PDF Tools: apvlv is a lightweight PDF viewer with VIM key bindings.Adobe Reader, Proprietary, freeware, Adobes PDF reader. DeskPDF, Standalone, Available for both client and terminal servers. Is there a PDF reader on Mac supports key shortcut pattern like VIM? Update Cancel. What is a good free PDF reader and editor for Mac? What is a list of the shortcut keys of the Mac OS? Are there any tabbed pdf-djvu readers on Mac OS X?

1. Pdf Reader With Vim Key Bindings For Mac Os X
2. Pdf Reader With Vim Keybindings For Mac Os X 10.4.11

Adobe Acrobat Reader is currently one of the good PDF readers available on the Linux platform.xpdf and Evince do their job well, but Acrobat's display seems to be better.

I am used to the Vim editor and I want Vim navigation features (using h,j,k, and l to move around) in Adobe Reader. How do I do that?

I know Evince offers that kind of navigation.

7 Answers

I have set vim like navigation in Adobe Reader using AutoHotKey. You need to configure key mapping to be active only when Adobe Reader is the current active window so that this key binding does not affect other applications. The following modified AutoHotKey.ahk script does that

Pdf Reader With Vim Key Bindings For Mac Os X

The ahk_class name can be determined by running AutoIt3 Window Spy.

The only drawback is during Search/Find operation in Adobe Reader. If your search text contains h/j/k/l it will be interpreted as arrow keys. You can overcome this limitation by suspending the autokey or by clicking Pause Script from the taskbar notification area.Better approach to overcome this limitation is using uppercase letters( HJKL ). Since adobe searches case insensitive, you search will cover hjkl letters too. for instance taKe matches with take

As far as I know, this isn't possible. There is a project under way to create a pdf viewer that has a vim-like interface, but although the development seems to be quite active, it has a way to go yet. If that's of any interest, you can find it here (versions are available for Linux and Windows, although the development is focused on Windows):

On April 30, 2012, Barnes & Noble entered into a partnership with Microsoft that spun off the Nook and college businesses into a subsidiary.

Otherwise, I think you're stuck with evince or using the cursor keys.

This AutoHotKey script I wrote supports hjkl, gg, G, C-e, C-y, C-f, and C-b, along with /, n, and N for searching. Pressing / takes you into search mode, and Esc, Enter, and Ctrl-[ will put you back in normal mode. If things aren't working like they should, try pressing Escape to get back into normal mode.

Please leave short bug reports or suggestions in the comments!

There are some known issues with holding down the Ctrl movement commands for long periods that have to do with AutoHotKey not being able to translate the input fast enough, but the non Ctrl movement commands shouldn't have this problem.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Linux or Mac OS X to be able to provide solutions for them as well. If anyone manages to port this to other operating systems, please either add your own answer or suggest an edit to this one with instructions. :)

Gordon GustafsonGordon Gustafson

I'm not sure if that is possible.

But you should try Zathura, which works very well and tries to mimic vim - it even has a command line mode, triggered by :.

In Linux, there is an alternative to AutoHotkey which is called AutoKey, and here is my solution:

(I just made it under Ubuntu 14.04 with AutoKey although it hasn't been updated for a long time)

• Install Autokey first. Download it at https://code.google.com/p/autokey/downloads/list, extract it and follow README to compile and install it (I chose Qt version)
• run autokey, either from Launcher, or run it in terminal at /usr/bin/autokey-qt
• to use j to move down, just
  • create a new phrase
  • name it mendeley - up or whatever meaningful
  • in the phrase box (the large text box – which is actually an editor !) , type <up>
  • assign j as Hotkey using Set button
  • set Window Filter by clicking the last Set button
  • Save and test it in your favorate PDF viewer (mine is Mendeley because it supports highlighting and annotation)
• and I also made k to move up, space to page down, and shift + space to page up.

Ref:

• Autokey Offcial Site

Sounds like a job for IronAHK!

I know basic hotkey functionality like this works, but some of the more complex commands are not yet supported by IronAHK.

John TJohn T

Meh, this question is one year old, I'll give it a try nevertheless.

Slightly off topic, because I don't know how to do it in acroread, but you might want to try Apvlv:

'Apvlv is a PDF/DJVU/UMD Viewer Under Linux/WIN32 and its behaviour [is] like Vim.'

If you're willing to leave acroread, this pdf-reader will give you lots of vim-love.

Apvlv is based on libpoppler (same back-end as evince and now also xpdf), so you might encounter the same display issues that you mentioned. But it certainly fires up more quickly than acroread, which is the slowest in the industry! Good luck.

Disclaimer: I once wrote a piece of documentation for this project.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged vimadobe-reader or ask your own question.

I'm learning Vim and with it came the urge to use 'hjkl' and friends on every other program, including mouse operated programs like browsers.

How can I use these keyboard shortcuts, or something similar?

I'm using Linux.

Ton van den HeuvelLiran OreviLiran Orevi

closed as off-topic by Paul Roub, tripleee, Zoe, gre_gor, Stephen KennedyJun 6 '18 at 17:25

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:

• 'Questions about general computing hardware and software are off-topic for Stack Overflow unless they directly involve tools used primarily for programming. You may be able to get help on Super User.' – tripleee, gre_gor, Stephen Kennedy

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25 Answers

Off the top of my head..

• Vimperator for Firefox.
• Awesome, WMII, Xmonad or ion3 window manager.
• Evince supports hjkl.
• vifm filemanager
• there are vi keybindings for readline, which enables them for many terminal apps
• xzgv image viewer

Gmail and several of the other Google apps natively support Vi-like motions.

Also, you might want to try Vimperator and, most definitely, Nethack!

Give scrotwm a try. It's a tiling window manager with vim-like bindings by default, written by coders who use vim!

Pdf voice reader for windows. Part 2: Top 5 PDF Audio Reader for Mac #1: Text2Speech. Text2Speech is a PDF Audio Reader that can be used with Mac. It is downloadable from the (Apple) App Store and for additional features you can purchase or upgrade your version into the paid version Text2Speech Pro.

And vimperator for Firefox makes my life much, much easier.

For Bourne-like shells (ksh, bash, ..) try set -o vi to make your command line use vi keys.

dwcdwc

File manager with vi movement key-bindings and much more: ranger.

plesivplesiv

Zathura is a nice and small pdf reader and with built-in vim-like commands. It feels like you opened your pdf document in vim. (e.g.: the ':' button brings up the same prompt.)

CrooCroo

Others:

• ViEmu: plugin for Visual Studio, Word, Outlook, SQL Server
• KomodoEdit: developer's editor
• AbiWord: word processor
• Editra: developer's editor
• VimPlugin: plug Vim into Eclipse. I couldn't get it working under Windows or Mac OS X.
• Eclim: another Vim plugin for Eclipse.
• Viper: Old Vi emulator for Emacs
• Evil: Recent Vim emulator for Emacs
• IdeaVim: Vim emulator for the IntelliJ family of editors, RubyMine, PyCharm, etc.

George V. ReillyGeorge V. Reilly

If you use Eclipse, then viPlugin is the best vi-like editor for it.

I always stick the following two lines in my /etc/inputrc (or ~/.inputrc if I don't have root access):

EvanEvan

Viper works, but if you're used to Vim, it is lacking a lot of keybindings that will end up messing you up. Theres also jvi for Netbeans, which I find more complete than the Eclipse plugins. Kate also recently added Vi-emulation mode

I also consider xmonad, to be superior to Awesome, Ion etc.

Charles RoperCharles Ropersouser12345souser12345

Lightweight (30k zpi) FimFx for Firefox - does less than Vimperator, but for a good reason.

ak.ak.

Check out:

• dwb — a web browser
• ranger — a terminal-based file manager
• Zathura — a PDF viewer
• Vimium — a vim keybindings extension for Chrome(ium)
• Evil — the (in)famous Emacs plugin that turns Emacs into Vim, if you ever feel the need to do that
• i3, xmonad, dwm — tiling window managers that are controlled from the keyboard

ZazZazPonyEarsPonyEars

You can use xmodmap to make win+hjkl to work as arrow keys.
Make a file named Xmodmap. Add the following content:

Load it using xmodmap Xmodmap
Note: Run xev to find out keycode for win key. 133 is just an example.

Chad Ferguson

Pdf Reader With Vim Keybindings For Mac Os X 10.4.11

Qutebrowser hasn't been mentioned, which is much better than the plugins.

I used Ion as a window manager on Linux for a while. It uses keybindings similar to Vim to move between windows, if I recall correctly. It won't make your apps support hjkl movement, but the window manager is a place to start.

Dan OlsonDan Olson

Apart from the already mentioned, you could also bind those keys to left.. nd so on (with ahk). I've also noticed that several web apps use that movement keys (gmail, greader, ..)

RookRook

Try keynav, for controlling the mouse pointer using your keyboard.

Naga KiranNaga Kiran

If you use mpd for listening to music, then I strongly recommend PIM

ivotronivotron

Google Reader respects jk keybindings. I'm sure there are more that they support - feel free to edit my answer.

Jeffrey JoseJeffrey Jose

Shortcut Manager extension for chrome.

You can use something like this to configure basic vim movement keys:

Other useful snippets:

PonyEarsPonyEars

Mutt - mail client - can be configured to move hjkl, i configure some more vim keys. take some time to configure as it's a bit different from other mail clients. Mutt is not Muttator, is a terminal GUI application.

cVim for chrome is awesome. I am currently using it.https://github.com/1995eaton/chromium-vim

Luja ShresthaLuja Shrestha

(my answer to that question is an AutoHotKey script that will even get you proper search functionality with /, n, and N, but admittedly I haven't verified a port to Linux or Mac yet)

Gordon GustafsonGordon Gustafson

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