3 Ways to Use Vim Commands in Other Applications

October 10, 2012

I recently converted (from TextMate) to using vim for all of my text editing, and it turns out there are a number of places where knowing your vim strokes can help you.

Vimium

Vimium is a Chrome extension that allows you to use vim commands to control your browser. It’s stunning how fast browsing can be when using vim commands to navigate. Here’s what it gives you:

History

  • H : Go back in history

  • L : Go forward in history

Tabs

  • K, gt : Go one tab right

  • J, gT : Go one tab left

  • t : Create new tab

  • x : Close current tab

  • X : Restore closed tab

Navigation

  • ? : Show help

  • j : Scroll down

  • k : Scroll up

  • h : Scroll left

  • l : Scroll right

  • gg : Scroll to the top of the page

  • G : Scroll to the bottom of the page

  • ctrl-u : Scroll half a page up

  • ctrl-d : Scroll half a page down

  • ctrl-f : Scroll a full page down

  • ctrl-b : Scroll a full page up

  • Others (see help)

Google Reader

Google Reader allows you to navigate using a number of vim and vim-like commands:

  • j and l : next/previous item

  • : go home

  • : go to all items

  • : go to starred items

  • : go to tag selector

  • : go to popular items

YouTube

As it turns out, Google loves vim (they did hire Bram Moolenaar after all), and they allow you to jump forward and backward in YouTube videos using vim commands as well.

  • : seek backward 10 seconds

  • : seek forward 10 seconds

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The more places you can use the same commands the better, which is why I switched to vim in the first place. If you know of any other applications that use vim functionality, let me know so I can post an update here.

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