Skip to content

Use in another keyboard layout

Jump to bottom
Dahan Gong edited this page Aug 6, 2022 · 12 revisions

By default, Vimium C has a list of key mappings for English keyboard layout, and then for computer systems which are neither in English nor with an IME, Vimium C is not out-of-the-box. Therefore here's some tips about how to use Vimium C comfortably on a different keyboard layout.

“mapKey” directive

Firstly, Vimium C supports a feature of "mapKey", which has quite a few differences (since v1.76) compared with https://github.com/philc/vimium/wiki/Tips-and-Tricks#key-mapping . For example, for a key mapping line of map ф a, it will make Vimium C translate all keys with a main part of ф and zero or more modifier keys.

  • the main part will be changed to "a", an English letter which is lower-case format of "A"
  • then modifier keys will be taken into consideration
    • if Shift key is being pressed (and no other modifier keys), the whole key will be translated into "A"
    • if only Ctrl and Shift keys are being pressed, the translation result will be "<c-s-a>"

For beginners: Please remember that mapKey only takes effects inside Vimium C.

Before v1.80.1, This directive takes effects in normal mode (a mode when no mapped key is pressed and all commands have finished), LinkHints mode and visual mode (entered from the command "enterVisualMode").

Since v1.80.1, this directive takes effects in all modes.

Per-mode mapKey

V1.80.1 also adds a feature of per-mode mapping. For example, mapkey <f:o> <f2> will only make Vomnibar treat f as <f2>, while not in others modes. In this example o means Vomnibar, and you can also use i (Insert Mode), l (LinkHints), f (FindMode), v (VisualMode) and m (Marks).

Since v1.98.0, mapKey <xxx:v> <v-yyy> (as well as :f and :o ) will trigger commands mapped to <v-yyy>, thought some in-page commands may not work when Vomnibar is focused. And there're some new modes: n (normal mode - neither special modes, nor prefix keys of mappings), e (there have been some prefix keys, like g in gf).

Tips

There're some other usages and tips of "mapKey":

  • not only a character in one language can be mapped to one in another language, but also characters in a same language may be mapped at will
  • if a key's text representation is longer than 1 character, then it should be wrapped in "<" and ">"
  • all the mappings can only be recongnized inside Vimium C, and your browser and other web extensions don't know them
  • if the source key is not a single character, or it is UPPER CASE, then only the entirely matched key will be translated
    • that is, for mapKey F g, Vimium C will translate every F key (Shift is on, other modifier keys are off) to a lower case character g,
    • but other keys like <a-f> and <c-s-f> are kept unchanged
    • and for mapKey <esc> <f13>, Vimium C will translate a single Escape key to F13 key
  • If there's mapKey <f1> <esc>, then F1 key can be used to exit some modes of Vimium C, just like the native Escape
  • The unmapAll directive will also cancel all previously defined "mapKey" rules

Map a keyboard layout to English

With the help of "mapKey", now it's possible to make Vimium C ignore difference among several keyboard layouts. So you just need to map all keys in your keyboard layout to the corresponding English ones. Some relations may be found on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout and http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboard_layout_keybinding.html , though you may need to verify all web information by yourself.

An example for Cyrillic layout (Russian and Ukrainian)

This list is authored by @ww7 and copied from https://github.com/gdh1995/vimium-c/issues/39#issuecomment-511213704 .

mapKey й q
mapKey ц w
mapKey у e
mapKey к r
mapKey е t
mapKey н y
mapKey г u
mapKey ш i
mapKey щ o
mapKey з p
mapKey х [
mapKey Х {
mapKey ъ ]
mapKey Ъ }
mapKey ї ]
mapKey Ї }
# <space> after \
mapKey ё \ 
mapKey Ё |
mapKey ґ \ 
mapKey Ґ |
mapKey ф a
mapKey ы s
mapKey і s
mapKey в d
mapKey а f
mapKey п g
mapKey р h
mapKey о j
mapKey л k
mapKey д l
mapKey ж ;
mapKey Ж :
mapKey э '
mapKey Э "
mapKey є '
mapKey Є "
mapKey я z
mapKey ч x
mapKey с c
mapKey м v
mapKey и b
mapKey т n
mapKey ь m
mapKey б ,
mapKey Б <
mapKey ю .
mapKey Ю >
# '.' and ',' overrides (disables this keys for mappings)
mapKey . / 
mapKey , ?

The line of "# <space> after \" is to solve a bug before Vimium C v1.76.2, which is about the line connector character "\". Since Vimium C v1.76.2 you may write mapKey ё \\ (two "\" characters before a line feeding character) to map "ё" to "\".

Persian (Standard) layout

This layout was manually created on a Macbook Pro 2016.

mapKey ض q 
mapKey ص w 
mapKey ث e 
mapKey ق r 
mapKey ف t 
mapKey غ y 
mapKey ع u 
mapKey ه i 
mapKey خ o 
mapKey ح p 
mapKey ج [ 
mapKey چ ] 
mapKey ش a 
mapKey س s 
mapKey ی d 
mapKey ب f 
mapKey ل g 
mapKey ا h 
mapKey ت j 
mapKey ن k 
mapKey م l 
mapKey ک ; 
mapKey گ ' 
mapKey ظ z 
mapKey ط x 
mapKey ز c 
mapKey ر v 
mapKey ذ b 
mapKey د n 
mapKey پ m 
mapKey و , 
mapKey . . 
mapKey ْ Q 
mapKey ٌ W 
mapKey ٍ E 
mapKey ً R 
mapKey ُ T 
mapKey ِ Y 
mapKey َ U 
mapKey ّ I 
mapKey ] O 
mapKey [ P 
mapKey } { 
mapKey { } 
mapKey | | 
mapKey ؤ A 
mapKey ئ S 
mapKey ي D 
mapKey إ F 
mapKey أ G 
mapKey آ H 
mapKey ة J 
mapKey » K 
mapKey « L 
mapKey : : 
mapKey ؛ " 
mapKey ك Z 
mapKey ٓ X 
mapKey ژ C 
mapKey ٰ V 
mapKey ‌ B 
mapKey ٔ N 
mapKey ء M 
mapKey < < 
mapKey > > 
mapKey ؟ ? 
mapKey ٬ @ 
mapKey ٫ # 
mapKey ﷼ $ 
mapKey ٪ % 
mapKey × ^ 
mapKey ، & 
mapKey ) ( 
mapKey ( ) 
mapKey ـ _ 
mapKey ۱ 1 
mapKey ۲ 2 
mapKey ۳ 3 
mapKey ۴ 4 
mapKey ۵ 5 
mapKey ۶ 6 
mapKey ۷ 7 
mapKey ۸ 8 
mapKey ۹ 9 
mapKey ۰ 0

Greek Layout (new)

This has been manually created and tested on a qwerty linux laptop

mapKey ; q
mapKey ς w
mapKey ε e
mapKey ρ r
mapKey τ t
mapKey υ y
mapKey θ u
mapKey ι i
mapKey ο o
mapKey π p
mapKey α a
mapKey σ s
mapKey δ d
mapKey φ f
mapKey γ g
mapKey η h
mapKey ξ j
mapKey κ k
mapKey λ l
mapKey ´ ;
mapKey ¨ :
mapKey ζ z
mapKey χ x
mapKey ψ c
mapKey ω v
mapKey β b
mapKey ν n
mapKey μ m
Clone this wiki locally