Do you know you may open tabs, click on hyperlinks, scroll via pages, and even navigate menus in Chrome—all utilizing simply your keyboard? It’s attainable with a easy extension. It took me a little bit of time to get used to it, however now I browse Chrome like a professional with out ever touching the mouse or touchpad.

How precisely does Vimium work in Chrome?

Vimium is easy to make use of. As soon as put in, it assigns distinctive keyboard shortcuts or letter hints to each clickable factor on a webpage—like hyperlinks, buttons, and textual content fields. You possibly can then use the corresponding key or key mixture to hold out the specified motion. When you get acquainted with these shortcuts, you’ll be navigating easily very quickly.

That mentioned, the extension doesn’t work on pages just like the Chrome Net Retailer, the New Tab web page, or textual content editors—so don’t be shocked if it seems inactive in some locations. Additionally, Chrome could present some permission warnings whenever you set up Vimium. In actuality, it solely wants entry to load its JavaScript—nothing extra. Vimium doesn’t ship knowledge wherever or observe your exercise.

Vimium not running on the Google Web Store page.

You possibly can press ? anytime to open Vimium’s built-in assist menu—it exhibits an entire record of all out there shortcuts. It’s like a fast reference information proper inside your browser.

List of shortcuts supported by Vimium.

Likewise, you may press i to enter Insert Mode every time it’s essential to sort in a textual content field—Vimium will ignore shortcuts so you may sort freely. Hit Esc to exit and return to regular navigation.

Entering the Insert Mode of the Vimium extension in Google Chrome.

The shortcuts are case-sensitive, that means urgent g with Caps Lock off performs a distinct motion than G with Caps Lock on.

Open and navigate any webpage

When you’ve put in Vimium, navigating a webpage turns into easy. Press j to scroll down and ok to scroll up. To maneuver sideways, press h (left) or l (proper). Need to leap straight to the highest? Press gg. Want to succeed in the underside? Faucet G. On lengthy pages, urgent d easily scrolls down a web page, whereas u scrolls again up—eliminating the necessity for fixed guide scrolling.

If a web page is stuffed with hyperlinks, urgent f or F makes Vimium show small letter hints on each clickable factor—simply press the matching key(s) to open your goal hyperlink(s) immediately. Urgent F opens hyperlinks in the identical tab, whereas urgent f opens them in a brand new tab. To refresh the web page, press r, and to view the page’s source code, sort gs.

Vimium showing clickable elements to open links using a keyboard in Google Chrome.

Vimium additionally makes copying and sharing hyperlinks extremely fast. Need to share the web page you’re at present on? Simply press yy, and the URL is immediately copied to your clipboard. Want to repeat a particular hyperlink as an alternative? Press yf, then select the hyperlink utilizing the on-screen trace letters Vimium shows—no extra right-clicking required.

If a website has a number of sections or frames, press gf to modify focus between them. It’s good for transferring round complicated pages or apps with out ever touching your mouse.

Open pages, entry bookmarks, and search immediately

You don’t even want to the touch the deal with bar. Press o to convey up the “Fast Open” immediate—right here, you may sort a URL, a key phrase out of your historical past, or a bookmark title, and Vimium will immediately discover it. Press o to open a hyperlink in the identical tab, or O to open it in a brand new one. Likewise, b and B allow you to open bookmarks immediately, so there’s no have to dig via menus.

Searching for a recent page using the Quick Open Prompt of Vimium in Google Chrome.

When you’re studying a protracted article or technical doc, press / to search for a specific word or text phrase—identical to utilizing Ctrl+F in Chrome. Vimium highlights matches as you sort, and you may press n to leap to the subsequent end result or N to return. It’s a easy, no-mouse approach to navigate prolonged internet pages and paperwork.

Searching for a particular word in an article using Vimium in Google Chrome.

Handle tabs and navigate forwards and backwards

Vimium makes managing a number of tabs straightforward. Use J or gT to maneuver left via your tabs and Ok or gt to maneuver proper. To open a brand new tab, press t. Want to shut the present one? Hit x — and in case you shut it by chance, press X to immediately convey it again. You possibly can even search through all your open tabs with T, which is extremely helpful whenever you’ve received dozens open without delay.

Searching through the open tabs using the Vimium extension in Google Chrome.

It’s also possible to press g0 to immediately leap to the first tab in your Chrome window, or g$ to maneuver straight to the final tab—good for fast tab navigation with out touching your mouse.

It’s also possible to neglect about Chrome’s again and ahead buttons solely. Press H to return to the earlier web page or L to maneuver ahead once more. Need to open a number of new tabs without delay? Simply sort a quantity earlier than a command—as an illustration, 3t opens three new tabs. This repetition trick works elsewhere, too, like 3d to scroll down three half-pages without delay.

Superior navigation methods

On websites with “Subsequent” or “Earlier” buttons—corresponding to blogs, boards, or picture galleries—urgent ]] jumps ahead, whereas [[ takes you back. To focus on the first text field on a page (like a search bar), press gi. Want to move up one level in a website’s URL (for example, from example.com/blog/post to example.com/blog)? Just hit gu.

Moving one level up in a URL using the Vimium extension in Google Chrome.

If you ever need to open several links at once, press Alt+F (), and Vimium will instantly open all selected links in new tabs.


That’s how Vimium lets you control your browser right from the keyboard—no mouse required. To keep up with new updates or features, you can check its release notes on GitHub. And since it’s open source, you can inspect the source code to confirm it doesn’t track or share your data. Give it a try—you might be surprised at how much smoother your browsing becomes.


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