This add-on allows you to edit text from any "textarea" on a Web page in an external editor. Once it's installed, you can configure the extension to use whatever your favorite editor happens to be. In my case Vim (GVIM, in this case), but you could also use Gedit, Kate, or any other editor that you prefer.

When you're browsing, you'll see a tiny blue button on the corner of textareas on any Web page. Doesn't matter how large or small. Just click that and it'll launch the external editor and you can type away. Whenever you save or close the document, it'll be pasted directly into the text area on the Web page.

As an added bonus, if Firefox crashes (which never happens, of course) the text is saved in the external editor. All you have to do is restart Firefox and paste the text in.

Unfortunately, it only works with textareas on a page. So if you're using Google Docs or a JavaScript-based WYSIWYG editor (like you'll find in WordPress) then the add-on doesn't work with that area. In the case of WordPress, though, if you switch to the HTML editor you'll be able to use It's All Text! just fine.

I firmly believe that all applications should use vi-like keybindings. Until that happens, though, I have to content myself with writing most of my text in Vim and then pasting into other applications when appropriate. At least with "It's All Text!" I can get around that when using Firefox!

                          

line 1
 line 2
  line 3
   line 4

Obviously, this isn't usually desirable.

To correct this, you can enable paste to prevent the staircase effect. In command mode, type:

:set paste

This isn't on by default. When paste is enabled, it disables mapping and some other functions, so you probably want to know how to turn it off as well:

:set nopaste

Happy vimming!

                          

If you've been following this series so far, you know how to move around in Vim, setting up mappings and abbreviations, and configuring Vim and calling external commands. Now let's take a look at scripts, plugins, and the Vim GUI.

Read more on Linux.com...

                          

As you peel back layers of the Vim onion, you'll continue to find new functionality. Some of it may be suitable for your workflow, some not so much. Keep what's useful and discard the rest.

Read more on Linux.com...

                          

In the previous installment I took a look at the basics of editing, movement, searching and replacing, and copy and pasting text. That is enough to get most people by if they're just using Vim for quick and dirty text edits, etc. But that doesn't even begin to scrape the surface of what Vim can do! Remember that learning Vim is not a sprint, it's a marathon! But you can go at your own pace and stop along the route at any time to admire the scenery.

Read more on the Linux Developer Network...

                          

Basically I want my workflow to be something like this: Create document in Vim, sync to gist.github.com (preferably private unless told otherwise), and be able to sync document on gist.github.com back to another machine.

I could write documents in gist directly, but that's not quite so efficient since my fingers/brain still work on Vim keystrokes / mappings.

                          

These are built using CheckInstall, so may not be up to typical Ubuntu packaging standards.

Also, I'm probably going to build a Vim 7.0 package for Dapper, let me know if there's any interest in that. I haven't checked to see if there's any work going on there for backports, I probably should.

Gaim 2.0 beta 3 for Dapper Drake AMD64
Gaim 2.0 beta 3 for Dapper Drake x86

                          

I make heavy use of mappings and abbreviations for several things, correcting common typos (like thier instead of their, or teh instead of the), long names or names with foreign characters when I'm writing a news story with several last names that are easy to misspell, and inserting snippets of text -- like HTML tags -- that are a PITA to type over and over and over again.

For example, if you were writing a piece where you interviewed Bob Wexleblat-Platypus, you probably wouldn't want to type "Wexleblat-Platypus" twenty times -- especially since you might not spell it correctly each time.

Instead, set a temporary abbreviation. Run :ab wx Wexleblat-Platypus, and then each time you're writing "Wexleblat-Platypus says..." you'd just type "wx says" and Vim would do the rest.

Of course, that's just a silly name, but some folks in the open source community do have tricky names... I know a lot of folks seem to have trouble getting Brockmeier right, too.

                          

I hope people are enjoying the Vim series, or at least finding it useful. I plan to cover a few more topics before I wrap it up, any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.

                          

The Vim series will be running once a week for a while, until I run out of ideas or Vim functions that seem worth covering.