Keyboard settings 2.0

Settings › Keyboard is where the key map lives. Since 2.0 it is a table you edit — pick a command, record a key, limit it to some sites — and the script is still there underneath for anyone who would rather write it.

Three modes

Three keys are outside all three modes: Esc (Normal mode), ↩ (open the selected link) and ⌫ (delete a label letter) are bound by the system map first and are not in the table.

The shortcut table

Commands are grouped: Scrolling, Links, Link Mode, Tabs, Navigation, View & Media, Search & AI. Each row is one command with its key caps; a command may have several rows (Half Page Down has d and Space). Rows with an exclusion show the sites it is off on. Right-click (or swipe on iOS) to edit or delete.

Link Mode is its own group because its keys only apply after f: Next Link, Previous Link, Open Selected Link, Open Selected Link in a New Tab. They may share a key with a Normal-mode shortcut without conflicting — the modes never see the same key press.

Restore Shortcuts to Default throws the table away and seeds it again.

Adding and editing a shortcut

1. Add Shortcut at the top of the table, or Edit on a row, opens the sheet.
2. Command — a grouped list of every command (below), with search.
3. Keyboard Shortcut — type the chord the way the script spells it (g g, ctrl+f, shift+slash), or press Record and press the keys on a hardware keyboard; two keys pressed in a row become a sequence. The preview shows the key caps as the cheat sheet will.
4. Exclude on URLs — one URL prefix per line. The shortcut does nothing on pages that start with it. This is how Space scrolls everywhere except YouTube and Netflix watch pages, where it plays and pauses.
5. Done. The table re-sorts into its groups and the script is regenerated and saved; open tabs pick it up on their next load.

Keys on a site, not everywhere. A key that should exist on one website only — "open the inbox" on Gmail — belongs in that website's settings, not here. Press gk on the page and click the element, or let the AI suggest the keys.

Conflicts

A row turns orange when it collides with another in the same mode: the same key twice, or a key that is also the start of a sequence (g next to gg — the single key would never fire). Saving is still allowed; the later binding wins, as in the script. A Normal-mode key and a Link-mode key never conflict.

The settings script

Custom mode writes this file; Script mode lets you edit it. It is JavaScript with one call that matters:

// settings.map(keys, command [, { excludes: [urlPrefix, …] }])
settings.map('j', VLCommand.SCROLL_DOWN);
settings.map('g g', VLCommand.SCROLL_TO_TOP);
settings.map('shift+f', VLCommand.ACTIVATE_LINK_WITH_NEW_TAB);
settings.map('space', VLCommand.HALF_PAGE_DOWN,
             { excludes: ['https://www.youtube.com/watch', 'https://www.netflix.com/watch/'] });

Key grammar

• One chord is optional modifiers then one key: ctrl+, shift+, command+, alt+ — then a letter, a digit, or a named key: slash, period, comma, semicolon, quote, backquote, bracketleft, bracketright, backslash, minus, equal, space, tab, enter.
• A sequence is chords separated by spaces: 'g shift+t'.
• A shifted symbol may be written as itself: '?' is 'shift+slash', ':' is 'shift+semicolon'.
• Keys are matched by the character the layout produces. Ignore Keyboard Layout (Settings › Advanced) matches by physical key instead, so a Korean or Dvorak layout still gets j where QWERTY has it.

In Custom and Script modes the shipped map is not loaded underneath — what the script maps is the whole key map. Deleting a row is enough to unbind a key.

Every command

The VLCommand names the table and the script use.

DARK_MODE, MARK_TAB, OPEN_MARK_TAB, MOVE_TAB_TO_LEFT, SHOW_AI_BAR and the Open-Link-At-Pointer commands have no default key; bind one if you want them.

Related settings

Next: AI assistant →