The user should be able to select a block of text in the active document (e.g. exec command, ARM template, etc.) and choose a 'turn this into a parameter' command. This should create a suitable parameter in the porter.yaml. Ideally, it should also modify the source location to reference the parameter, but that may be tricky without knowing the source location syntax and how the parameter is passed into the invocation image - but it will at least be possible if the source is the porter.yaml file itself.
It should also be possible to turn the value into a credential instead of a parameter.