VNote Shortcuts

1. All the keys without special notice are case insensitive;
2. On macOS, Ctrl corresponds to Command except in Vim mode.

Normal Shortcuts

• Ctrl+E E
  Toggle expanding the edit area.
• Ctrl+Alt+N
  Create a note in current folder.
• Ctrl+F
  Find/Replace in current note.
• Ctrl+Q
  Quit VNote.
• Ctrl+J/Ctrl+K
  VNote supports Ctrl+J and Ctrl+K for navigation in the notebooks list, directories list, notes list, opened notes list, and outline list.
• Ctrl+Left Mouse
  Scroll in all directions.
• Ctrl+Shift+T
  Recover last closed file.
• Ctrl+Alt+L
  Open Flash Page.

Read Mode

• Ctrl+W
  Edit current note.
• H/J/K/L
  Navigation, corresponding to Left/Down/Up/Right arrow keys.
• Ctrl+U
  Scroll up half screen.
• Ctrl+D
  Scroll down half screen.
• gg/G
  Jump to the beginning or end of the note. (Case Sensitive).
• Ctrl + +/-
  Zoom in/out the page.
• Ctrl+Wheel
  Zoom in/out the page through the mouse scroll.
• Ctrl+0
  Recover the page zoom factor to 100%.
• Jump between titles
  • <N>[[: jump to previous N title;
  • <N>]]: jump to next N title;
  • <N>[]: jump to previous N title at the same level;
  • <N>][: jump to next N title at the same level;
  • <N>[{: jump to previous N title at a higher level;
  • <N>]}: jump to next N title at a higher level;
• / or ? to search forward or backward
  • N: find next match;
  • Shift+N: find previous match;
• : for Vim command
  • :q: close current note;
  • :noh[lsearch]: clear search highlights;

Edit Mode

• Ctrl+S
  Save current changes.
• Ctrl+T
  Save current changes and exit edit mode.
• Ctrl + +/-
  Zoom in/out the page.
• Ctrl+Wheel
  Zoom in/out the page through the mouse scroll.
• Ctrl+0
  Recover the page zoom factor to 100%.

Text Editing

• Ctrl+B
  Insert bold. Press Ctrl+B again to exit. Current selected text will be changed to bold if exists.
• Ctrl+I
  Insert italic. Press Ctrl+I again to exit. Current selected text will be changed to italic if exists.
• Ctrl+D
  Insert strikethrought. Press Ctrl+D again to exit. Current selected text will be changed to strikethrough if exists.
• Ctrl+K
  Insert inline code. Press Ctrl+K again to exit. Current selected text will be changed to inline code if exists.
• Ctrl+M
  Insert fenced code block. Press Ctrl+M again to exit. Current selected text will be wrapped into a code block if exists.
• Ctrl+L
  Insert link.
• Ctrl+'
  Insert image.
• Ctrl+H
  Backspace. Delete a character backward.
• Ctrl+W
  Delete all the characters from current cursor to the first space backward.
• Ctrl+U
  Delete all the characters from current cursor to the beginning of current line.
• Ctrl+<Num>
  Insert title at level <Num>. <Num> should be 1 to 6. Current selected text will be changed to title if exists.
• Ctrl+7
  Delete the title mark of current line or selected text.
• Tab/Shift+Tab
  Increase or decrease the indentation. If any text is selected, the indentation will operate on all these selected lines.
• Shift+Enter
  Insert two spaces followed by a new line, namely a soft linebreak in Markdown.
• Shift+Left, Shift+Right, Shift+Up, Shift+Down
  Expand the selection one character left or right, or one line up or down.
• Ctrl+Shift+Left, Ctrl+Shift+Right
  Expand the selection to the beginning or end of current word.
• Ctrl+Shift+Up, Ctrl+Sfhit+Down
  Expand the selection to the beginning or end of current paragraph.
• Shift+Home, Shift+End
  Expand the selection to the beginning or end of current line.
• Ctrl+Shift+Home, Ctrl+Shift+End
  Expand the selection to the beginning or end of current note.

Custom Shortcuts

VNote supports customing some standard shortcuts, though it is not recommended. VNote stores shortcuts' configuration information in the [shortcuts] and [captain_mode_shortcuts] sections of user configuration file vnote.ini.

For example, the default configruation may look like this:

[shortcuts]
; Define shortcuts here, with each item in the form "operation=keysequence".
; Leave keysequence empty to disable the shortcut of an operation.
; Custom shortcuts may conflict with some key bindings in edit mode or Vim mode.
; Ctrl+Q is reserved for quitting VNote.

; Leader key of Captain mode
CaptainMode=Ctrl+E
; Create a note in current folder
NewNote=Ctrl+Alt+N
; Save current note
SaveNote=Ctrl+S
; Save changes and enter read mode
SaveAndRead=Ctrl+T
; Edit current note
EditNote=Ctrl+W
; Close current note
CloseNote=
; Open file/replace dialog
Find=Ctrl+F
; Find next occurence
FindNext=F3
; Find previous occurence
FindPrevious=Shift+F3

[captain_mode_shortcuts]
; Define shortcuts in Captain mode here.
; There shortcuts are the sub-sequence after the CaptainMode key sequence
; in [shortcuts].

; Enter Navigation mode
NavigationMode=W
; Show attachment list of current note
AttachmentList=A
; Locate to the folder of current note
LocateCurrentFile=D
; Toggle Expand mode
ExpandMode=E
; Alternate one/two panels view
OnePanelView=P
; Discard changes and enter read mode
DiscardAndRead=Q
; Toggle Tools dock widget
ToolsDock=T
; Close current note
CloseNote=X
; Show shortcuts help document
ShortcutsHelp=?
; Flush the log file
FlushLogFile=";"
; Show opened files list
OpenedFileList=F
; Activate the ith tab
ActivateTab1=1
ActivateTab2=2
ActivateTab3=3
ActivateTab4=4
ActivateTab5=5
ActivateTab6=6
ActivateTab7=7
ActivateTab8=8
ActivateTab9=9
; Alternate between current and last tab
AlternateTab=0
; Activate next tab
ActivateNextTab=J
; Activate previous tab
ActivatePreviousTab=K
; Activate the window split on the left
ActivateSplitLeft=H
; Activate the window split on the right
ActivateSplitRight=L
; Move current tab one split left
MoveTabSplitLeft=Shift+H
; Move current tab one split right
MoveTabSplitRight=Shift+L
; Create a vertical split
VerticalSplit=V
; Remove current split
RemoveSplit=R

Each item is in the form operation=keysequence, with keysequence empty to disable shortcuts for that operation.

Pay attention that Ctrl+Q is reserved for quitting VNote.

Captain Mode

To efficiently utilize the shortcuts, VNote supports the Captain Mode.

Press the leader key Ctrl+E, then VNote will enter the Captain Mode, within which VNote supports more efficient shortcuts.

• E
  Toggle expanding the edit area.
• P
  Toggle single panel or two panels mode.
• T
  Toggle the Tools panel.
• F
  Popup the opened notes list of current split window. Within this list, pressing the sequence number in front of each note could jump to that note.
• A
  Popup the attachments list of current note.
• X
  Close current tab.
• J
  Jump to next tab.
• K
  Jump to last tab.
• 1 - 9
  Number key 1 to 9 will jump to the tabs with corresponding sequence number.
• 0
  Jump to previous tab. Alternate between current and previous tab.
• D
  Locate to the folder of current note.
• Q
  Discard current changes and exit edit mode.
• V
  Vertically split current window.
• R
  Remove current split window.
• H
  Jump to the first split window on the left.
• L
  Jump to the first split window on the right.
• Shift+H
  Move current tab one split window left.
• Shift+L
  Move current tab one split window right.
• M
  Evaluate current cursor word or selected text as magic words.
• S
  Apply a snippet in edit mode.
• ?
  Display shortcuts documentation.

Navigation Mode

Within the Captain Mode, W will turn VNote into Navigation Mode. In this mode, VNote will display at most two characters on some major widgets, and then pressing corresponding characters will jump to that widget.

Vim Mode

VNote supports a simple but useful Vim mode, including Normal, Insert, Visual, and VisualLine modes.

VNote supports following features of Vim:

• r, s, S, i, I, a, A, c, C, o, and O;
• Actions d, c, y, p, <, >, gu, gU, J, gJ, and ~;
• Movements h/j/k/l, gj/gk/g0, Ctrl+U, Ctrl+D, gg, G, 0, ^, {, }, and $;
• Marks a-z;
• Registers ", _, +, a-z(A-Z);
• Jump locations list (Ctrl+O and Ctrl+I);
• Leader key (Space)
  • Currently <leader>y/d/p equals to "+y/d/p, which will access the system's clipboard;
  • <leader><Space> to clear search highlight;
  • <leader>w to save note;
• zz, zb, zt;
• u and Ctrl+R for undo and redo;
• Text objects i/a: word, WORD, '', "", ` `, (), [], <>, and {};
• Command line :w, :wq, :x, :q, :q!, and :noh[lsearch];
• Jump between titles
  • [[: jump to previous title;
  • ]]: jump to next title;
  • []: jump to previous title at the same level;
  • ][: jump to next title at the same level;
  • [{: jump to previous title at a higher level;
  • ]}: jump to next title at a higher level;
• / and ? to search
  • n and N to find next or previous occurence;
  • Ctrl+N and Ctrl+P to navigate through the search history;
• Ctrl+R to read the content of a register;
• Ctrl+O in Insert mode to enter Normal mode temporarily;

For now, VNote does NOT support the macro and repeat(.) features of Vim.

Enjoy Vim in VNote!