Please fix this! Incidentally, overtype-mode is an open issue in Atom, too: atom/atom#3023

Reproduced in:

VSCode Version: 0.10.11
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10

I aggre! For some very special use cases, passing in overtype mode can be very useful (for example to create a padded table in ascii mode).
And in OS X there is no physical key to toggle insert/overtype so this future feature will be necessary to be accessed by a command or in the status bar (like Word).

For example, It would be useful when editing a markdown table.

I am really missing this while working with markdown tables inside vscode. Also for (now and then) editing fixed width ascii files. Would this be possible with a plugin?

As it turns out, this can be done with an extension. So I did it! I put it together pretty quickly, so it could probably use some shakedown time before a 1.0 release.

+1 I was shocked to discover that Windows Notepad and MS Word don't support this either. I had assumed that this feature was standard across every text editor.

@AdamMaras have you considered making a PR against VS Code?

@pgonzal I have not, I haven't taken the time to get familiar with the contribution guidelines. Also, since the extension's been installed by a handful of people and I'm getting some feedback, I think I'd like to iterate on it a bit more before proposing adding its behavior directly to Code.

Bump, its so strange its not built into VSCode.

+1 can't live without this feature.. editing docblocks, etc.

Thankfully there is a plugin to tide us over in the meantime:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adammaras.overtype

I think this would be a good candidate for an iteration 'Extension Contribution'/integration directed towards improving VsCodeVim integration, while also being useful for others who do not use the extension.

The current R replace mode in VsCodeVim is rather slow. The extension mentioned above is also quite slow.

As mentioned replace/overtype mode is very useful when editing already aligned tables and definitions, especially in block selection mode. Without this I find myself fighting with alignment plugins fixing alignment multiple times when editing a table row.

I currently use a combination of
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=siegebell.incremental-search (Ctrl+D for multiple cursors on steroids)
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=steve8708.Align

'Virtual edit' past the end of the line would also be nice but is more niche.

It is perplexing that this is not in VS Code. Would the VS Code team tell us why? Is it a design choice??

Any updates on this? I would also really like this feature.

@ryan-jonesford #1012 (comment)

I was surprised this standard editor feature is missing in VS Code.
What's the problem? The issue was filed in 2015. There's even extension created by the community. Is it that hard to implement it? I'm missing here response from VSCode team

@javierparty

Even if I do not think so. :-)

You could have left out the so. :-) since it doesn't seem like you think

If this was indeed a feature that was statistically used by the majority of developers, it would surly have been addressed at an earlier stage of development at VS Code.

This may indeed be a feature that is not expected by the majority of developers (it is by me), but - from my experience - I would say, that it's not necessarily the real reason for it not being addressed.
I've seen a lot of features used rarely, which are being worked on. And I've seen features expected by huge crowds receiving no attention for a long time. And it is in a commercial software, people pay for. In case of VSCode, people don't pay directly for, there's even less incentive to work on features based on how many users want it (it'll rather be stuff related to paid services supported by VSCode).
Maybe it's just me, having bad experience in this area, working for a big corpo doing some commercial software and also experiencing very weird behavior from some OSS development personas.
As the VSCode devs haven't even peeped here for a long time, it'll either not be touched ever, or at least in years.

@nurbles You are one of the few rare cases, I would dare to say, that need this in a regular basis. If this was indeed a feature that was statistically used by the majority of developers, it would surly have been addressed at an earlier stage of development at VS Code.

To be honest I'm baffled to read something like this. You don't really seem to edit many tables or initialize much data in arrays, right? You don't work with vectors or paste code that does similar operations with different variables and just type over the name of the variables? I use this for so many things that it would have never occurred to me that someone would think this is a niche feature. This has been available since at least the 1970s in an innumerable amount of text and code editors... Even text processors have this mode for typing.

The fact that it's not included in VSCode doesn't mean it's a niche feature. Just see virtual space, rectancular selections and many more...

Speak for yourself only!

You could have left out the so. :-) since it doesn't seem like you think

We wouldn’t have this argument if this not-so-uncommon feature exist already.

As the VSCode devs haven't even peeped here for a long time

Where’s a moderator / community manager when you need one.

I've seen a lot of features used rarely, which are being worked on. And I've seen features expected by huge crowds receiving no attention for a long time. And it is in a commercial software, people pay for. In case of VSCode, people don't pay directly for, there's even less incentive to work on features based on how many users want it (it'll rather be stuff related to paid services supported by VSCode).

📠

You don't really seem to edit many tables or initialize much data in arrays, right? You don't work with vectors or paste code that does similar operations with different variables and just type over the name of the variables? […] This has been available since at least the 1970s in an innumerable amount of text and code editors... […] The fact that it's not included in VSCode doesn't mean it's a niche feature. Just see virtual space, rectancular selections and many more...

It beats me too how VSCode has multiple cursors and every feature one expect from a modern text editor except overtype mode.
It is as if overtype mode is an obsolete feature that existed because typewriters don’t insert.

I’m also waiting for tabular CSV editing (#145092). That thread saw one reply in two days and went silent ever since.
[P.S.] But this request came out 7 years earlier when issue IDs just recently became 4 digits‽

As age old as the Linux Vim versus Emacs versus Nano, and I used to be pretty decent with Vim back in the day, no attachment there, no horse in the race necessarily. Nowadays I just appreciate modern day "now taken for granted features". Like the insert versus overtype.

This is a 14 years old video talking about overtype in Microsoft Word, of all things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3xC655rJP8

To be honest I think I can't even remember a code editor, ever, that didn't have this feature.

Hi! When editing space fixed text that's necessary!! now i'm counting the spaces I have to insert, really bad.
overtype extension work bad for me, very very slow and misses half of the keypresses ...

That is now officially available with the hex editor (which previously only had replace), so let's hope it will come to code editors as well.

9 years later -- overwrite mode is well overdue. Amazingly, this is generally one of the very first features implemented in every editor, and many times is a standard part of the toolkit the editor is written using. Here is to eternal hope - and hoping eternal can be shortened a bit...

You know you're failing as a developer when MS Notepad has functionality that your editor has been lacking for nearly a decade after it was requested. But hey, there's still hope: Wrike took over five years to implement dark mode (even though they created a new color scheme or layout overhaul every few months) after the request, so it's not impossible that overtype will eventually be a thing in VS Code.

Took me about two days since first time trying VSC to hit this one. At least now I have idea how often I use it, I thought I'm using it like once per month or so... sigh ... This is common feature of PCs and text editors, probably older than me (ie. 1970s or earlier).

What's going to be removed next, Page up/down keys? Oh, hey mac air users, hello! Nothing to see here, proceed further... /s

There's a difference... it is not removed, it is never implemented in VS Code.

What's going to be removed next, Page up/down keys? Oh, hey mac air users, hello! Nothing to see here, proceed further... /s

Would have agreed with you but it looks like it's also not very well tested on macOS (see #219893 )

There's a difference... it is not removed, it is never implemented in VS Code.

The insert key has been a standard feature of Windows text boxes since the 90s. You have to take effort to not support it.

For example, every textbook in every WPF application I've ever wrote has it enabled by default. I didn't do anything, it just works.

So yea, saying it was "removed" is a fair criticism.

There's a difference... it is not removed, it is never implemented in VS Code.

The insert key has been a standard feature of Windows text boxes since the 90s. You have to take effort to not support it.

For example, every textbook in every WPF application I've ever wrote has it enabled by default. I didn't do anything, it just works.

So yea, saying it was "removed" is a fair criticism.

VS Code text editor is not standard Windows text box. It is rather custom HTML-based view/edit control from Chromium browser, on which Electron framework is based, on which VS Code is built. Completely custom thing. Moreover, VS Code is crossplatform. For example, I often use it on Linux. So reference to Windows functionality is not completely correct.

Windows defined (pioneered) a lot of UI behavior that's still in today's software, including GNU/Linux. Have you ever tried the archaic Ctrl+Ins for copy, Shift-Del for cut and Shift+insert for paste? That still works in about every modern application, also on Linux, including VSCode(!). Furthermore, the insert key works in many applications, including gnome-terminal. Browsers are a notable exception (tried Chrome and Firefox). Saying something is Windows-only is short-sighted.

VS Code text editor is not standard Windows text box

I'd say Windows or not Windows it doesn't matter. If we really have to talk about history, overtype mode has been available since the 70s in IBM terminals. Browsers are the exception here.

Now, I needed this feature quickly for an extension, and ended up implement it myself for Monaco Editor. It's not a big job. You can use something like vscode-overtype in the meantime.

It would be great if this functionality was added to VS Code.

For context, I am involved with Zowe Explorer, which enables users to interact with files and data sets on mainframes in VS Code. The inability to switch to overtype causes issues for users who are frequently modifying data sets with fixed record lengths, meaning that every time they type anything in a line, they would have to delete the same number of characters that they added (from the whitespace between the text and the line numbers at the end of the line). Some users are open to using one of the available insert/overtype extensions, but this forces our users to install an additional extension for functionality that seems like it should be built into VS Code.

Unfortunately... looks like stories like this do not make any effect on MSFT, otherwise overtype would already be here.

This is bizarre and a little absurd. stephenmartindale's comment is the right take and should have been the final word... and that was 6 ½ years ago. It is not unreasonable to expect Microsoft to implement basic code editing features into their flagship code editor. Just put it behind a setting. As for platforms with no insert key like macOS, this is a textbook case of why we apply the principle of graceful degradation when designing UIs.

@burkeholland @ReynaldAdolphe @Tyriar @luabud I know you folks probably don't own this, but we're approaching a decade of no response from anyone at Microsoft on this. Please excuse my frustration. Revisiting this after 5 years and seeing continued radio silence has me feeling like I'm taking crazy pills.

I used to be an Eclipse user, so 10+ year old "still active" bug reports and feature requests are nothing new to me.

For a second I thought it was finally implemented. Then I remembered I have the Overtype extension enabled.

Not how I wanted to end the day.

I believe this bug will see its 10 year anniversary!

I believe this bug will see its 10 year anniversary!

Not a bug, but the feature request...
Still, unlikely to be fulfilled.