Disable F1 built-in help key

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Tip 1007 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2005 · complexity basic · author Max Ischenko · version 5.7

It can be really annoying when you keep hitting the F1 key accidentally, and the Help screen pops up. Here is a solution:

:nmap <F1> :echo<CR>
:imap <F1> <C-o>:echo<CR>

You can't just ":unmap <F1>" because Vim would complain that no such mapping exists.

You could still access the help system via :help command or the gvim menu.

Comments[]

This maps F1 to 'no operation' (do nothing):

:nmap <F1> <nop>

and this maps F1 to Escape:

map <F1> <Esc>
imap <F1> <Esc>

I use the following. Now both F1 and Esc get me out of insert mode, but I can still use F1 to start (and quit) help in other modes.

inoremap <F1> <Esc>
noremap <F1> :call MapF1()<CR>

function! MapF1()
  if &buftype == "help"
    exec 'quit'
  else
    exec 'help'
  endif
endfunction

Excellent idea. As I mostly call help on a specific topic, I propose a definition going even further:

function SophHelp()
  if &buftype=="help" && match( strpart( getline("."), col(".")-1,1), "\\S")<0
    bw
  else
    try
      exec "help ".expand("<cWORD>")
    catch /:E149:\|:E661:/
      " E149 no help for <subject>
      " E661 no <language> help for <subject>
      exec "help ".expand("<cword>")
    endtry
  endif
endfunc
nnoremap <silent> <F1> :call SophHelp()<CR>
imap <F1> <Esc><F1>

F1 is really annoying but sadly nothing of all these worked for me. I use ubuntu and still when I press F1 it brings up the GNOME terminal manual window!!! Any thoughts?

If it brings up Gnome help and not Vim help, it means your Gnome window manager snatches it before Vim has a chance to see it. The solution, if any, is somewhere in your Gnome (and/or WM and/or Compiz and/or ...) settings. — Tonymec 17:37, April 9, 2010 (UTC)

Ok Τonymec thank you very much. Finally what I did to fix it is the following. First of all with xev utility I found out that the keycode of F1 is 67. Then I issued the command xmodmap -e "keycode 67 = Escape". That was it. F1 behaves like Escape now

I disable the help shortcut in the gnome terminal preferences Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Help — dcb Feb 17 2011

nnoremap <F1> <Esc>g<C-G>

Disable F1 built-in help key

Comments[]

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