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375

answers:

4

I'm sitting here feeling silly - the vim help tells me to hit CTRL] (to follow links in the help) and I can't get it!? Same problem with ^Wc (close a split window)

I have a German keyboard and especially the CTRL] doesn't seem to work for me.

How do I do them?

Thanks for the help so far, seems to work except the CTRL]! Any idea how I can make it work?

+1  A: 

Hmm on an english keyboard you just hold the control key down and press the ] key. ^Wc would just be; hold down the control key and W then press c.

I assume the issue you're having is that the control key, or the ] key is not easy on the german keyboard?

John Weldon
Your description of ^Wc is inaccurate; see Paul's answer.
ephemient
Thanks, updated..
John Weldon
The control key is not a problem (german layouts have it, it's usually labeld "Strg", but it's exactly the same). The problem is that "]" is typed by using Alt+8 and hasn't got a dedicated key.
Joachim Sauer
+4  A: 

First off, in this type of Help file, the ^ symbol indicates that you need to hit Ctrl with the key. ^Wc means to hit Ctrl+W, then c after releasing ^W. It looks like you might need to use Ctrl+AltGr+9 to get Ctrl+].

Secondly, Ctrl ("Control") should be equivalent to the Strg ("Steering"?) key on your German keyboard.

(Keyboard equivalents, for your reference. I imagine you can set up Vim to be friendlier to a German keyboard, but that exceeds my knowledge and Google-fu.)

Paul Fisher
Other equivalents: Esc (escape) == ^[, and M-x == "Escape, then x" == "Hold down Meta (usually Alt) and press x". Sometimes "C-x" is written instead of "^X". Though OP didn't ask for them, it still might be useful to know in the future...
ephemient
As far as I know "Strg" = "Steuerung" in German (which pretty much translates to "Control" or "Steering")
Joachim Sauer
I wouldn't re-map the controls to be friendlier to the German layout, simply because this would reduce your productivity on everything that's *not* set up that way.
Joachim Sauer
Although I basically like how this site is put up, these "key" things are just terrible. Make reading the post almost impossible.
ldigas
+1  A: 

I think I found out myself. If I "pretend" to have an english keyboard and just click Ctr-+ (Ctr-"plus symbol") it seems to work. (to the left of "ü").

This is where the ] Symbol is on the English keyboard.

Make me wonder what else is mapped likethis? Anybody an idea?

Johannes
+1  A: 

I have a Croatian keyboard and pretty much the same problems (due to the fact that I don't have, for example "]" on it). Have you thought about remapping those keys to something which you could use instead of Ctrl-] key.

For example, plain enter works nicely for me.

To do that, you just go to your "/vimfiles/ftplugin/" directory, and create a file called help.vim (if you're interested in using that key combination only in HELP kind of files). In it, type

nmap <buffer> <Enter> <C-]>
"for just following the link
nmap <buffer> <C-Enter> <C-w><C-]><C-w>T
"for following the help topic in a new split (often useful)
ldigas