how to type certain commands in vim, like CTRL-] ^Wc etc.. on a German Keyboard

Question

I'm sitting here feeling silly - the vim help tells me to hit CTRL] (to follow links in the help) and I can't get it!? Same problem with ^Wc (close a split window)

I have a German keyboard and especially the CTRL] doesn't seem to work for me.

How do I do them?

Thanks for the help so far, seems to work except the CTRL]! Any idea how I can make it work?

Answer 1

I have a Croatian keyboard and pretty much the same problems (due to the fact that I don't have, for example "]" on it). Have you thought about remapping those keys to something which you could use instead of Ctrl-] key.

For example, plain enter works nicely for me.

To do that, you just go to your "/vimfiles/ftplugin/" directory, and create a file called help.vim (if you're interested in using that key combination only in HELP kind of files). In it, type

nmap <buffer> <Enter> <C-]>
"for just following the link
nmap <buffer> <C-Enter> <C-w><C-]><C-w>T
"for following the help topic in a new split (often useful)

Answer 2

First off, in this type of Help file, the ^ symbol indicates that you need to hit Ctrl with the key. ^Wc means to hit Ctrl+W, then c after releasing ^W. It looks like you might need to use Ctrl+AltGr+9 to get Ctrl+].

Secondly, Ctrl ("Control") should be equivalent to the Strg ("Steering"?) key on your German keyboard.

(Keyboard equivalents, for your reference. I imagine you can set up Vim to be friendlier to a German keyboard, but that exceeds my knowledge and Google-fu.)

Answer 3

I think I found out myself. If I "pretend" to have an english keyboard and just click Ctr-+ (Ctr-"plus symbol") it seems to work. (to the left of "ü").

This is where the ] Symbol is on the English keyboard.

Make me wonder what else is mapped likethis? Anybody an idea?

Answer 4

In Vim you can use strg+click to follow a link as an alternative to ctrl+]. While this is not ideal it at least allows Vim beginners like me to navigate through the manual.