Better Ctrl-W Better Ctrl-W

Developer Tools
Version: 0.1
Last Update: 2020-05-02

Overview

Better Ctrl-W is a Chrome extension developed by thalesmello. According to the data from Chrome web store, current version of Better Ctrl-W is 0.1, updated on 2020-05-02.
1,000+ users have installed this extension. 13 users have rated this extension with an average rating of .

Closes highlighted tabs. To replace ctrl-w on Windows/Linux for Vim users!

# Better Ctrl-W

Vim users are used to using the `Ctrl-w` key combination for deleting the last
word when in insert mode. That's no problem for Mac OS users when using
chrome, as the keyboard shortcut for closing a tab is Cmd+w. This is a problem
when using the browser on either Linux or Windows machines, as `Ctrl-w` is the
shortcut for closing a window. So, when editing a text, a Vim user might
accidentally close the current tab by issuing a `Ctrl-w` command, sometimes losing
important text that was being edited.

That annoyance motivated people to discuss solutions on [a StackOverflow thread][1],
in which user [`samson`][2] commented he created [a Chrome extension][3] precisely to:

1. Assign `Ctrl-w` to an extension shortcut that does absolutely nothing
2. Assign a hotkey to close the current tab (I like to use `Alt-w` to mimic Mac OS's `Cmd+w`)

The problem with his extension is that it only works with the currently active tab,
and I regularly use `Shift + Click` to highlight a bunch of tabs, so that I can close them
all at once. His plugin didn't support multiple highlighted tabs, so I created my own.

# Usage

To use this plugin as it's intended, you have to set up the keyboard shortcuts after
installing it. Go to `chrome://extensions/shortcuts` and set the following shortcuts:

1. Assign `Do absolutely nothing` to `Ctrl-w`
2. Assign `Close highlighted tabs` to `Alt-w` or any other key combination of choice

This way, `Ctrl-w` will no longer close the current tab by mistake when editing it,
and you will be able to use `Alt-w` to close either the current of all highlighted tabs.

[1]: https://superuser.com/a/1207752
[2]: https://superuser.com/users/276658/samson
[3]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ctrlw/goejokenmdamcapadhgghgpeeaeaaedc?hl=en

Rating

13 ratings

Total Installs

1,000+

Information

Last Update

2020-05-02

Current Version

0.1

Size

7.07KiB

Author

thalesmello

Website

None

Category

Developer Tools

Latest Reviews

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avatar Mike Michael
2022-05-08

Doesn't work.

avatar Oleg Ssh
2022-01-15

it would be great if you add to your extension the ability to delete the word before the cursor in the input

avatar Andras
2021-09-02

I love it. Thanks!

avatar Stickelback
2021-03-11

I use Ctrl W for ever browser game out there thank you so much!

avatar Michael Chao
2021-03-04

Although it works, when I want to reset Ctrl W to close tabs, I can't reset it anymore.