When I press a key such as F2 while in insert mode, <F2> will be entered into the buffer. I would like to use the function keys as hotkeys however this is impracticable when I always need to go and delete the piece of text.
Is there a way to disable this in vim? I couldn't find anyone else with this problem so I am quite stuck with this one.
Edit: ps Im using VIM 8.0 in gui mode.
You can map the key to no operations for doing nothing if pressed in insert mode. So, i guess this would do the trick:
inoremap <F2> <Nop>
If you prefer that F2 should do nothing (vim specific) in all vim modes it would be:
noremap <F2> <Nop>
Related
Let's say I change a word with cw. That leaves me in insert mode.
I find it counter intuitive that if I move to a different line, I'm still in insert mode.
I would like to exit insert mode without pressing ESC, for example when I move to different line with arrow keys.
How could I do this?
You can remap the arrow keys to automatically leave insert mode:
inoremap <Up> <Esc><Up>
inoremap <Right> <Esc><Right>
inoremap <Down> <Esc><Down>
inoremap <Left> <Esc><Left>
You may also want to remap <PageDown> and <PageUp>, <ScrollWheelDown>, and <ScrollWheelDown> if you use those.
One downside of this is that it may not work well with some plugins. That is, the plugin will work fine, but it may move the cursor without leaving insert mode as you expect it to. Plus, if you get used to this you may find using a Vim without these mappings (on a server, or someone else's computer) to be frustrating.
When typing <Enter> in normal mode in Vim with the Tagbar plugin installed, the Tagbar window is opened automatically. I want to disable this functionality. What must I do?
put the flowing code in you .vimrc
unmap <cr>
Your mapping for <C-m> is actually the cause of the Enter key opening Tagbar. If you remove that map from your vimrc, the enter key will no longer trigger :TagbarToggle.
Mappings for <C-m> and <CR> (Enter) are synonymous in Vim:
The following table shows the mapping between some of the keys on the keyboard and the equivalent Ctrl-key combination:
Ctrl-I Tab
Ctrl-[ Esc
Ctrl-M Enter
Ctrl-H Backspace
If you use one of the Ctrl-key combination in the above table in a map, the map also applies to the corresponding key. Both the keys produce the same key scan code. For example, if you create a map for CTRL-I, then you can invoke the map by pressing Ctrl-I or the Tab key.
This means when you set nmap <C-m> :TagbarToggle<CR>, it is the same as
also setting nmap <CR> :TagbarToggle<CR>.
You'll probably want to choose a new key instead of M. The alternative is to
change the key code sent by <C-m> at the operating system level with some
remapping program.
The terminal key bindings come from readline, the program that processes input text in
your terminal prompt. A full list of key bindings is in the readline
manual.
You can find more info about Vim key codes by typing :help keycodes in Vim, or reading the help docs here.
Try :help tagbar to open the documentation. It sounds like you might have a mapping in your vimrc file that says something like
nnoremap <silent> <CR> :TagbarToggle<CR>
or
nnoremap <silent> <CR> :TagbarOpen<CR>
if you find and remove that mapping will no longer open Tagbar
I want to be able to save a file in vim while in the insert mode. I thought of using the following shortcut:
inoremap <leader>w <Esc>:w<cr>
While the shortcut saves the file in the insert mode, it leaves the cursor one spot ahead of where the cursor would be if I physically typed out the keys
Esc :w followed by Enter. This is a problem because when I use the shortcut whenever I am at the end of a line, it takes me to the next line, and I have to then come back to the spot where I initiated the save.
Any help would be appreciated on how I can map <leader>w to the exact actions that occur in Vim when I physically type out the Esc :w followed by Enter key sequence.
I should add that if I instead use the following key-mapping, things work exactly as I want:
inoremap <C-s> <esc>:w<CR>
However, I would like to avoid pressing CTRL and s at the same time. It is possible there is some problem with the <leader>, but I cannot figure out what it is (I am using , as my leader key).
Though one could discuss the suitability of your insert-mode mapping, the root cause of your problem is a trailing space in the mapping definition; i.e. Vim reads this as follows:
inoremap <leader>w <Esc>:w<cr><Space>
You'll even see this in the :imap <Leader>w output! <Space> in normal mode advances the cursor one to the right (like l); that explains the unexpected move.
Try this instead:
inoremap <silent> <leader>w <C-o>:w<CR>
The idea is Ctrl-o can be used to run commands directly from insert mode. See :help i_CTRL-O for details.
Why not simply doing
inoremap <leader>w <Esc>h:w<cr>
(not the additional h for going back one character)?
In order to save time in Vim, I came up with an idea. To map :w key binding to Esc in both normal mode and insert mode. However it only works in insert mode whereas in normal mode things are getting messy when I open a new file. This is what I added in .vimrc:
:inoremap <Esc> <Esc>:w<CR>
:nnoremap <Esc> :w<CR>
As I said the first command alone, works fine. But adding the second command, keys are messed up ESPECIALLY when I open a new file. For instance, although I have explicitly added in .vimrc:
map <up> <nop>
map <down> <nop>
map <left> <nop>
map <right> <nop>
by adding the second command for the normal mode, pressing up down left or right keys cause to enter in insert mode and add A B C D.
Could you help me to achieve my idea?
Information on Vim FAQ 10.9 may be useful:
10.9. When I use my arrow keys, Vim changes modes, inserts weird characters
in my document but doesn't move the cursor properly. What's going on?
There are a couple of things that could be going on: either you are using
Vim over a slow connection or Vim doesn't understand the key sequence that
your keyboard is generating.
If you are working over a slow connection (such as a 2400 bps modem), you
can try to set the 'timeout' or 'ttimeout' option. These options, combined
with the 'timeoutlen' and 'ttimeoutlen' options, may fix the problem.
The preceding procedure will not work correctly if your terminal sends key
codes that Vim does not understand. In this situation, your best option is
to map your key sequence to a matching cursor movement command and save
these mappings in a file. You can then ":source" the file whenever you work
from that terminal.
For more information, read
|'timeout'|
|'ttimeout'|
|'timeoutlen'|
|'ttimeoutlen'|
|:map|
|vt100-cursor-keys|
From :h vt100-cursor-keys:
Other terminals (e.g., vt100 and xterm) have cursor keys that send <Esc>OA,
<Esc>OB, etc. ...
So probably your nnoremap is causing the Esc on the arrow's key sequence to save the file, and the remaining characters are being interpreted alone, so the A is entering insert mode.
You could consider using option 'autowriteall', or using a different mapping to save your file; these are defined in $VIMRUNTIME\mswin.vim:
" Use CTRL-S for saving, also in Insert mode
noremap <C-S> :update<CR>
vnoremap <C-S> <C-C>:update<CR>
inoremap <C-S> <C-O>:update<CR>
The :update command is similar to :w, but only writes only if the file has been modified.
Also, you can use
autocmd InsertLeave * write
I use mappings to normal mode commands that I'd also like to work in insert mode. This can be done by adding <C-o> to insert mode mapping:
nmap <C-Up> 10<Up>
imap <C-Up> <C-o>10<Up>
But this means repeating each mapping twice.
To avoid repetition, I've tried to "overload" some other key, then use it for mode-specific part:
" F12 selects prefix suitable for current mode
nmap <F12> <Nop>
imap <F12> <C-o>
" single mapping relying on "overloaded" F12
map <C-Up> <F12>10<Up>
For some reason, it doesn't work. F2 in insert mode just inserts <F2> as text.
Any idea what's wrong and how to fix it?
Bonus points if you can extend the solution to visual mode.
As ZyX has already pointed out, there is no single :map command for all modes, because it mostly doesn't make sense. If you really want to define a mapping for all modes, use both :map and :map!; see :help map-modes.
As you typically define mappings only once in your .vimrc, I would not worry too much about the little duplication, but if you do, you can use a wrapper function to avoid this:
function! MapBoth(keys, rhs)
execute 'nmap' a:keys a:rhs
execute 'imap' a:keys '<C-o>' . a:rhs
endfunction
call MapBoth('<C-Up>', '10<Up>')
Original
nnoremap <F2> :w<CR>
inoremap <F2> <Esc>:w<CR>a
map sometimes does not set it for all modes. I don't know the exact reason, so to be sure I like to explicitly set all mapping in my configuration file. I suggest that you do the same as there are cases where you can get something unexpected due to different modes. That's why it is important to consider every remapping that you do for each particular mode with care.
In addition, favor *noremap command instead of just *map everywhere you can as recursive mapping is a known source of errors, especially for beginners.
Lastly, I don't know what are you trying to achieve by binding writing of a file in visual mode. Are you aiming for partial buffer writing (it's when you selected something in visual mode, then hit this file-writing shortcut and only selected text is written)? Or do you want the whole file to be written when you are in visual mode, regardless of whether you selected anything or not when you hit the file-writing shortcut? Provide more information on that. Personally, in either case it is weird mapping for visual mode, as it is really not indented for that. It's rather better to keep such stuff in normal mode.
Update
As others have already given exhaustive answers on your question, I just thought that it would be helpful if add my 2 cents, but in slightly different direction. By looking on what you are trying to do, namely mapping navigation features involving arrow keys in insert mode, I can infer that you are very new to Vim. As you probably already know, the philosophy behind Vim is that you should never ever touch mouse during your work inside Vim - call it a kind of golden rule.
What I want to point out now, is what I call a silver rule, and it basically looks like this:
noremap <Up> <Nop>
noremap <Down> <Nop>
noremap <Left> <Nop>
noremap <Right> <Nop>
inoremap <Up> <Nop>
inoremap <Down> <Nop>
inoremap <Left> <Nop>
inoremap <Right> <Nop>
In other words, prevent yourself from using arrow keys (everywhere except command-line mode). Your fingers should always be only in the region of character keys. Vim is all about modes. Insert mode is not for navigation - it is intended for bursts of typing. When you work with code or just text (doesn't matter) you spend most of your time in normal mode - navigating - looking through the file, seeking where to land next in order to edit something, add something, i.e. to do your next input burst for which you switch to insert mode, and when you are finished you switch back to normal mode to look for some more meat - like a predator. :)
So what is it all about? I just want to head you to the right direction right from the beginning. This way you can become intermediate Vim user very quickly - just a few days. In order to get better feeling of all the aforementioned I suggest that you should definitely watch Vim Novice Video Tutorials by Derek Wyatt where he talks about all that stuff in more detail and shows it in action in the screencasts. There are also Intermediate and Advanced tutorials by him which you might also look when you are comfortable with the basics.
I wish you happy vimming! :)
There are no commands to define mappings for all modes: :map maps for normal, operator-pending and visual modes (really visual and select at once) which is clearly stated in documentation. It does not make any sense to have same mapping for all modes, though unlike movement ones saving may be done in all modes with exactly the same rhs:
function s:Save()
update
return ''
endfunction
noremap <expr> <F2> <SID>Save()
noremap! <expr> <F2> <SID>Save()
. noremap! is another multi-mode mapping command, it covers insert and command mode now. You can’t move the cursor from <SID>Save() function (textlock) thus this method is not applicable for cursor movement commands, but you can use variables in order not to repeat the same thing twice:
let s:tendownlhs='10j'
execute ' noremap <C-Down> '.s:tendownlhs
execute 'inoremap <C-Down> <C-o>'.s:tendownlhs
. Now without command mode as this is tricky and likely useless.
If it is okay for the mapping to end up in normal mode, you could combine a for loop with <C-\><C-n> mappings. <C-\><C-n> switches from any mode to normal mode.
For example, this allows switching panes with Alt-{h,j,k,l} from any mode:
for map_command in ['noremap', 'noremap!', 'tnoremap']
execute map_command . ' <silent> <M-h> <C-\><C-n><C-w>h'
execute map_command . ' <silent> <M-j> <C-\><C-n><C-w>j'
execute map_command . ' <silent> <M-k> <C-\><C-n><C-w>k'
execute map_command . ' <silent> <M-l> <C-\><C-n><C-w>l'
endfor
noremap maps in Normal, Visual, and Operator-pending mode
noremap! maps in Insert and Command mode
tnoremap maps in Neovim's Terminal mode