
Never add things to your configuration blindly.Ī significant part of becoming more effective with Vim is to be mindful of your development workflow.

Before you add a custom mapping in your VSCodeVim configuration consider whether it offers a better workflow than whatever you use today. There are a lot more interesting and useful mappings in the VSCodeVim documentation. Just type p and t respectively and you’ll quickly access either of these panels. Now you no longer need to contort your fingers to open the command palette or go to symbol. Note that these settings can only be changed via the json version of the settings:Ī custom mapping normally takes the following shape: That allows you to reuse key keyboard real state in each mode and have powerful functionality near your fingertips.

Having different mappings for different modes makes sense because each mode is a clean slate where you can redefine mappings to perform tasks specific to that mode. Insert Mode Key Bindings Non Recursive for insert mode.Visual Mode Key Bindings Non Recursive for visual mode.Normal Mode Key Bindings Non Recursive for normal mode.Now you can use the following settings to add your custom mappings in different modes: Select the Preferences: Open User Settings OptionsĪnd you’ll filter your Visual Studio Code preferences to display only VSCodeVim related ones.Open the command palette with CMD-SHIFT-P or CTRL-SHIFT-P.You can create custom mappings using Visual Studio Code preferences: Using custom mappings you can create a hierarchy of commands where the most useful ones can be reached from the commodity of your home row and the less useful ones can be reached through comfortable, yet more lengthy key combinations They let you prioritize Vim functionality by bringing it nearer to your fingertips.They let you customize Vim and adapt it to the way you work by creating custom mappings for things that you use often.Why Custom Mappings?Ĭustom mappings are useful for two reasons:

A mapping in Vim is the equivalent to a shortcut in other editors but with a strong focus on melodies of keys that are so natural to Vim. A simple way to get started customizing Vim and one that will have the greatest effect in your daily coding is creating custom mappings. One of the greatest features in Vim is its customizability.
