word processor users when they try vim (me):
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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This is a problem for me on systems that only have nano installed. Gets me every time
I will legitimately go esc, :w, i on Google Docs to try and save the document...
Escape in some email clients cancels a new email. I had to retype many emails before email clients began auto-saving drafts.
The paiiiin! How many hours I lost because of this?
Spoiler
Probably less than I used to configure my neovim...
Explain pls for us vimless noobs
Direction navigation in vim is hjkl.
I know I'm just a vim-less heathen, but using letters for navigation in a text editor seems kind stupid when arrows exist.
No, you're 100% right. The only reason it's this way is this: https://pikuma.com/blog/origins-of-vim-text-editor
These literally were the arrow keys on the machine that vim was originally developed on.
Why the hell didn't they go with JIKL or something instead then, so the pattern at least resembles the direction it navigates?
Wasd was revolutionary at the time
This really just shows how fundamentally terrible product developers engineers are.
so your finges dont have to leave the home row. Its acually peak when you used hjkl for some time
You should boycott vim. That'll teach 'em.
Why would you move your hand to arrow keys when the letter are already under your fingers?
ESC, use-letter-to-navigate, i, type, ESC, navigate, i, type
Really simple. On my keyboard I re-mapped ESC to TAB so I don't even have to move my hand to switch between navigate and insert modes.
I have it instead of CapsLock, tab is too useful to forego.
But yes, arrow keys are too far, and I avoid them everytime I can, including in Shell
So you've transferred the required hand move from the right hand to the left, and added extra required keystrokes to accomplish the same task. I don't see how that isn't worse.
Instead of using the arrow keys most vi & him users navigate the cursor around the doc by using letter keys. I do it so subcociously now I am not sure which direction is the j when I use my phone.
I'm one of the noobs. You use letter keys to navigate around text?
Yes, (neo)vi(m) has different modes, in normal mode the characters are shortcuts, hjkl is used for navigation. However other methods are prefered, w, e, b - jumping words, f,t - jumping to a specific character etc. Its way faster. Also it can be combined d2w (d)eletes the next (2) (w)ord. Or more advanced di" (d)eletes the text (i)nside the "..."
Insert mode is what you except: it writes what you type. Can be accessed by i - (i)nsert before a - (a)append after. Going back to normal mode is ESC (or many configure tab)
Vim has several modes. INSERT mode let's you write text, NORMAL mode let's you navigate (with h,j,k,l and others) and perform operations on the text with your keyboard, like "dw" to Delete Word or "A" to enter insert mode at the end of the line.
You can use arrow keys to navigate in insert mode. However I just press escape, which changes to normal, navigate to where I want to, then change to insert mode.
I may seem like this makes simple navigation complex, and it kinda does. But complex navigation becomes easier.
Vi (and vim and neovim)'s primary concern is viewing and editing code, writing is secondary (although it's still an excellent experience)