folding icons on the gutter between line numbers and line start. Folding regions are available for all HTML elements for multiline comments in the source code.

Additionally you can use the following region markers to define a folding region: <!-- #region --> and <!-- #endregion -->

If you prefer to switch to indentation based folding for HTML use:

{ "emmet.includeLanguages": { "javascript": "html" } }

We also support User Defined Snippets.

HTML custom data

You can extend VS Code's HTML support through a declarative custom data format. By setting html.customData to a list of JSON files following the custom data format, you can enhance VS Code's understanding of new HTML tags, attributes and attribute values. VS Code will then offer language support such as completion & hover information for the provided tags, attributes and attribute values.

You can read more about using custom data in the vscode-custom-data repository.

HTML extensions

Install an extension to add more functionality. Go to the Extensions view (⇧⌘X (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+X)) and type 'html' to see a list of relevant extensions to help with creating and editing HTML.

Tip: Click on an extension tile above to read the description and reviews to decide which extension is best for you. See more in the Marketplace.

Next steps

Read on to find out about:

• CSS, SCSS, and Less - VS Code has first class support for CSS including Less and SCSS.
• Emmet - Learn about VS Code's powerful built-in Emmet support.
• Emmet official documentation - Emmet, the essential toolkit for web-developers.

Common questions

Does VS Code have HTML preview?

No, VS Code doesn't have built-in support for HTML preview but there are extensions available in the VS Code Marketplace. Open the Extensions view (⇧⌘X (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+X)) and search on 'live preview' or 'html preview' to see a list of available HTML preview extensions.

12/10/2025