Emacs move around split windows in a specified direction?

Question

In Terminal Emacs (no mouse), I\'m using split windows to work with multiple buffers at the same time. I\'m finding moving between the split windows much more painful than h

Answer 1

Add this to your init file:

(windmove-default-keybindings)

Then you can use SHIFT+arrow to move to the next adjacent window in the specified direction.

You can specify a different modifier if you prefer, by passing an argument (defaults to 'shift).

Or just bind whatever you like to these functions:

• windmove-up
• windmove-down
• windmove-left
• windmove-right

You can also add FrameMove to the mix, to make this work transparently across multiple frames.

For numbered window navigation, there's switch-window.el.

Answer 2

You can give a prefix argument to C-x o like this C-u -1 C-x o. This way you can go any number of windows forward or backward. Personally I think it's easier to create a special key for moving back one window. I have this in my .emacs:

(defun other-window-backward ()
  "Goto previous window"
  (interactive)
  (other-window -1))
(global-set-key (kbd "\C-x p") 'other-window-backward)

Answer 3

For the sake of completion, there is window-numbering and ace-window too

Answer 4

I use the following to navigate to the next (same as C-x o), previous, first, and last window:

(defun my-previous-window ()
  "Previous window"
  (interactive)
  (other-window -1))
(global-set-key "\C-xp" 'my-previous-window)

(global-set-key "\C-xn" 'other-window)

(defun my-select-first-window ()
  (interactive)
  (select-window (frame-first-window)))

(defun my-select-last-window ()
  (interactive)
  (select-window (previous-window (frame-first-window))))

(global-set-key "\C-x<" 'my-select-first-window)
(global-set-key "\C-x>" 'my-select-last-window)

Answer 5

Use window-jump, e.g.:

;; C-x <direction> to switch windows
(use-package window-jump
             :bind (("C-x <up>" . window-jump-up)
                    ("C-x <down>" . window-jump-down)
                    ("C-x <left>" . window-jump-left)
                    ("C-x <right>" . window-jump-right)))

For help with use-package, see https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package/blob/master/README.md.

Answer 6

Add this to your init file (e.g. ~/.emacs):

(windmove-default-keybindings)

Then do SHIFT+arrow to move to the window in that direction.