I’ve been learning VIM recently and I’m really enjoying the efficiency of the keyboard shortcuts and commands. The navigation and editing features are amazing once you get used to them. Now I’m spending a lot of time writing documents in Google Docs for work and personal projects. I keep finding myself trying to use VIM commands out of habit, but obviously they don’t work in the browser. Has anyone found a solution to enable VIM-style navigation and editing within Google Docs? I’m looking for ways to bring that same workflow into my document editing. Any browser extensions, userscripts, or other methods would be helpful. I’d really like to avoid switching back and forth between different editing modes if possible.
hey, yeah vimium is ok for basic stuff, but it won’t cover all vim features. some peeps use Vim Vibe, which is kinda cool for editing too. just don’t expect it to be exactly the same as vim in a terminal!
I switched to Google Docs offline mode with Surfingkeys about six months ago. It’s a browser extension that gives you vim-style navigation, though you’ll need to configure it specifically for Google Docs. The modal editing works fine for basic stuff like deleting words and moving around lines. But complex vim commands and macros? They just don’t work well in web editors. For anything important, I draft in actual vim first, then copy it over to Google Docs for collaboration and formatting. Not perfect, but it keeps my muscle memory sharp while letting me work with teammates who love the Google ecosystem.
Vimium is your best bet. I’ve used it for about a year - it won’t give you full vim editing in Google Docs, but navigation works great. You can jump between links, scroll with j/k, and use hints to click stuff without the mouse. Problem is Google Docs has its own shortcuts that clash with vim extensions, so don’t expect miracles. For real text editing with vim motions, I just write in vim locally then paste into Google Docs. Way better than forcing vim commands into the web interface. Google Docs’ collaboration features make it worth the compromise, but I still keep vim open for serious writing.