I would like to know if there's a way to indent forward multiple lines. For indent back warding, I know that I have to select multiple codes and press tab. However, is there a way to do the opposite? On a word document, I usually did tab + delete/backspace to move bullet points forward but it seems like that's not the case for text editor.
Thank you guys in advance!
Most Editors use Shift+Tab to backward indent text. Try this shortcut.
If your Editor does not provide this feature, try Notepad++ (Windows). This editor is a free lightweight editor for coding-tasks and it offers features like this backward indent and many many more.
On Linux systems Geany is comparable with Notepad++.
Related
I have been googling for a way to use vim bindings inside normal text fields in chrome. I've tried vmium and cVim but I can't figure out whether they have the functionality I'm looking for.
An example is this exact text area in which I'm typing my question. I'd like to be able to press Esc and go to vim command mode in here, and start deleting a line pressing dd.
Would that be possible? Or those plugins are just for navigation shortcuts?
Here's the answer!
Those plugins are for navigation only. If you want a Vi-like
experience in Chrome's textareas, try Wasavi. – #romainl
The cVim plugin allows for keyboard shortcuts to manipulate text inside text boxes. However, the shortcuts are not the same as vim and there are not as many. After installing the extension type ":help" to see the list of shortcuts.
I want vim to autocomplete my braces, eg. when I input ( , vim should auto type ) and move the cursor to the middle of the braces automatically for me, just like all the other text editors do.
This seems easy but I haven't found a proper way. I installed YouCompleteMe but it doesn't seem to solve my problem. What can I do to get the feature I want?
Have a look at the Automatically append closing characters page on the Vim Tips Wiki. It describes some simple setups, and has a list of plugins that offer this functionality. I personally use the AutoClose plugin, but only occasionally, as I don't find this functionality very helpful.
Vim newbie here.
I would like to be able to create tabs in Vim such that, for example, the tabs are at 4" left and 1.5" right for one type of section, 1.5"/1.5" for another, etc.
I know how to set tab stops, etc. but the trick here is I would like vim to recognize key combinations like shift-enter to go to one kind of formatting, plain enter to go to another kind, etc.
Is this even possible with vim?
TIA
I think you're confusing Vim with a word processor (like Word or Writer). There's no measurement in inches, no left / right margins, etc.
Vim's 'tabstop' option is a multiple of the width of a single space character that a <Tab> character (ASCII 0x09) expands to. This is fixed for the entire buffer (though you could use a set of :autocmds to change it in different parts of a buffer). Vim has no notion of paragraph text styles like a word processor, where you can define different styles. Vim only has a rather primitive :hardcopy command for printing.
If you need elaborate text formatting capabilities, Vim probably is the wrong tool, except if you choose to edit a source code document (like Latex, HTML, or Markdown), which is only compiled into a document (for those, like editing programming languages, it's actually well suited and powerful).
The vimtutor command (see :help vimtutor inside Vim) provides a good introduction to Vim's capabilities.
Check out these screenplay scripts. At least the first one contains custom tab widths as required in the traditional play formats. Perhaps they provide you the right idea on what's possible with Vim:
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2447 by Mike Zazaian
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1842 by Alex Lance
A long time ago there was an editor called MultiEdit. It has a feature which I can not find in all powerful VIM. In MultiEdit I could press some hot key and it would show something like table-of-contents (aka, condensed-mode, aka outline) were I could see only 1st line of all functions (let it be C source) in current file. I could then move cursor to function that I need and after pressing enter, mode will switch to normal and I would be in function that I need. Very useful for those who likes to put many functions in one file. This feature was extremely simple to use: one config option to enter regex for selecting title-lines and one hotkey for mode toggle.
VIM has folding. But this is different. Folding hides parts of files and displays folded-lines-indicator. It is much more difficult to specify what to hide in folds for table-of-content-display: you need to start fold at title-line and end before next title line. This is more complex than simple regex to select titles.
I so much wanted this feature, I even wrote VIM macro to emulate this MultiEdit behavior, even though I don't know VIM that much. I've wrote it in part because it was easier to to learn a new language and write a macro than to figure out VIM folding module complexity.
Unfortunately, after upgrading VIM, this macro now does not work (infinite loop?). I've wrote it long time ago, and what little I did know about VIM is all forgotten and I could not fix it now. (EDIT: I've fixed my script. Thanks to #romainl for the link).
My question is how to get this table-of-content like display in VIM?
This recent vimcast by Drew Neil explains the generalities of folding and this one goes through the process of creating the kind of folding you are (probably) after.
Depending on the language you work with and your coding style, something as simple as
set foldmethod=marker
set foldmarker={,}
and zM can get you a long way:
If you want to customize what information is displayed, the second link above is almost certainly just what you need.
Have a look at ctags and the vim plugin tagbar.
You also check out the vim plugin unite with the extension Unite-Ouline
it gives a behavior quite close to what you describe.
It's not great but have you tried setlocal foldmethod=syntax? It seems to do a decent job in 7.3 on Windows. ...although I just realized that our coding standard has the opening brace for a block at the end of the line rather than on a new line and if I change to having it on a new line it works substantially less well.
I'm looking for very specific text editor:
Closes on ESC, no project management or tabs
Syntax highlighting - preferably with color themes (e.g. can apply different color themes without changing C# coloring definition) or, at least, can load/save themes; support for C/C#/XML/HTML/JavaScript/etc - common MS/.NET world - out of box
Configurable keys, or: Shift-Tab shifts blocks
XML/HTML auto-completion support - well, optional
I use synplus plugin for Total Commander currently, but it has few drawbacks (e.g. crashes sometimes ;-), no auto-completion, etc).
Basically I want fast Visual-Studio-like editor that I open, do edits, and then close using ESC. I remember I tried Notepad++, etc - most of them open files in tabs, don't close on ESC... - that is, behave like IDE.
At least I've just downloaded Notepad++, it doesn't close on ESC even if I setup keybindings to do so.
Autocompletion is optional (though it is to be simple as just tags completion), what I really look for is closing on ESC, not getting in the way with all the tabs and IDE-like, and good coloring. Plus shift-tab is must have for blocks manipulation.
Update: any open-source one that I can easily tweak to close on ESC? ;-) Seems like ESC (and reasonable color highlighting) is the core requirement. I've just tried many editors - Programmer's Notepad, E, Crimson, etc - I can't set any of them to close on ESC. Any external tool to close selected program on ESC? ;-)
UPDATE: Hm, found an awesome utility for my latest thought: http://www.autohotkey.com. Easy to setup to close any window on ESC (as well as many other tricks). Seems like the most tough requirements is gone - I can use ANY text editor ;-)
You could use Emacs 23's new server functionality to make it start fast, and then configuring it to use whatever key bindings you like is trivial.
You can try Notepad2. I like it for the same reasons - close on Escape and syntax highlighting. Very light and fast to start.
So, I close this because I've found a fix for the main issue with ESC key: http://www.autohotkey.com. Here's a sample script that do the trick for e text editor:
SetTitleMatchMode, 3
#IfWinActive ahk_class wxWindowClassNR
Esc::WinClose, A
return
Now I'm free to choose from wide range of editors.
vim?
Sure, it doesn't use esc to quit, but :wq is pretty quick.
Given you've got rid of the ESC issue I'd suggest taking a look at jedit. It's fairly lightweight (well, compared to a full IDE), nicely configurable and runs on any OS. Generally one of the first things I install on any box I'm going to be working on because I know I'll always have a familiar environment.
With a bit of tweaking the Zeus editor can be configure to behave this way.
To get the editor to close on ESC the keyboard mapping will need to be edited and the ESC key rebound to the FileExit function.
The current version of Notepad++ (6.4.5) does let you close files using Esc. To do this you have to set Esc as the Exit key (Number 19) by using Settings | Shortcut Mapper.