Key Bindings for ash

August 31, 2022 · View on GitHub

The following is a list of default key bindings for ash. All of these can be remapped as per the user's preferences by creating new keymaps in the ~/.config/ash-editor/keymaps/ directory. The default keymap is stored in the file 'default.json'.

Global key combinations

These key combinations can be used even if no editor is currently active.

Key	Action
`Ctrl` + `Q`	Close the active window
`Ctrl` + `@`	Forcefully quit the application, discarding all changes
`Tab` or `Ctrl` + `I`	Switch focus to the next widget in the active dialog-box (if any)
`Shift` + `Tab`	Switch focus to the previous widget in the active dialog-box
`Ctrl` + `←` `↑` `→` `↓`	Move the active dialog-box around the screen
`Space`	Check/Uncheck a checkbox in focus
`Enter` or `Ctrl` + `W` or `Ctrl` + `J`	Save changes and close the current dialog box
`Alt` + `↓`	Open the top-level menu
`Alt` + `↑`	Close/hide the top-level menu
`Ctrl` + `L`	Show the list of active buffers/files
`Ctrl` + `T`	Show the list of active tabs
`Ctrl` + `N`	Open a new buffer for editing
`Ctrl` + `O`	Open a file
`Ctrl` + `E`	Open project explorer (if directory has been opened)
`F1`	Show Help
`F2`	Show the list of recently opened files
`F3`	Switch to previous editor
`F4`	Switch to next editor
`F5`	Switch to previous tab
`F6`	Switch to next tab
`F11`	Toggle fullscreen
`Ctrl` + `F1`	Shows/hides filenames in non-active editors
`Ctrl` + `F2`	Create a new tab
`Ctrl` + `F3`	Split horizontally
`Ctrl` + `F4`	Split vertically
`Ctrl` + `F5`	Merge horizontally
`Ctrl` + `F6`	Merge vertically
`Ctrl` + `F7`	Close the active tab
`Ctrl` + `F9`	Close all editors in the active-tab except the active-editor
`Esc` or `Ctrl` + `[`	Show the command window
`F12`	Search in all open files/buffers
`Ctrl` + `F12`	Search/Replace in all open files/buffers

Apart from the above, selection and cursor-movement using Shift and/or arrow / Home / End keys, as well as Cut / Copy / Paste (using Ctrl + X / C / V respectively) work in all text-fields (wherever they occur in dialog-boxes).

Editor commands

These key combinations work only if an editor is currently active.

Key	Action
`Alt` + `→` or Right-Click	Open popup menu
`←` `↑` `→` `↓`	Move the cursor in the document one character/line at a time
`Ctrl` + `←` `→`	Move the cursor one word at a time
`PgUp` `PgDown`	Move the cursor in the document one screenful at a time
`Home` `End`	Move the cursor to the beginning/end of the current line
`Ctrl` + `Home` `End`	Move the cursor to the beginning/end of the current document
`Tab`	Insert tab OR Increase the indent of the selection
`Shift` + `Tab`	Decrease the indent of the selection if possible
`Shift` + `Home` `End`	Select text up to the beginning/end of the current line
`Shift` + `←` `↑` `→` `↓`	Select text one character at a time
`Shift` + `PgUp` `PgDown`	Select one screenful at a time
`Ctrl` + `A`	Select all
`Ctrl` + `C`	Copy
`Ctrl` + `X`	Cut
`Ctrl` + `V`	Paste
`Backspace`	Delete the character/selected-text before the cursor
`Del`	Delete the selected-text or, character at the cursor position
`Ctrl` + `F2`	Convert all Uncode escape sequences (\uxxxx) to Unicode characters, and also sets file encoding to UTF-8
`Ctrl` + `S`	Save the current file/buffer
`Ctrl` + `W`	Save the current buffer/file and close the editor
`F9`	Save As...
`Ctrl` + `P`	Open the preferences dialog-box
`Ctrl` + `G`	Go to a given line/column
`Ctrl` + `Z`	Undo
`Ctrl` + `Y`	Redo
`Ctrl` + `F`	Find
`Ctrl` + `H`	Replace
`Ctrl` + `K`	Add a cursor below
`Ctrl` + `^`	Cancel multi-cursor mode

Besides the above, Ctrl + click and mouse-drag will select text, and mouse wheel will move the cursor 2 lines in either direction.

Commands for find and replace operations

These key combinations work when the Find/Replace dialog box is active:

Key	Action
`Enter` or `Ctrl` + `J`	Find next match
`F7`	Find previous match
`F8`	Replace the current match
`Ctrl` + `F8`	Replace all occurrences

Commands for Project Explorer

These key combinations work when the Project Explorer dialog-box is active:

Key	Action
`Ctrl` + `R`	Refresh file tree
`Ctrl` + `N`	Create a new file under the selected directory
`Ctrl` + `D`	Create a new directory under the selected directory
`F2`	Rename the selected file/directory
`Del`	Moves the selected file/directory to the trash
`+`	Collapse the current selected directory
`-`	Expand the current selected directory

Other features

ash also provides certain shortcuts for helping in editing code. It has support for auto-indentation when the previous line is indented. Also, pressing any of theese keys: ` ' " ( { [ while some text is selected, will cause ash to enclose the selected text within the pair of matching quotes/brackets.

All of these key bindings can be changed by editing the file ~/.config/ash-editor/keymaps/default.json.