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Firefox with vi(m) keybindings

Posted by Scott_Ruecker on · 3 comments
Linux DevCenter; By Juliet Kemp 		Mail this story
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Browsing through other blogs on here recently, I came across a piece explaining how to set Firefox to use vi key bindings. Which sounded great; unfortunately, the method as advertised no longer works (Firefox 1.5.0.1).

A bit more digging revealed a more up-to-date version. More complicated, as well - you have to unzip [firefox_dir]/chrome/toolkit.jar, edit the platformHTMLBindings.xml file to include the lines



<handler event="keypress" key="h" command="cmd_scrollLeft"/>
<handler event="keypress" key="j" command="cmd_scrollLineDown"/>
<handler event="keypress" key="k" command="cmd_scrollLineUp"/>
<handler event="keypress" key="l" command="cmd_scrollRight"/>
<handler event="keypress" key="u" command="cmd_scrollPageUp" />



and then zip it back up again (keeping the old version for reference is probably wise).



Restarting Firefox and still no joy - any typing still went straight to the 'find ahead' toolbar. Final step, then: open about:config (type 'about:config' in the address bar) and set accessibility:typeaheadfind to false. This does mean you have to type / to start searching but personally my fingers do that automatically anyway so it's not much of a disincentive; and scrolling without needing to move to either arrow keypad or mouse is a definite plus. Now I just need to retrain my hands to do so!

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Comments (3)

gds ·
Anyone know a good way to follow links from the keyboard. If I hit tab it immediately takes you to the top and you have to tab through possibly 100s of links.
NoDough ·
I've used this trick before.

Cntrl-F to open the find bar. Search for the text immediately before the link. Esc to close the find bar. Tab to highlight the link.

Hope it helps.
chalex ·
I usually use "/" instead of Ctrl-F. Then just type the first few letters of the link itself and it will get highlighted. Hit Enter to follow it. Try it now with the "Skip to New" link: hit "/", type "skip", hit Enter.

You can skip the first step if you turn on that option that auto-searches as you type.

Note that the above method finds words whether they're links or not. You'll have to hit F3 to skip around. Try it now with the "Publish it here." link on the right. hit "/", type "pub", hit F3, hit Enter.

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