Programmer: Lifelong Learning: Awesome Tips about Chrome Vimium

TL;DR

How to use Chrome Vimium’s shortcuts, regex search to navigate the web and Chrome faster.
How to customize Vimium’s shortcuts and make it work better with other ecosystems like reveal.js.

Awesome Tips about Chrome Series

Install

Shortcuts

All commands and shortcuts

(number+)W	move tabs(s) to new window
(number+)<<(>>)	Move tab to the left(right)
T	search through your open tabs
B	Bookmark search
(number+)r	reload tab(s)
(number+)f(F)	open/click multiple links in the current(or new) tab or execute multiple actions in same tab
(number+)x	close tabs(s)
^	Go to previously-visited tab
yt	duplicate current tab
gE	Edit the current URL and open in a new tab
X	restore closed tab (i.e. unwind the ‘x’ command)
gi	focus the first (or n-th) text input box on the page
h/j/k/l	scroll left/down/up/right
(number+)d(u)	half page down(up)
yy	copy the current url to the clipboard
yf	copy a link (hint) url to the clipboard
p/P	search the text in clipboard using search engine
[[ or ]]	Go to next previous(next) page
gi or i	Focus the first text input on the page
gu(or U)	Go up the URL hierarchy or Go to root of current URL hierarchy
?	help

Count + Command

number+x-close multiple tabs
number+r-reload multiple tabs
number+W-move multiple tabs to new window
number+<<(>>) move multiple tabs
(number+)f(F)-open multiple links
(number+)d(u)- multiple half page(up) down

Find Mode (/): regex search

Support Regex
Make Regex search as default by checking Treat find queries as JavaScript regular expressions at Options.
- As people can just use chrome’s builtin search for non regex search.
- Switch back to plain find mode by using the escape sequence.
Find queries are global and persistent
Use and to re-use previous queries
Smartcase: /test is case-insensitive, and /Test is case-sensitive

Vomnibar search

Type o Or O to open URL, bookmark or history entry
Add Custom search engines at Options
Useful: y for Youtube, m for Google Maps,

Custom Key Mappings

Special Keys

<c-*>, <a-*>, <m-*> for ctrl, alt, and meta (command on Mac) respectively with any key. Replace * with the key of choice.
<left>, <right>, <up>, <down> for the arrow keys.
<f1> through <f12> for the function keys.
<space> for the space key.
<tab>, <enter>, <delete>, <backspace>, <insert>, <home> and <end> for the corresponding non-printable keys (version 1.62 onwards).

source 1

All commands and shortcuts

# when u is used.
map U scrollPageUp
map <left> goPrevious
map <right> goNext
map i focusInput
map <c-,> previousTab
map <c-.> nextTab
map ,, previousTab
map .. nextTab
map h goBack
map l goForward
map o Vomnibar.activateInNewTab
map O Vomnibar.activate
map b Vomnibar.activateBookmarksInNewTab
map B Vomnibar.activateBookmarks
map m toggleMuteTab
map M toggleMuteTab all
map X toggleMuteTab other
map cl closeTabsOnLeft
map cr closeTabsOnRight
map n closeTabsOnRight 1
map co closeOtherTabs
map yi LinkHints.activateModeToOpenIncognito
unmap J
unmap K
unmap t

Tips

i or gi to focus to the first text input box, when there are multiple input areas, use f or F: the LinkHints feature.
Don’t let pages steal the focus on load
We can use Command+L then Command+C to copy url in Chrome, but its better to

Use yy to copy current url, not Command+L then Command+C

We can use Command+L then Command+C to copy url in Chrome, but it actually copies whatever in the address bar, NOT always the current url.

If we type any character in the address bar, Chrome will fill and change the address bar which we may be not aware, now if we Command+L then Command+C, it will copy a totally different url.

We may share a different, wrong url to others: it would cause awkward, or share some secret files to wrong persons.
For example, Chrome may change the url to some google doc we frequently access.

Customize Previous(Next) patterns

We can use [[ or ]] to go to next previous(next) page.
We can also map left and right arrow key to go to next previous(next) page.

map <left> goPrevious
map <right> goNext

By default, it doesn’t not work for some web sites such as , but we can easily customize it at options
Add Older Posts,下一章,下一页 to Next patterns
- Usually users land in home page, click next button/shortcut to go older posts.
Add Newer Posts,上一章,上一页 to Previous patterns
- Space matters.

Excluded URLs and keys

reveal.js uses F for Fullscreen and some other shortcuts which conflict with Vimium
Some shortcuts from Github conflicts with Chrome Vimium
So add the following at Excluded URLs and keys at Vimium Options.

Patterns	Keys
https?://jefferyyuan.github.io/*	f,F,?,O,o,b,B
https?://github.com/*	?blgnhp
https?://www.youtube.com/*	?/f<>0123456789

Go Back History Doesn’t Work (for example in Blogger’s Management Page)

When we click cmd+left or back history button or h, sometimes it doesn’t work.
When this happens, try 2h: go back 2 pages