Hi All — Recent (like, tonight) convert from Freemind to Freeplane. Freemind was just too unstable and was crashing too often (OXS Yosemite) for me.
Request: Is there a way to redefine the “WASD” keys to be used instead of the arrow keys? I’ve set up Freeplane to be in a modal edit mode like VI via “On Key Type: Do Nothing” in preferences.
I just can’t find how to remap the arrow keys. Any hints?
BTW: This seems very stable, and I like the scripting add-ons, ease of remapping keys, and overall polish. Thanks, all!
-Mike
Last edit: Mike Petonic 2014-12-12
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Mike,
First, your question seems unusual. If editing a map, you need the WASD-keys to output their original characters, not being arrow-key functions. So I do not get if the thing you want is sensible.
A workaround using an addon might be:
1. define 4 scripts, each script calling one of the arrow key functions taken from the Navigation menu.
2. in the addon definition, set a hot key for each script. You could set <ALT>A for e.g. the left arrow script etc.
Now if you hit the hot key the associated arrow function will be performed. If you do not hit <ALT> the original character will be entered.
Regards Jodi
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Ahh, thanks for the help, Volker. I see that someone else has run into the same desires.
Since Freeplane doesn't seem to support single letter key bindings, I think it may just be easier for me to revert to my Emacs habits (Ctr-N, Ctrl-P, Ctrl-f, Ctrl-b). That was almost 18 years ago for me, LOL. But, since I'm using OSX and those bindings are relevant, it may be useful to do a mind hack instead of an auto.properties hack.
@Jokro: Freemind supports this "modal editing". If you have “On Key Type: Do Nothing”, then it's in movement mode, and the letter keys only type letters if you're in Insert mode.
@Dimitriy: First, thanks a ton for helping drive this project. Freeplane seems to be a lot more stable than Freemind, and equally as important, it seems to have active development associated with it. I'm a mindmapper from way back (2001 or so).
I know about the “On Key Type: Do Nothing”, but the challenge I'm having is mapping the equivalent of the left arrow key to "A". I can't seem to get the action for "A" and feel as if writing a script to emulate the behavior of something that is already in the Freeplane program to be a little wonky. Sure there's overhead of the script, but from reading the old discussion post referenced by Volker, it appears that the actions aren't quite equivalent.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi All — Recent (like, tonight) convert from Freemind to Freeplane. Freemind was just too unstable and was crashing too often (OXS Yosemite) for me.
Request: Is there a way to redefine the “WASD” keys to be used instead of the arrow keys? I’ve set up Freeplane to be in a modal edit mode like VI via “On Key Type: Do Nothing” in preferences.
I just can’t find how to remap the arrow keys. Any hints?
BTW: This seems very stable, and I like the scripting add-ons, ease of remapping keys, and overall polish. Thanks, all!
-Mike
Last edit: Mike Petonic 2014-12-12
Select Tools->Preferences->Behaviour->Behaviour->On Key Type -> Do nothing
After that you can assign all characters to menu items.
Regards,
Dimitry
Just to add some color to the discussion, I've already tried to add the string:
to the auto.properties file of ~/.freeplane/1.3.x
I snarfed that line from my ~/.freemind/auto.properties file, but it doesn't seem to work the same way.
Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.
Mike,
First, your question seems unusual. If editing a map, you need the WASD-keys to output their original characters, not being arrow-key functions. So I do not get if the thing you want is sensible.
A workaround using an addon might be:
1. define 4 scripts, each script calling one of the arrow key functions taken from the Navigation menu.
2. in the addon definition, set a hot key for each script. You could set <ALT>A for e.g. the left arrow script etc.
Now if you hit the hot key the associated arrow function will be performed. If you do not hit <ALT> the original character will be entered.
Regards Jodi
This old forum thread about one letter keybindings may be interesting in this context.
Volker
Ahh, thanks for the help, Volker. I see that someone else has run into the same desires.
Since Freeplane doesn't seem to support single letter key bindings, I think it may just be easier for me to revert to my Emacs habits (Ctr-N, Ctrl-P, Ctrl-f, Ctrl-b). That was almost 18 years ago for me, LOL. But, since I'm using OSX and those bindings are relevant, it may be useful to do a mind hack instead of an auto.properties hack.
@Jokro: Freemind supports this "modal editing". If you have “On Key Type: Do Nothing”, then it's in movement mode, and the letter keys only type letters if you're in Insert mode.
@Dimitriy: First, thanks a ton for helping drive this project. Freeplane seems to be a lot more stable than Freemind, and equally as important, it seems to have active development associated with it. I'm a mindmapper from way back (2001 or so).
I know about the “On Key Type: Do Nothing”, but the challenge I'm having is mapping the equivalent of the left arrow key to "A". I can't seem to get the action for "A" and feel as if writing a script to emulate the behavior of something that is already in the Freeplane program to be a little wonky. Sure there's overhead of the script, but from reading the old discussion post referenced by Volker, it appears that the actions aren't quite equivalent.