defcustom

This page includes a summary for each defcustom.

avy-keys

The list of the default decision chars.

Customizations to it take effect for all commands, but you can also override it per-command using =avy-keys-alist=.

Examples:

;; Home row only (the default).
(setq avy-keys '(?a ?s ?d ?f ?g ?h ?j ?k ?l))

;; Any lower-case letter a-z.
(setq avy-keys (number-sequence ?a ?z))

;; Any lower-case letter or number.  Numbers are specified in the keyboard
;; number-row order, so that the candidate following '9' will be '0'.
(setq avy-keys (nconc (number-sequence ?a ?z)
                      (number-sequence ?1 ?9)
                      '(?0)))

avy-keys-alist

The alist of decision chars for each command.

This allows for a more precise customization than =avy-keys=. Any command that don’t have an entry in avy-keys-alist will use avy-keys.

Example:

(setq avy-keys-alist
      `((avy-goto-char . ,(number-sequence ?a ?f))
        (avy-goto-word-1 . (?f ?g ?h ?j))))

avy-style

The default overlay display style.

This setting will be used for all commands, unless overridden in =avy-styles-alist=.

Six styles are currently available:

1. pre: - full path before target, leaving all original text.
2. at: - single character path on target, obscuring the target.
3. at-full: full path on target, obscuring the target and the text behind it.
4. post: full path after target, leaving all original text.
5. de-bruijn: like at-full but the path is in a De Bruijn sequence.
6. words: like at-full, but the path consists of words as defined by =avy-words=.

At first it seems that pre and post are advantageous over at and at-full, since you can still see the original text with them. However, they make the text shift a bit. If you don’t like that, use either at or at-full.

avy-styles-alist

The alist of overlay display styles for each command.

This allows for a more precise customization than =avy-style=. Any command that don’t have an entry in avy-styles-alist will use avy-style.

Here’s the setting that I’m using:

(setq avy-styles-alist '((avy-goto-char-2 . post)))

Since the two chars in avy-goto-char-2 are in a sequence, it makes sense for the decision chars to also follow that sequence, hence post is used.

avy-background

When non-nil, a gray background will be added during the selection.

This is off by default. While it can allow you to focus better on the decision chars, it can be distracting.

Example:

(setq avy-background t)

You can also customize avy-background-face.

avy-all-windows

There are three choices for this variable, which determine which windows will be searched for jump candidates:

• nil: use only the selected window
• t: use all windows on the selected frame
• all-frames: use all windows on all frames

It’s t, just to show to the new users that they have an option to use all windows. I set it to nil to only use the current window. This results in less candidates and less interruption.

(setq avy-all-windows nil)

Note that for each command you can negate the current setting of avy-all-windows by using a prefix argument. So whan I have avy-all-windows nil, but I happen to want to use all windows in one case, I just use C-u (universal-argument) before the command.

avy-case-fold-search

When non-nil, the searches should ignore case. This is on by default, since it’s usually cheaper to have a bit more candidates rather than having to press the Shift key. When nil, only if given Upcase letter, the searches should icluding case. See also =case-fold-search=.

Example

(setq avy-case-fold-search nil)

avy-highlight-first

When non-nil highlight the first decision char with avy-lead-face-0. Do this even when the char is terminating.

Normally avy-lead-face-0 is only used for the first non-terminating decision chars.

Example:

(setq avy-highlight-first t)

avy-timeout-seconds

This determines how many seconds avy-goto-char-timer should wait before switching between avy-goto-char-2 and avy-goto-char.

Example:

(setq avy-timeout-seconds 0.8)

avy-orders-alist

If you would like to have the places that are closest to the point have shorter key sequences, you can customize it like this:

(setq avy-orders-alist
      '((avy-goto-char . avy-order-closest)
        (avy-goto-word-0 . avy-order-closest)))

Note that the tradeoff is that the key sequences now depend on your point position, not just on the window contents.

avy-words

The list of words that serves as the path instead of a generated sequence. If there are more choices than there are words in the list, the remainder will continue on as the at-full style.

 ;; This is a small portion of the default `avy-words' list.
 ;;   and is by no means exhaustive.
 (setq avy-words
	'("am" "by" "if" "is" "it" "my" "ox" "up"
	  "ace" "act" "add" "age" "ago" "aim" "air"
	  "ale" "all" "and" "ant" "any" "ape" "apt"))