org-mode sans arrow keys

Question

Org-mode keymapping defaults to using the arrow keys for commons functions. Has anyone sanely remapped their org-mode settings to entirely avoid arrow keys?

Please share.

Answer 1

Without remapping, you can already get by pretty well without arrow keys.

C-c C-x C-h in an Org buffer:

C-c C-x D       org-shiftmetadown
C-c C-x L       org-shiftmetaleft
C-c C-x R       org-shiftmetaright
C-c C-x U       org-shiftmetaup
C-c C-x d       org-metadown
C-c C-x l       org-metaleft
C-c C-x m       org-meta-return
C-c C-x r       org-metaright
C-c C-x u       org-metaup

---

As mentioned in the comments, whether or not these keys are set depends on your environment (for example, if you are using Emacs in the terminal or as a daemon). To make sure these always show up, you can enable org-use-extra-keys. (This needs to be done before Org is loaded.)

Answer 2

Yay, finally a moment to shamelessly advertise http://abo-abo.github.io/worf/README.html.

h, j, k and l are arrows.

c toggles change mode:

(worf-defverb
 "change"
 '(("j" org-metadown)
   ("k" org-metaup)
   ("h" org-metaleft)
   ("l" org-metaright)
   ("t" org-set-tags :disable)
   ("n" worf-change-name :disable :break)
   ("a" org-meta-return :disable :break)))

cf enters change tree mode:

(worf-defverb
 "change-tree"
 '(("j" org-shiftmetadown)
   ("k" org-shiftmetaup)
   ("h" org-shiftmetaleft)
   ("l" org-shiftmetaright)))

cs enters change shift mode:

(worf-defverb
 "change-shift"
 '(("j" org-shiftdown)
   ("k" org-shiftup)
   ("h" org-shiftleft)
   ("l" org-shiftright)))

cr enters change shift-control mode:

(worf-defverb
 "change-shiftcontrol"
 '(("j" org-shiftcontroldown)
   ("k" org-shiftcontrolup)
   ("h" org-shiftcontrolleft)
   ("l" org-shiftcontrolright)))

q will quit any mode and make hjkl arrows again.

I'm still experimenting with the package, so these bindings might change in the future. If you want to try it, it's in MELPA. And as long as you're trying, check out g - it's the best feature of the package.