Sublime Text: Complete Setup Guide, Shortcuts, and Plugins

Introduction

Sublime Text is a fast, lightweight code editor known for its speed, multi-cursor editing, and extensibility. While VS Code has become more popular, Sublime Text remains a favorite for its performance — it opens instantly even with large files and never feels sluggish.

Installation

# macOS
brew install --cask sublime-text

# Ubuntu/Debian
wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install sublime-text

# Windows
# Download from https://www.sublimetext.com/download

Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+P`	Go to file (fuzzy search)
`Ctrl+P` then `:42`	Go to line 42 in current file
`Ctrl+P` then `@symbol`	Go to function/symbol
`Ctrl+P` then `#keyword`	Search for keyword
`Ctrl+G`	Go to line number
`Ctrl+R`	Go to symbol/function
`Ctrl+;`	Go to word in file
`Ctrl+Shift+P`	Command palette

Editing

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+D`	Select next occurrence of word
`Ctrl+K, Ctrl+D`	Skip current occurrence, select next
`Alt+F3`	Select all occurrences of word
`Ctrl+Shift+L`	Split selection into lines
`Ctrl+L`	Select entire line
`Ctrl+Shift+K`	Delete line
`Ctrl+Enter`	Insert line after
`Ctrl+Shift+Enter`	Insert line before
`Ctrl+Shift+↑/↓`	Move line up/down
`Ctrl+/`	Toggle line comment
`Ctrl+Shift+/`	Toggle block comment
`Ctrl+]`	Indent
`Ctrl+[`	Unindent

Multi-Cursor Editing

Sublime Text’s killer feature — edit multiple places simultaneously:

# Select multiple occurrences of a word:
1. Place cursor on a word
2. Ctrl+D to select next occurrence
3. Keep pressing Ctrl+D to add more
4. Type to replace all selected occurrences at once

# Select all occurrences at once:
Alt+F3

# Add cursor at each selected line:
Ctrl+Shift+L (after selecting multiple lines)

# Add cursor with mouse:
Ctrl+Click (add cursor at click position)
Ctrl+Shift+Click (add cursor and select to click)

Search and Replace

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+F`	Find in file
`Ctrl+H`	Find and replace
`Ctrl+Shift+F`	Find in all files
`Ctrl+Shift+H`	Find and replace in all files
`F3`	Find next
`Shift+F3`	Find previous
`Alt+Enter`	Select all matches (in Find bar)

Window Management

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+N`	New file
`Ctrl+W`	Close tab
`Ctrl+Shift+T`	Reopen closed tab
`Ctrl+Tab`	Next tab
`Ctrl+Shift+Tab`	Previous tab
`Alt+Shift+1/2/3/4`	Split layout (1/2/3/4 columns)
`Ctrl+K, Ctrl+B`	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl+`	Toggle console

Installing Package Control

Package Control is the plugin manager for Sublime Text. Install it first:

Open the command palette: Ctrl+Shift+P
Type “Install Package Control” and press Enter
Wait for installation to complete

Or via the console (Ctrl+`):

import urllib.request,os,hashlib; h = '...'  # see sublimetext.com/docs/package_control

Essential Plugins

Install any plugin via: Ctrl+Shift+P → “Package Control: Install Package” → type plugin name

Emmet

HTML and CSS abbreviation expansion. Type a shorthand and press Tab to expand:

<!-- Type: div.container>ul.list>li.item*3>a{Item $} then Tab -->
<div class="container">
  <ul class="list">
    <li class="item"><a href="">Item 1</a></li>
    <li class="item"><a href="">Item 2</a></li>
    <li class="item"><a href="">Item 3</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

<!-- Type: ! then Tab for HTML boilerplate -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Document</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

SublimeLinter

Framework for running linters inline. Install the framework, then language-specific linters:

SublimeLinter           # base framework
SublimeLinter-eslint    # JavaScript
SublimeLinter-rubocop   # Ruby
SublimeLinter-flake8    # Python
SublimeLinter-shellcheck # Shell scripts

GitGutter

Shows git diff indicators in the gutter (added/modified/deleted lines).

SideBarEnhancements

Adds right-click menu options to the sidebar: open in browser, copy path, duplicate, move, etc.

DocBlockr

Auto-generates documentation comment blocks. Type /** and press Enter above a function:

/**
 * [description]
 * @param  {[type]} name [description]
 * @return {[type]}      [description]
 */
function greet(name) {
    return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}

BracketHighlighter

Highlights matching brackets, parentheses, and tags.

A File Icon

Adds file type icons to the sidebar for visual file identification.

Terminus

Integrated terminal inside Sublime Text. Open with Ctrl+Alt+T.

LSP (Language Server Protocol)

Adds IDE-like features (autocomplete, go-to-definition, hover docs) via language servers:

LSP                    # base package
LSP-pyright            # Python
LSP-typescript         # TypeScript/JavaScript
LSP-solargraph         # Ruby
LSP-gopls              # Go

Configuration

Open user settings: Ctrl+Shift+P → “Preferences: Settings”

{
    "font_size": 14,
    "font_face": "JetBrains Mono",
    "tab_size": 2,
    "translate_tabs_to_spaces": true,
    "trim_trailing_white_space_on_save": true,
    "ensure_newline_at_eof_on_save": true,
    "rulers": [80, 120],
    "word_wrap": false,
    "highlight_line": true,
    "highlight_modified_tabs": true,
    "show_encoding": true,
    "show_line_endings": true,
    "auto_complete_delay": 50,
    "ignored_packages": []
}

Enabling Vim Mode (Vintage)

Sublime Text has a built-in Vim emulation mode called Vintage:

// Preferences → Settings — remove "Vintage" from ignored_packages
{
    "font_size": 12,
    "ignored_packages": []  // remove "Vintage" from this list
}

After enabling, press Esc to enter command mode. Most Vim commands work.

Creating Snippets

Snippets let you insert boilerplate code with a keyword + Tab:

Tools → Developer → New Snippet

<snippet>
    <content><![CDATA[
def ${1:function_name}(${2:args}):
    """${3:Docstring.}"""
    ${4:pass}
]]></content>
    <tabTrigger>def</tabTrigger>
    <scope>source.python</scope>
    <description>Python function</description>
</snippet>

Save as ~/.config/sublime-text/Packages/User/python-function.sublime-snippet.

Build Systems

Run code directly from Sublime Text with Ctrl+B:

Tools → Build System → New Build System

{
    "cmd": ["python3", "-u", "$file"],
    "file_regex": "^[ ]*File \"(...*?)\", line ([0-9]*)",
    "selector": "source.python",
    "encoding": "utf-8"
}