What is Better Ctrl-W?
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Better Ctrl-W
Vim users are used to using the Ctrl-w
key combination for deleting the last
word when in insert mode. That's no problem for Mac OS users when using
chrome, as the keyboard shortcut for closing a tab is Cmd+w. This is a problem
when using the browser on either Linux or Windows machines, as Ctrl-w
is the
shortcut for closing a window. So, when editing a text, a Vim user might
accidentally close the current tab by issuing a Ctrl-w
command, sometimes losing
important text that was being edited.
That annoyance motivated people to discuss solutions on [a StackOverflow thread][1],
in which user [samson
][2] commented he created [a Chrome extension][3] precisely to:
- Assign
Ctrl-w
to an extension shortcut that does absolutely nothing - Assign a hotkey to close the current tab (I like to use
Alt-w
to mimic Mac OS'sCmd+w
)
User reviews
- Works perfectly for browser-based terminal applications
- Great for users who play browser games
- Helps prevent accidental tab closures while switching between terminal and Chrome
- Easy to configure once usage instructions are found
- Allows closing tabs using keybindings on different keyboard layouts
- Does not work automatically after installation without configuration
- Changes to keybindings cannot be undone
- Disables Ctrl-W even outside of Chrome
- Incompatible with Chrome 105.x
- Requires configuration after installation
- Irreversible changes to keybindings
- Disables Ctrl-W outside of Chrome
Recent reviews
Extension safety
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Better Ctrl-W does not require any sensitive permissions.
Risk likelihood
Better Ctrl-W has earned a good reputation and can be trusted.
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