Command Palette

VS Code Command Palette

One of the ways to launch our extensions is to invoke them through VS Code's Command Palette. 

In this palette, our extensions will have their own line either to simply launch the extension itself, or to call some deeper action within the extension.

Anatomy of the line

There are up to four blocks which form one entry in the command palette.

Block 1 – This is simply an identifier and branding block to let the users know they will indeed launch one of our extensions.

One colon ":" separates Block 1 and Block 2

Block 2 – Action verb. For the users, the most important bit they are looking for is some action. Their mental models are action oriented ("I want to open something, I want to view something, ..."), therefore placing the action first makes sense.

Block 3 – Object that is being actioned on, usually the name of an extension, but sometimes we perform actions on other objects.

Block 4 – Additional clarification if needed. In most cases, just the verb + object are enough to communicate what will happen, however, on occasion we need an additional clarification on the details of what will happen when users select a particular command. In this case, we are communicating clearly that Guided Development will open "to the Side".

The capitalisation of lines uses APA Title Case capitalisation, which in short capitalises all major words, and leaves words like "and, or, nor, but, a, an, to, the" and similar in lower case.

Example Command Palette Entries