Setting up Sublime Text 3

A sublime set-up for a sublime text editor

I love Sublime Text. It’s been one of the most productive additions to my workflow. It’s awesome just as is, but what really makes it powerful is the almighty Package Manager and the tons of nice plugins other developers are sharing.

Here is how I have it all set-up…

There’s a package for that

Package Control is a package manager that will save you a lot of time. After installing it everything will just be a matter of a few clicks away.

Go to the View > Show Console menu. Once open, you should paste the code found here. This code changes with every release, so it’s better to just link to the website.

Official installation guide here

Installing new packages

You can install new packages by using the super handy cmd+shift+P shortcut. Then start typing install. The ‘Package Control: Install Package’ will soon appear. Press enter and browse for packages.

Change the skin

Sublime Text 3 offers even more customization options. You can change the theme and make it better suit your personality. Or you can download one of the many custom themes other users have created. Spacegray is a “hyperminimal UI theme” and my personal choice. You can install it using Package Control.

Besides from the theme, it’s also possible to change the color scheme. Zenburn is pretty neat, but I’m currently using Base16 by Chris Kempson.

Before/After transforming Sublime-Text’s appearance. You can customize it to look the way you want.

OS X Command Line

Sublime Text includes a command line tool, subl. In order to use it we just have to make a symlink to it (as found in the official documentation). You can quickly add it to the /usr/bin directory:

ln -s “/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl” /usr/bin/subl

Syntax highlighting

Sublime Text supports a lot of languages, but there may be times where the one you need to work with doesn’t come installed. Don’t worry: it’s very likely you’ll find a package for the syntax you need. Here are some mainstream examples:

• Apache .conf files
• SCSS and HAML
• INI syntax
• Gitconfig

Web development

Emmet (previously Zen Coding)

Emmet is a huge time saver for any web developer. It enables ultra-fast coding for HTML and CSS. Make sure you install it and learn how to use it.

CSS Comb

CSS Comb allows you to sort CSS properties in specific order. It’s a nice addition for groups of developers. Install it from the Package installer.

SCSS

The Textmate SCSS official bundle.

SFTP

Commercial SFTP/FTP. I use this to keep my folders in sync. This plugin alone has sped up my process tenfolds. I really recommend it for anyone who still has to deploy websites via FTP.

Laravel Bundles

I’m all in now on developing websites using Laravel, and loving every bit of it. I recommend you try it, too! There are bundles for syntax highlighting and Laravel snippets.

Alignment

This package allows you to vertically align multiple lines. Nice little time-saver.Using Alignment is pretty straightforward: Just select the lines you’d like to align and press cmd+ctrl+A.

So there you go. A small list of essential tools for Sublime Text. I’d love to know what you think of these, and hope you find them helpful. What other tools do you use? Are there other packages you recommend?

Other packages

Sublime Text integrates with a lot of tools. These are some of my favorite plugins:

• Dashdoc
• Liquid
• Markdown Editing