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Text Marker Plus is an independently maintained VS Code extension derived from ryu1kn.text-marker-plus. Its listing says it removes the upstream telemetry functionality, moves full-document matching into a worker, and adds more ways to save highlight rules—including an option to save automatically when a rule is toggled. The practical differences are about how matches appear and where your rules persist, not a published benchmark or independently verified privacy audit.
What Text Marker Plus changes
The Plus listing describes the extension as an independently maintained distribution derived from Text Marker Plus on the Visual Studio Marketplace. Compared with the upstream Text Marker project, it lists these changes:
- Full-document matching runs in a dedicated worker, with completed matches cached and stale results handled asynchronously.
- The visible editor region is highlighted first; matches elsewhere in the document finish asynchronously.
- Visible editor panes are refreshed, including panes in split-editor layouts.
- Save-target choices, an optional save-on-toggle setting, user colors, and a different default accent palette.
- Removal of the upstream telemetry functionality, according to the Plus listing.
These are descriptions by the extension publisher, not independently measured performance results or a code or security audit.
How matching works—and what the demo does not show
According to the Plus listing, the extension prioritizes matches in the currently visible editor region, then completes matching elsewhere in the document asynchronously. This staged approach is intended to make visible matches available before the rest of the document’s results finish.
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The listing’s demonstration animation deliberately inserts a five-second delay so viewers can see that sequence. It explicitly says that delay is not normal production latency, so it should not be treated as an estimate of how long matching takes in ordinary use. The available product materials provide no independently measured speed comparison against upstream Text Marker.
What the upstream Text Marker already supports
The upstream project’s README describes highlighting selected text or the word under the cursor, updating highlight rules, and navigating to the next or previous match. It also documents regular-expression matching, case sensitivity, whole-word or partial matching modes, configurable colors, and saving highlights for later editor sessions. See the upstream Text Marker README for its documented behavior.
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That baseline matters when choosing between the two: Plus is presented as a fork that changes matching implementation and persistence options, rather than as the only version with saved highlights or regex support.
How Plus saves highlight rules
The extension stores saved rules in textmarker.savedHighlights. Its listing documents textmarker.defaultSaveTarget for choosing where a save goes, and textmarker.autoSaveOnToggle for optionally saving all current rules when Toggle Highlight adds or removes one.
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|---|---|
textmarker.defaultSaveTarget: workspace |
Saves rules to workspace settings. This is the documented default. |
textmarker.defaultSaveTarget: global |
Saves rules to global settings. |
textmarker.defaultSaveTarget: prompt |
Prompts you to choose a save target. |
| No open workspace with workspace selected | The listing says the extension prompts rather than silently writing the rules to global settings. |
textmarker.autoSaveOnToggle |
When enabled, saves all current rules when Toggle Highlight adds or removes a rule; it is optional. |
These controls are useful if you want different rule sets in different projects, shared rules at the user level, or fewer manual save steps. Check the extension’s current Marketplace listing for its latest setting descriptions and configuration instructions.
What the telemetry statements establish
The Plus listing says the fork removed the upstream telemetry functionality and does not collect information. That is the publisher’s statement; the available product materials do not independently verify the extension’s code or network behavior.
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The upstream README documents a different arrangement: usage data is sent only if both textmarker.enableTelemetry and VS Code’s telemetry.enableTelemetry are true. It says the Text Marker setting is enabled by default. See the upstream README for that documentation. These descriptions are not the same as an independent audit of either extension.
How to compare it with other text highlighters
A reader who wants labels such as “Note:” in one color and “DEBUG” in another needs to check more than the color picker. Compare how an extension decides what text to match, what kinds of rules it supports, and whether those rules persist in the scope you need.
| Comparison point | Text Marker / Plus documentation | Word Highlighter listing |
|---|---|---|
| Cursor-word matching | Upstream Text Marker documents whole-word and partial matching controls. The Plus listing describes its matching implementation but does not establish a different cursor-word rule. | Describes whole-word matching for the word under the cursor. |
| Selected text | Upstream Text Marker documents highlighting selected text. | Describes substring matching for selections. |
| Regular expressions | Upstream Text Marker documents regex support. | Not stated in the Word Highlighter Marketplace listing. |
| Persistence and scope | Upstream Text Marker documents saved rules; Plus adds workspace, global, or prompted save targets and optional saving on toggle. | Describes workspace persistence. |
| Maintenance claim | Plus describes itself as an independently maintained distribution derived from the upstream project. | Not stated in the listing cited here. |
This is a feature comparison based on the projects’ own descriptions, not a hands-on quality, reliability, or performance ranking. If your main concern is whether a selection matches a substring or whether cursor words match whole words, check the relevant listing carefully; those behaviors can produce different results in code with overlapping names.
Quick Recap
Who should consider the fork
- Consider Plus if workspace-versus-global rule storage, a prompt when choosing the target, or save-on-toggle fits your workflow.
- Its publisher’s description may also matter if you specifically prefer a version whose listing says telemetry functionality has been removed; treat that as a project claim rather than an audited guarantee.
- Compare the fork with upstream if you rely on Text Marker’s documented regex, case-sensitivity, whole/partial matching, colors, and navigation features. The fork’s listing should be checked for the exact current behavior you need.
- Do not choose on the basis of the five-second demo delay or an assumed performance advantage: the delay is staged, and the product materials do not provide an independent benchmark.
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