How can I switch word wrap on and off in Visual Studio Code?

Question

When using code files, you typically don't need longer lines to wrap around. However, with .md files this is in fact rather useful. However, I can't seem to find the option to enable word wrap so longer lines will be wrapped.

To reproduce, open Visual Studio Code resized to a small-enough window, and enter the following text in a new document:

This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum. This is my test lorem ipsum.
A linebreak before this.

The effect is this:

Example of missing word wrap

I'm trying to get the horizontal scrollbar to stay away, having line 1 wrap around at the right side of the window.

I've done a few things to answer my own question:

Search Stack Overflow: zero results at the time of writing this;
Meticulously going through the menu of Visual Studio Code: didn't find it;
Using the Command Palette with "wrap": gives no matching commands.

Perhaps it's not possible, and I'd need to file a feature request? Or am I missing something?

Note that I'd like to be able to turn it on and off quickly. For one, @PanagiotisKanavos mentioned in comments this solution to change wrapping behavior in the settings, but I'm looking for a quick command or menu option to do this (much like Notepad++ and Sublime Text 2 have).

I think this was just added in VS Code 0.3. Check the [list of new features](https://code.visualstudio.com/updates) for wrapping control — Panagiotis Kanavos, Jun 24 '15 at 12:07
[This question](http://askubuntu.com/questions/622631/how-to-wrap-text-comments-in-visual-studio-code) from another StackExchange site shows that you can simply add `"editor.wrappingColumn": 0` in your user settings — Panagiotis Kanavos, Jun 24 '15 at 12:11
@PanagiotisKanavos Thanks for the suggestion. That would be somewhat of a workaround, because word wrap is typically something I want to switch on/off quickly. I've updated my question accordingly. It may still be useful to turn your comment into an answer though, for others that land here who may be fine with that workaround. — Jeroen, Jun 24 '15 at 13:37
Related (not duplicate): *[How can I toggle word wrap in Visual Studio?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/315485)* — Peter Mortensen, Nov 14 '17 at 19:36
For those using Eclipse Theia or gitpod.io: Go to File -> Settings -> Open Preferences -> editor -> `wordWrap` -> set it to `true`. — koppor, Jun 19 '19 at 16:37
There are a lot of solutions, if they don't work, then restart your virtual studio code IDE, then it may work. — ulyssis2, Jul 03 '23 at 13:34

score 1302 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:42

1302

Since v1.0 you can toggle word wrap:

with the new command editor.action.toggleWordWrap, or
from the View menu (*View** → Toggle Word Wrap), or
using the ALT+Z keyboard shortcut (for Mac: ⌥+Z).

It can also be controlled with the following settings:

editor.wordWrap
editor.wordWrapColumn
editor.wrappingIndent

Known issues:

renderLineHighlight should highlight the entire logical line

If you'd like these bugs fixed, please vote for them.

edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:42

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jun 24 '15 at 13:51

Benjamin Pasero

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1

Completely agree that this should be a thing we can manually enable/disable on a per-window basis. Right now I'm going though a .txt file with a bunch of log entries, and having word-wrap enabled makes it challenging to read. Usually I don't mind it, but in this instance would like it disabled. – Nov 04 '15 at 10:05
1

Just implement it as it is currently in Sublime. That's perfect! – Juri Nov 17 '15 at 15:11
2

@Benjamin, what about 'wrap to window'? That's something I personally use a lot in certain code files (like MarkDown as he said). Personally, I'd love to see three options accessed quickly: Off (No wrapping), Window (wraps to viewable extents) and Specified Column (which would pick up the value in the preferences.) Then be able to assign keyboard shortcuts to flip between those three. – Mark A. Donohoe Feb 24 '16 at 17:52
This is no acceptable solution if you need to set `"editor.wrappingColumn": -1` by default. Use case is: I work a lot with code files. Only in some case (*.md files) I must toggle word wrap but cannot! – Marcel Feb 10 '17 at 09:27
2

For that you can leverage our language specific settings introduced in 1.9 (see http://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_9#_settings) – Benjamin Pasero Feb 10 '17 at 10:32
Wicked ALT+Z or pressing View > Toggle Word Wrap doesn't do absolutely anything. – Eric Feb 24 '17 at 19:45
Please report issues like that to our repository (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/) – Benjamin Pasero Feb 25 '17 at 06:57
however it's not working for me with big files. only work with very small files. – Sheldon Wei Jan 30 '18 at 07:20
editor.wordWrap is a better option to add word wrap for all files. – Amit Kumar Apr 04 '18 at 04:55
ALT+Z fires the nVidia GeForce Experience overlay for video capture etc. Only way is via the menu which is acceptable. – Bob Denny Jun 25 '19 at 23:52
Alt-Z works on a Lenovo T420 Thinkpad running Ubuntu 18. – mLstudent33 Jan 03 '20 at 23:43
NB you can do this on a per file or file type basis by adding `"[markdown]": {"editor.wordWrap": "on"}` this creates a file type override for the setting – S.B.G Feb 06 '20 at 10:30
somehow, you can hit alt+z by accident doing some other formatting stuff and the word wrap settings does absolutely nothing with it, you have to find this answer and hit alt+z again, this time on purpose – jave.web Mar 23 '22 at 22:44
If you want that word wrap on every session, please change `editor.wordWrap` in `settings` menu. – Dmitriy Ogureckiy Jul 03 '22 at 05:15

score 76 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:49

76

Go to menu File → Preferences → User Settings.

It will open up Default Settings and settings.json automatically. Just add the following in the settings.json file and save it. This will overwrite the default settings.

// Place your settings in this file to overwrite the default settings
{ "editor.wrappingColumn": 0 }

edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:49

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 21 '15 at 21:48

Radha Satam

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25

with latest version its, "editor.wordWrap": "on" is setting above one wont work. – Nitish Mar 21 '17 at 18:52
4

Yes, this setting was changed in VSCode 1.10. Here's the documentation: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_10#_word-wrap-settings-redesign – Matt Bierner Apr 05 '17 at 02:18
2

Open settings.json for me is easiest F1 > backspace key > enter settings.json > find the one in .config – Timo Dec 26 '20 at 20:42

Pixelomo · Answer 3 · 2020-05-18T04:15:05.880

67

wrappingColumn has been deprecated in favour of wordWrap.

Add this line to settings.json to set wordWrap on by default:

"editor.wordWrap": "on"

or open user settings:

Mac: ⌘ + ,

Windows: Ctrl + ,

Then search for "wordWrap" or scroll through the 'Commonly Used' settings to find it and select 'on'

edited May 18 '20 at 04:15

answered Mar 01 '18 at 03:11

Pixelomo

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Thanks for the addition, but don't [the top answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/31028495/419956) and [this other earlier answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/45397785/419956) also mention exactly that already? – Jeroen Mar 01 '18 at 10:58
1

not exactly, they reference wordWrap but I thought my addition would be useful for anyone looking for a simple piece of code to just copy and paste – Pixelomo Mar 02 '18 at 00:15

score 38 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:57

38

Since version 0.3.0, wrapping has been put in the command palette. You can activate it with Toggle Word Wrap or Alt + Z.

edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:57

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 25 '16 at 17:33

Haroen Viaene

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Unfortunately this does not seem to get remembered and has to be applied again every time. – clel Oct 06 '21 at 09:43

score 32 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:01

32

Check out this screenshot (Toogle Word Wrap):

edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:01

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 06 '17 at 21:14

Nish

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score 27 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:39

27

Go to the Preferences tab (menu File → Settings), and then search as “word wrap”. The following animated image is helpful too.

edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:39

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 08 '19 at 08:20

Soner from The Ottoman Empire

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score 26 · Answer 7 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:44

26

If you want to use text word wrap in your Visual Studio Code editor, you have to press button Alt + Z for text word wrap. Its word wrap is toggled between text wrap or unwrap.

edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:44

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 03 '19 at 12:42

Avinash Dewangan

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This is covered by the highest voting, accepted answer. – Ignatius Nov 03 '19 at 13:25
On mac, use `option` + `Z` – Emre Tapcı Sep 27 '22 at 11:54

score 25 · Answer 8 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:22

25

Since 1.9, it's possible to select a specific language for word wrap settings (or any settings). You can find this in the command palette under:

Preferences: Configure Language Specific Settings...

Which will take you to your "settings.json" for a selected language where you might include:

"[markdown]": {
  "editor.wordWrapColumn": 100,
  "editor.wordWrap": "wordWrapColumn"
},

edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:22

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 08 '18 at 01:46

robstarbuck

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How do you get to *"Configure Language Specific Settings"*? – Peter Mortensen Jan 23 '20 at 01:22
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One route is from the menu `View => Command Palette...` You can then type "Configure Language Specific Settings..." (or just "Lang set"). The Command Palette is a really good way of finding anything in vscode, it's worth learning the shortcut. – robstarbuck Jan 23 '20 at 13:38

score 25 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 15 '21 at 09:27

25

Here you go with word-wrap on Visual Studio Code.

edited Feb 15 '21 at 09:27

Sabito stands with Ukraine

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answered Feb 15 '21 at 09:18

حمزہ صابر

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score 16 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 05 '23 at 06:13

16

Using the Command Palette works for this question, but also for many similar other questions:

Press ctrl+shift+p (macOS command+shift+p)
The keyboard shortcut opens the "Command Palette"
Search for "toggle wrap" or just "wrap"
Set your preferences for "Toggle Word Wrap"

Notes:

Works for version 1.55.2 and up
Default shortcut is alt+z
The "Command Palette" will show you the keyboard shortcut for your option too

Screenshot:

edited Apr 05 '23 at 06:13

Jeroen

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answered Apr 29 '21 at 01:56

Syahidur Rahman

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for the latest version – Syahidur Rahman Apr 29 '21 at 01:56
You can edit your answer if you wished to add "for the latest version" :) – WurmD Apr 29 '21 at 18:44
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that default note `alt + z` was really helpful! – amurrell Jan 05 '22 at 23:54
I'm the original poster of the question, and for what it's worth this would now be my preferred answer. The reason: the CTRL+SHIFT+P combination opens the 'Command Palette' and _not only_ fixes my original problem, but _also_ nearly all similar features _and_ anno 2023 will teach you the keyboard shortcut for your intended purposes inside the resulting options in the palette! – Jeroen Apr 05 '23 at 06:15

score 13 · Answer 11 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:57

13

I am not sure when it was added, but I'm using v0.10.8 and Alt + Z is the keyboard shortcut for turning word wrap on and off. This satisfies the requirement of "able to turn it on and off quickly".

The setting does not persist after closing Visual Studio Code. To persist, you need to set it through Radha's answer of using the settings.json file...

// Place your settings in this file to overwrite the default settings
{ "editor.wrappingColumn": 0 }

edited Jan 23 '20 at 00:57

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 23 '16 at 15:14

Hoss

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5

I had to use { "editor.wrappingColumn": -1 } to make it the default. – djabraham Mar 12 '16 at 20:14
6

`editor.wrappingColumn` has been deprecated, use `editor.wordWrap` instead. – Aryo Mar 20 '18 at 01:58

score 9 · Answer 12 · edited Nov 29 '17 at 17:16

9

Word wrap settings redesign

Here are the new word wrap options:

editor.wordWrap: "off" - Lines will never wrap.
editor.wordWrap: "on" - Lines will wrap at viewport width.
editor.wordWrap: "wordWrapColumn" - Lines will wrap at the value of editor.wordWrapColumn.
editor.wordWrap: "bounded"

Lines will wrap at the minimum of viewport width and the value of editor.wordWrapColumn.

edited Nov 29 '17 at 17:16

Zoltan Toth

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answered Jul 30 '17 at 08:15

digish a d

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Thx for the answer. But this info was also already in the top-voted answer. I suggest adding the short bits of explanation for the new options to that answer as an edit. – Jeroen Jul 30 '17 at 09:34
1

Was looking some clarity regarding the meaning of the different options. I played with the values and it was basically between `boundend` and `on`, in the end I decided to go with `on` as if you have more space in your window it will not wrap, while `bounded` wraps to `editor.wordWrapColumn` (default is `80`) even if there is more space in the window so for me personally `on` the most sensible but it's personal of course. Hope it helps :) – Aldo 'xoen' Giambelluca Feb 05 '19 at 13:16

Ricardo stands with Ukraine · Answer 13 · 2021-03-10T10:29:02.167

8

Explained here Language-specific editor settings but specifically:

Ctrl+Shift+P and type "Preferences: Configure Language Specific Settings"
Select the language or add section in the file (start typing "[" to see list of suggestions) or edit section as you like if already there.
If set it to bounded you might need to adjust the editor.wordWrapColumn value to wrap depending on the screen size. With bounded Lines will wrap at the minimum of viewport and editor.wordWrapColumn

Example:


    "editor.wordWrapColumn": 200,
    "[markdown]": {
        "editor.wordWrap": "on",
    },
    "[plaintext]": {
        "editor.wordWrap": "bounded",
    },
    "[typescript]": {
        "editor.tabSize": 2,
        "editor.wordWrap": "off",
    },

edited Mar 10 '21 at 10:29

answered Feb 20 '21 at 07:41

Ricardo stands with Ukraine

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Should be the accepted answer for users who want to permanently turn it off. Turning it off in preferences has no effect if it is set to `on` in the language preference. – Hari May 07 '21 at 23:44
Thanks, I had tried solutions from about 5 other pages before I found this and it finally kicked in. I saw the `"[markdown]": {"editor.wordWrap": "on"},` syntax elsewhere, but couldn't make that work in my settings.json file; it's invalid json. The `Ctrl`+`Shift` + `P` route worked. – John Dec 20 '22 at 19:46

score 6 · Answer 14 · edited Apr 11 '23 at 14:16

This is from the VS Code docs as of May 2020:

Here are the new word wrap options:

editor.wordWrap: "off" - Lines will never wrap.
editor.wordWrap: "on" - Lines will wrap at viewport width.
editor.wordWrap: "wordWrapColumn" - Lines will wrap at the value of editor.wordWrapColumn.
editor.wordWrap: "bounded" - Lines will wrap at the minimum of viewport width and the value of editor.wordWrapColumn.

So for example, if you want to have the lines wrapped at the boundary of the window, you should:

Open settings.json (Hit CTRL+SHIFT+P and type "settings.json")
Put "editor.wordWrap": "bounded" in the json file, like this:
```
{
  ... ,
  "editor.wordWrap": "bounded",
  ... ,
}
```

and then it should work.

score 5 · Answer 15 · edited Apr 11 '23 at 14:15

5

If it's not working in mac, make sure to tell VScode that you are not using a screen reader.

I had word wrap on and restarted VScode, and it gave me a notification window saying that if I'm in a screenreader, yes or no, and to note that word-wrap does not work in screen readers.

edited Apr 11 '23 at 14:15

General Grievance

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answered Jan 09 '22 at 19:17

Royer Adames

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This is what work for me – Royer Adames Jan 09 '22 at 19:17
In my case it was due to grammarly app – Himanshu Patil Jan 27 '22 at 09:38

Bahman.A · Answer 16 · 2020-01-23T01:38:30.370

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Windows: Ctrl + Shift + press the key "P". Now on the command line, type Toggle Word Wrap and press Enter.
Mac: Command + Shift + press the key "P". Now in the command line, type Toggle Word Wrap and press Enter.

edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:38

answered May 18 '19 at 01:07

Bahman.A

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score 4 · Answer 17 · answered Nov 23 '20 at 13:24

4

For Dart check "Line length" property in Settings.

answered Nov 23 '20 at 13:24

Adam Smaka

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score 3 · Answer 18 · edited Mar 14 '21 at 12:23

3

Accessibility support is on by default and it will override your selected wrapper behavior. So disable Accessibility Support first.

Then choose "on" for the Word Wrap option. You don't need to go into settings.json to enable word wrap.

Picture of the accessibility support option

edited Mar 14 '21 at 12:23

Tomerikoo

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answered Mar 14 '21 at 10:16

Cihan

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That should change with VSCode 1.73, Oct. 2022: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/95428 – VonC Oct 28 '22 at 08:56

score 3 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 10 '22 at 07:34

3

Step 1: Access to Dart extension settings

Step 2: Find Dart: Line Length, set it to 132 and then save settings

Step 3: Press Alt + Shit + F and you will see the lines are wrapping as configured.

answered Jul 10 '22 at 07:34

Carlos Cuellar

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Isn't that _formatting_ instead of _wrapping_ though? – Jeroen Jul 10 '22 at 13:05
Formatting (ALT+ SHIFT + F) uses the wrapping configurations. – Carlos Cuellar Jul 11 '22 at 23:43
Ah I see what you mean. I was thrown off because my original question (and most answers) was about "_Soft Wrapping_" to prevent scrolling, not so much _hard wrapping_ (in your screenshot there's still a horizontal scroll bar, I was trying to prevent exactly that when writing the question back then). – Jeroen Jul 12 '22 at 08:54

score 3 · Answer 20 · answered Jul 13 '22 at 00:27

3

Click on Settings in VS Code editor
Search for wordwrap
Select "on" for the Editor Word Wrap as shown in screenshot below

answered Jul 13 '22 at 00:27

mk23

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score 2 · Answer 21 · answered Oct 14 '19 at 09:32

2

Mac: Code -> Preferences -> Settings -> Type wordwrap in Search settings -> Change Editor: Word Wrap from off to on.
Windows: File -> Preferences -> Settings -> Type wordwrap in Search settings -> Change Editor: Word Wrap from off to on.

answered Oct 14 '19 at 09:32

Daniel Danielecki

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score 1 · Answer 22 · edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:49

1

If you want a permanent solution for wordwrapping lines, go to menu File → Preference → Settings and change editor.wordWrap: "on". This will apply always.

However, we usually keep changing our preference to check code. So, I use the Alt + Z key to wrap written code of a file or you can go to menu View → Toggle Word Wrap. This applies whenever you want not always. And again Alt + Z to undo wordwrap (will show the full line in one line).

edited Jan 23 '20 at 01:49

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 04 '19 at 07:40

Abhishek

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Can you fix it? – Peter Mortensen Jan 23 '20 at 01:49

score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Jan 15 '21 at 03:14

1

In version 1.52 and above go to File > Preferences > Settings > Text Editor > Diff Editor and change Word Wrap parameter as you wish

answered Jan 15 '21 at 03:14

rmb_dev

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score 1 · Answer 24 · answered Dec 14 '21 at 21:28

The language-specific example by @Riga is great. For a general setting, I would recommend the following:

"editor.wordWrap": "bounded",
"editor.wordWrapColumn": 90,
"editor.wrappingIndent": "same",

This wraps text if your viewport is smaller than the column limit (90 here) and uses the same indent when wrapping.

score 0 · Answer 25 · answered May 15 '23 at 10:34

When opening a huge file showing a notification. The notification guides towards disabling the huge file optimizations (i.e., it instructs how to configure "editor.largeFileOptimizations": false). Once that is done, word wrapping works even for huge files.

score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Jul 18 '23 at 14:42

I am here to for the users who want to disable wrapping but could not succeed.

if disabling doesn't work after you changing the settings around VS code, i.e., the "wrap words" option in control pallete (ctrl+shif+P), or pressing alt+Z, then it is time to look at the extention you have installed.

In my case, i was working with Dart and installed Dart extension. This is what I did. open the extension: click the gear icon, choose "extention settings", type "wrap", you will see

change it, done!

How can I switch word wrap on and off in Visual Studio Code?

26 Answers26

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