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Friday, April 30, 2010

Screenshot tour: Vimium Chrome extension provides ultimate keyboard surfing

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Vimium

Vimium is an incredible Chrome add-on for keyboard-only Web navigation. Its basic shortcuts are modeled after those used in the ubergeek-oriented Vim text editor. The idea behind Vimium is that all of the most common actions (scrolling up and down, switching tabs, zooming) can be done using keys that are either on the home row of the keyboard, or otherwise very easy to reach (such as "zi" for Zoom In). Fortunately, they can be customized. That's one of the main things I like about it, since I use an alternative keyboard layout (Colemak). Once you get used to the shortcuts, you can do just about anything (navigate to links, find text, switch tabs, zoom in and out) without moving your fingers, much less reaching for the mouse.

Out of the box, Vimium is aimed at power-users. For example, you just need a single keystroke to close a tab - "d." Plus, if that's the only tab you've got open at the moment, hitting "d" will close Chrome entirely. There are no prompts. That can be disconcerting at first, but you'll get used to it very quickly (or unmap the keys).

I explored Vimium's interface quite a bit; join me after the jump for some heavy keyboard action (and a video from the Vimium guys).

Continue reading Screenshot tour: Vimium Chrome extension provides ultimate keyboard surfing

Screenshot tour: Vimium Chrome extension provides ultimate keyboard surfing originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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