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Marginal

Keybindings

Marginal has two independent layers of shortcuts:

  • App shortcuts — menus and windows (open, save, print, view modes, AI). Always ⌘ on macOS and Alt on Windows/Linux, so Ctrl stays free for editing there.
  • Editor keys — what the keys do inside the text pane. These follow the keymap scheme you choose in Settings ▸ Editor ▸ Keybindings: Default, Emacs, or Vim.

The scheme is stored per machine, so choosing Emacs on one computer does not change another. When a scheme other than Default is active the status bar shows it: an EMACS chip, or the current Vim mode (NORMAL, INSERT, VISUAL, V-LINE, V-BLOCK). If that chip is missing, the scheme is not on.

App shortcuts

Section titled “App shortcuts”

Mod below is ⌘ on macOS, Alt on Windows/Linux.

Action Key
New document Mod+N
Open file… Mod+O
Open folder… Mod+Shift+O
Save / Save As… Mod+S / Mod+Shift+S
Close tab Mod+W
Print… Mod+P
Go to file… Mod+T
Command palette Mod+T, then type a command name
Editor / Split / Preview Mod+1 / Mod+2 / Mod+3
Toggle sidebar Mod+Shift+E
Filter files (sidebar file list) Mod+Shift+F
Toggle terminal Mod+J
Zoom in / out / reset Mod+= / Mod+- / Mod+0
AI: edit selection… Mod+K
AI: ask about selection… Mod+Shift+K
Settings… Mod+,

Fold and unfold commands (Fold All, Fold Level 2–4, Unfold All) have no default key — reach them from the View menu or the palette, or give them one under Custom shortcuts.

Default scheme

Section titled “Default scheme”

Standard platform editing: Mod+Z / Mod+Y undo and redo, Mod+A select all, Mod+F find, Mod+D select next occurrence, Tab to indent, and the usual arrow/word/line motion.

On top of that, the basic Emacs motions are available on Ctrl on every platform. macOS provides them itself in any text view; Windows and Linux get them from Marginal, limited to the keys CodeMirror leaves free:

Key Action macOS Windows/Linux
Ctrl+P / Ctrl+N previous / next line ✓ ✓
Ctrl+B / Ctrl+F back / forward character ✓ Ctrl+B only¹
Ctrl+A / Ctrl+E line start / line end ✓ Ctrl+E only¹
Ctrl+D / Ctrl+H delete forward / backward ✓ ✓
Ctrl+K kill to end of line ✓ ✓
Ctrl+O, Ctrl+T, Ctrl+V open line, transpose, page down ✓ —

¹ On Windows and Linux Ctrl+A stays Select All and Ctrl+F stays Find, since those are the platform conventions. Choose the Emacs scheme if you want them as Emacs keys.

Emacs scheme

Section titled “Emacs scheme”

Everything from Default, plus a real Emacs layer: a mark and region, a kill ring independent of the system clipboard, the C-x prefix, and Meta (⌥ / Alt) commands.

Motion — C-f C-b C-n C-p character/line, M-f M-b by word, C-a C-e line ends, M-< M-> buffer ends (S-M-, / S-M-.), C-v / M-v page down/up, M-g goto line, C-l recenter.

Mark and region — C-Space set mark, C-x C-x exchange point and mark, M-@ mark word, M-h select paragraph, Esc clear the mark. With a mark set, every motion extends the selection instead of moving.

Kill ring — C-w kill region, M-w copy region, C-k kill line, M-d kill word forward, M-Backspace kill word backward, C-y yank, M-y yank-pop (cycle the ring). S-Delete also yanks.

C-x prefix — C-x u undo, C-x h select all, C-x C-x exchange point and mark, C-x C-u / C-x C-l upcase / downcase region, C-x r rectangular region.

Search — C-s / C-r open the find panel and search forward or backward from the cursor. The first match is selected as you type; inside the panel, C-s steps to the next match and C-r to the previous one, and C-g closes the panel with the match still selected and the cursor on it (Escape does the same). So C-s readme C-s C-s C-g leaves you on the third “readme” after the cursor.

Other — C-g cancel, C-u universal argument (repeat count), C-/ or C-z undo, C-t transpose characters, M-u / M-l change case, M-; toggle comment, M-/ completion, M-x command line.

Two platform details:

  • Windows/Linux: Ctrl+X and Ctrl+C cut and copy when text is selected, and act as Emacs keys otherwise — so the platform clipboard habits keep working alongside the C-x prefix. Paste stays Ctrl+V.
  • macOS: ⌃X becomes the Emacs prefix in this scheme (it is otherwise reserved so it cannot shadow-invoke Cut).

Vim scheme

Section titled “Vim scheme”

A full modal editor: Normal, Insert, Visual and Visual-Block modes, motions, operators, text objects, counts, registers, marks, macros (q), . repeat, / and ? search (forward and backward, n / N for the next and previous match, Escape cancels the prompt) wired into the editor’s own search, and an ex line (:) with :s, ranges and :noh.

  • :w saves the document (it runs Marginal’s Save, so it works on untitled documents too).
  • The status bar shows the current mode; the cursor is a block in Normal mode and a bar in Insert mode, in your theme’s cursor colour.
  • Not supported: Vim plugins, window splits, and anything requiring a Vim runtime — this is Vim keybindings, not embedded Vim.

Custom shortcuts

Section titled “Custom shortcuts”

Settings ▸ Editor ▸ Custom shortcuts binds any chord to any command: click the field, press the shortcut, pick the command, then Add.

  • Custom shortcuts work anywhere in the window, not just the editor, and take precedence over the keymap scheme.
  • A chord needs a real modifier (or an F-key); a bare letter is refused because it would shadow typing and Vim motions.
  • Shortcuts the app’s menus already own (⌘K, ⌘S, ⌘T, … / Alt+K, Alt+S, …) are consumed by the menu before they reach the field, so they cannot be recorded.

Bindable targets are every palette command plus these editor commands: Undo, Redo, Delete Line, Move Line Up/Down, Duplicate Line, Select Line, Select All, Select Next Occurrence, Expand Selection (Syntax), Simplify Selection, Go to Start/End of Document, Go to Matching Bracket, Transpose Characters, Find in Document.

When a key does nothing

Section titled “When a key does nothing”
  1. Check the scheme. No EMACS chip or Vim mode in the status bar means the scheme is not active on this machine — the setting does not sync between computers.
  2. The command may need a precondition. C-x u needs something in the undo history; C-w needs a region; C-x C-x and C-y need a mark or a previous kill.
  3. Another program may own the key. Input-method switchers, launchers, virtualisation software and clipboard managers all take chords before any app sees them — check the OS shortcut settings and whatever runs in your menu bar or tray.
  4. Input methods intercept keys. With a CJK input method active, ⌃Space is usually the input-source switch, and the second key of a prefix chord such as C-x u goes to composition instead of the editor. Switching the input source to direct/ASCII input makes those chords work; this is a limitation of how input methods handle keys before the application, not something the editor can intercept.