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

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:

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).

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:

1. renderLineHighlight should highlight the entire logical line

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

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 }

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'

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

Check out this screenshot (Toogle Word Wrap):

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.

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"
},

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

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

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 }

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.

1. press ctrl+ shift + p
2. Preferences open keyboard shortcut
3. search Toggle Wrap word
4. Set your preferences toggle wrap word

NOTES:

• Works for version 1.55.2
• Default one is alt+z

Explained here [Language-specific editor settings][1] but specifically:

1. Ctrl+Shift+P and type "Preferences: Configure Language Specific Settings"
2. 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.
3. 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",
},

[1]: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings#_languagespecific-editor-settings

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:

1. Open settings.json (Hit CTRL+SHIFT+P and type "settings.json")

2. Put "editor.wordWrap": "bounded" in the json file, like this:

   {

   ... ,

   "editor.wordWrap": "bounded",

   ... ,

   }

and then it should work.

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.

• 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.

For Dart check "Line length" property in Settings.

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

• 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.

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).

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

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.