How to use sidebar with the keyboard in Sublime Text 2 and 3?
Asked Answered
F

13

161

When using Sublime Text 2 we tend to open the side bar to navigate thru files/folders in our projects. For that we can use the hotkey ctrl+k ctrl+b (in windows).

However, once we're in the side bar, we can't use it with keyboard (arrows for instance). We have to stick using it with our own mouse...

Just a note: I installed SideBarEnhancements plugin, but I didn't find anything that could solve my problem.

Any solution you might know?

Febrile answered 2/3, 2013 at 19:18 Comment(2)
Ctrl + b, Ctrl + k would always do wierd things like delete lines for me. Every time I wanted to toggle the sidebar, I had to spam those two shortcuts because it never worked the first time. I eventually created a shortcut for Ctrl + Shift + o. Did anybody else have this?Glasper
Marcel, I think you don't understand this notation - it means holding Ctrl, hitting K then hitting B, not together. If you do Ctrl + K + K, it will delete the next lineKnapsack
L
294

You can type Ctrl+0 (Ctrl+Zero) to focus on the side bar.

Then you'll be able to move selection among files with arrow keys and to open the selected file hitting Enter, without touching the mouse.

Libertinism answered 2/3, 2013 at 20:36 Comment(15)
is there any keyboard shortcut for removing the projects from the sidebar?Townscape
@Townscape use command pallete for this. Also you can create shortcut for this actionAlevin
Can I invoke context menu in the sidebar?Alevin
Use cmd+k cmd+b in mac to open sidebar but use ctrl+0 to focus on side bar and ctrl+1 to focus on editor. cmd+1 to cmd+n can be sued navigate tabs.Australia
Super handy thanks! Quick q, any way to get back to the document after CTRL+0?Inexertion
To get back to document, type CTRL+1Libertinism
Ctrl+1 is the shortcut for "Focus Group 1", but if you want to focus the group which was originally focused, use Esc instead (see the unofficial docs). For example, if group 2 is focused, and you then focus the side bar, Esc will return the focus to group 2.Twinge
Ctrl+0 is also the Sublime Text 3 shortcutGravelly
CTRL + 0 not working in my mac sublime 3...Is there any reason, i interchanged cmd and ctrl key in sys preferences.Karajan
how to expand a folder in sidebar?Bluet
(Just in case sublime developers are reading this) Ctrl+0 is a poor combination of keys for this purpose. We have to use both hands for the switch specially on Mac keyboard where right Ctrl key is absent. It would be more convenient if the switch was possible with a key combination with both keys close together.Soninlaw
Is there a command for "jump to folder containing current selection"? I think you used to be able to do this on Windows File Explorer by pressing Left.Nabors
How could we have figured this out without this answer?Baerl
@ChrisAnderson if you open Key Bindings (Preferences menu) you can see all available shortcuts. You can see that command focus_side_bar is mapped to CTRL+0Libertinism
Solution is good, but the implementation is a pain. When a file is not open, ctrl+0 focuses the file in the sidebar under it's directory location, as expected and allowing to navigate via keyboard. – But if the file was already open CTRL+0 selects it inside the OpenFiles-Group1 column, rather than in the Folders column, making impossible to navigate. – Pressing CTRL+0 a second time is even more confusing: selects the file under Folders; but still, it is not possible to move among sibling files or parent directory... – Anybody knows a way to solve this?Hypophosphite
C
61

Another useful shortcut: ctrl + k Together with ctrl + b will show/hide the sidebar. Make sure you hit K and B in the right order

Chordophone answered 19/2, 2014 at 14:4 Comment(2)
This should be the Accepted answer!Frowsty
@Frowsty How so, it does not answer the question?Itch
R
46

I didn't find any other complete answers, so I pulled together information from various answers and added a bit of my own.

  • Ctrl+K, Ctrl+B: toggle the sidebar
  • Ctrl+K+B: shorted form of the above (make sure you hit K and B in the right order)
  • Ctrl+0: switch focus to the sidebar (if open)
  • Up/Down: navigate file list
  • Right: expand a directory
  • Left: collapse a directory/navigate to parent directory
  • Enter: open a file

@Santiago Agüero The part you were missing was that the sidebar needs focus before the arrow keys will work (Ctrl+0).

As far as I can know, these shortcuts all work in Sublime 3, as well as Sublime 2.

One caveat: these assume you are using the default keybindings. But you can easily customize the keybindings by opening Preferences > Key Bindings - User and copying over lines from Preferences > Key Bindings - Default, changing the keys value as needed. E.g.,

{ "keys": ["ctrl+k", "ctrl+b"], "command": "toggle_side_bar" },
{ "keys": ["ctrl+0"], "command": "focus_side_bar" },

P.S. To get the fancy-looking keyboard glyphs, use the <kbd> HTML tag. E.g., <kbd>Key</kbd> will turn into Key. (Thanks to https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5527) :)

Randell answered 3/6, 2015 at 16:39 Comment(2)
In the sidebar Ctrl + Up / Down, Lets you switch between navigating the folder and files list or (up) open files list. (Tested in Subl.3)Merchantable
Documentation of these and other file navigation shortcuts sublime-text-unofficial-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/latest/…Charette
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24

Summary

Ctrl + 0 will navigate to your sidebar. By default you can navigate the folders with your arrow keys. If you prefer 'Vim' type settings, you can avoid using the arrow keys by remapping your keys to the typical Vim settings (hjkl).

  • h will minimize/open a folder
  • j will navigate down (i.e. down arrow)
  • k will navigate up (i.e. up arrow)
  • l will open up a folder
  • Enter will open the file

Key mappings

To set this up, open Preferences > Key Bindings - User and add the following:

{ "keys": ["h"], "command": "move", "args": {"by": "characters", "forward": false}, "context":
    [ {"key": "control", "operand": "sidebar_tree"} ] },
{ "keys": ["j"], "command": "move", "args": {"by": "lines", "forward": true}, "context":
    [ {"key": "control", "operand": "sidebar_tree"} ] },
{ "keys": ["k"], "command": "move", "args": {"by": "lines", "forward": false}, "context":
    [ {"key": "control", "operand": "sidebar_tree"} ] },
{ "keys": ["l"], "command": "move", "args": {"by": "characters", "forward": true}, "context":
    [ {"key": "control", "operand": "sidebar_tree"} ] }
Monophyletic answered 20/7, 2014 at 15:35 Comment(1)
Is there a way to open the file, but have the cursor remain in the sidebar (e.g., opening up multiple files to setup your working environment)?Andrel
W
14

Ctrl+p is also really useful for opening files without using the mouse.

If you open a folder in Sublime all the files in that folder (and files in contained folders) will show up in the search you get with Ctrl+p.

Just hit Ctrl+p and start typing parts of the filename and you'll get a list of matches.

Warren answered 12/7, 2013 at 11:9 Comment(1)
This does not answer the question at all.Guesswork
A
13

For sublime text 3 use Ctrl+K+B

Press and hold Ctrl then press and holdK and then press B

Alpenhorn answered 18/9, 2015 at 11:7 Comment(2)
I have to press and hold Ctrl, then K and also hold it and then B to toggle the sidebar in Sublime Text 3Adolf
Please, refrain from using this notation. Ctrl+K Ctrl+B (Hide/Show Side Bar) is NOT the same as Ctrl+K+B (which is not even possible as a shortcut).Disentitle
U
6

For Sublime Text 2 (and also Sublime Text 3) on Windows use Ctrl+0 to focus on the side bar, and use Ctrl+1 or Esc key to focus on the editor. And if it didn't work, use those 0 and 1 keys that exist in the numeric keys row under the function keys row rather than those 0 and 1 keys that exist in the numeric keypad of the keyboard. This image may demonstrate better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Qwerty.svg

Unsocial answered 19/12, 2013 at 21:36 Comment(0)
Z
6

In Sublime Text2, press keys in following format "Ctrl+k+b" and it will work on ubuntu.

It worked on my machine (v14.04 LTS)

Zeba answered 17/12, 2014 at 14:2 Comment(0)
A
3

I actually had the same issue, the fact that I had to trigger the reveal in side bar and then move focus to the sidebar, alongside with the fact that if the file's folder was already unfolded the focus would move to the sidebar's top, all this made me write a new plugin to reveal the file in sidebar and then move focus to there, making it a lot easier to navigate the sidebar with keyboard arrows, give it a try =)

https://github.com/miguelgraz/FocusFileOnSidebar

Antheridium answered 11/6, 2014 at 17:50 Comment(0)
B
3

Another option is to use the FileBrowser package, which gives you many more actions and can be modified to your needs.

https://packagecontrol.io/packages/FileBrowser

enter image description here

Baguette answered 29/10, 2018 at 6:29 Comment(0)
H
2

Ctrl + 0 will focus on the side bar.
Ctrl + 1 will focus on the editor in the 1st window.
Ctrl + 2 will focus on the editor in the 2nd window etc.
Sandeep made a great post about improving the keyboard shortcut toggling side bar on/off.
Go to Preference->Key Binding and enter:

[
    { "keys": ["ctrl+\\"], "command": "toggle_side_bar" },
]

save it and then press "ctrl+\" to toggle the sidebar.

In Linux new keybindings are saved in ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/User/'Default (Linux).sublime-keymap'.

Hesitation answered 5/5, 2020 at 15:30 Comment(0)
P
1

You have to add a folder to the Sublime Text window in order to navigate via the sidebar. Go to File -> Open Folder... and select the highest directory you want to be able to navigate.

Provencal answered 8/8, 2016 at 17:10 Comment(0)
P
0

enter this shortcode on Preference->Key Binding

[
    { "keys": ["ctrl+\\"], "command": "toggle_side_bar" },
]

now save it press "ctrl+\\" for toggle the sidebar

Phrygia answered 11/5, 2019 at 4:18 Comment(0)

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