
## Table of Contents

1. [Introduction](#introduction)
2. [WebEssentials](#webessentials)
3. [Related Tools](#related-tools)
4. [Conclusion](#conclusion)

## Introduction

I wanted to compile Bootstrap Sass, so I searched online and on the
Bootstrap website. The site mentions that Bootstrap supports Sass but doesn't provide details on how to
compile it. That makes sense because there are so
many tools that can compile Sass into CSS. I know that Visual Studio 2015's
compiler plugin makes it very easy to compile Bootstrap Sass into CSS. But
since I'm in Visual Studio 2013 and I like using npm (Node.js package management
system), I wondered if npm had some Sass compiler. So I found
the following — it could work but requires a Grunt file setup and also needs Ruby and
Compass.

That's a lot of work...

```
grunt-contrib-sass
```

So, what I ended up with...

## WebEssentials

WebEssentials is a web tools extension for Visual Studio. First, I ran NuGet to get the Sass
version of Bootstrap.

![](https://d1p0mp3f1fx0hz.cloudfront.net/_5u3gicubz.png)

Then I just created another file called bootstrap.scss and copied the code from
_bootstrap.scss to my bootstrap.scss.

Save, and that causes WebEssentials to compile the SCSS to CSS for me.
Sweet!

![](https://d1p0mp3f1fx0hz.cloudfront.net/_l271mtigm.png)

Now, you can start changing the variables inside the Bootstrap SCSS to use the
real power of Bootstrap.

## Related Tools

  - Web Essentials 2013.5

    - If you ever write CSS, HTML, JavaScript, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, or LESS,
then you will find many useful features that make your life as a developer
easier. This is for all web developers using Visual Studio.

  - NSass

    - NSass is a .NET wrapper around the libsass library. All information about
libsass itself can be found in the readme file under the NSass.LibSass
directory.

## Conclusion

Using WebEssentials in Visual Studio 2013 is the simplest way to compile Bootstrap Sass into CSS. Just install the NuGet Sass version of Bootstrap, create a `.scss` file, and WebEssentials will automatically compile it to CSS on save.


How to compile Bootstrap Sass to CSS in Visual Studio 2013 using WebEssentials.

Sass

How to Compile Bootstrap Sass in Visual Studio 2013