Firefox extension - ViMperator

How many times has it happened that you work a lot in ViM and then catch yourself typing ViM commands in other software applications? It happens quite a lot with me. The thing is they are just so damn handy and quick!

Lucky for me I stumbled upon this new cool Firefox Add-on that actually allows me to use ViM commands in Firefox. It is fantastic. Best of all, it takes very little getting used to. For example:

• I = Like the ViM insert mode. Disable all ViM command keys.
• gg = Got to the top of the open document
• G = Go to the bottom of the open document
• :gh = Go to your browser’s home page in the current tab/window
• :gH = Go to your browser’s home page in a new tab
• :open http://stii.za.net = Opens the URL in the current browser tab
• Ctrl+c (Control key and “c”) = Stop the page from loading
• Crtl+^ (Control key and ^ or 6) = Selects the previous tab you had open
• r = Reload the current open document
• R = Reload skipping the cache (Extremely useful!)
• t http://stii.za.net = Opens the url in a new tab. If you specify more than one URL, it will open each URL in a new tab.
• :open google foobar = Will search for foobar in google in the current open tab/window.
• :tabopen yahoo foobar = Like the command above, but will search Yahoo in a new tab for foobar. Supports Firefox keyword bookmarks and search engines
• /firefox = searches the open document for the string pattern “firefox” going forward
• ?firefox = as above only searching backward

These are but a few useful commands. To see more commands all you do is type :help and and you’ll have a complete list of shortcuts and commands.

Admittedly, it is not ViM. It emulates ViM and some of the common commands and keystrokes, which is still very handy. I’m loving it!

You can download and install the latest version of the vimperator add-on here.

Here is a list of commands and keystrokes.

Even if you do not use ViM, it could still be a very neat and handy little extension that can make your life much, much easier. Try it out. Thank you Martin Stubenschrott!

Spit it out!

Filed in: Kick-ass Tools, firefox by: Stii