Open in VS Code (and other external tools)

Open in VS Code · Open in (your tool)

Kaizen Plugin ⚡ tab → File group

Open the currently active topic, snippet, or stylesheet in an external editor without leaving Flare — for raw XHTML/CSS editing, regex work, or any tool you prefer.

Open in VS Code

1. Open any document in Flare.
2. Click Open in VS Code in the Kaizen Plugin tab's File group.
3. The file opens in Visual Studio Code.

The plugin finds VS Code automatically: it checks the per-user install (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Microsoft VS Code), then the machine-wide install (%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft VS Code), then code.cmd on your PATH. If VS Code is not installed you get a short message instead of a silent failure.

Tip: the Fast File Search dialog has a matching Open in VS Code context-menu item for opening several files at once.

Add your own tools

You can add more "Open in ..." buttons for any tool you like:

1. Click Settings in the Kaizen Plugin ribbon.
2. Under External Tools, click Configure External Tools....
3. Add a row per tool:
   • Name — shown on the ribbon button ("Open in Name").
   • Executable — full path to the program (use Browse exe...).
   • Arguments — command-line template; {file} is replaced with the document path (quoted automatically). Leave empty for the default {file}.
4. Click Save.

Because the ribbon is built once when Flare starts, new or changed tools appear after you restart Flare.

Example: to open the file's folder in Windows Explorer, add a tool named Explorer with executable C:\Windows\explorer.exe and arguments /select,{file}.