Smart Tab Navigation

VMark's Tab key is context-aware — it helps you navigate efficiently through formatted text, brackets, and links without reaching for arrow keys.

Quick Overview

Context	Tab Action
Inside brackets () [] {}	Jump past closing bracket
Inside quotes "" ''	Jump past closing quote
Inside CJK brackets 「」 『』	Jump past closing bracket
Inside bold, italic, code, strike	Jump after the formatting
Inside a link	Jump after the link
In a table cell	Move to next cell
In a list item	Indent the item

Bracket & Quote Escape

When your cursor is right before a closing bracket or quote, pressing Tab jumps over it instead of inserting spaces.

Supported Characters

Standard brackets and quotes:

• Parentheses: ( )
• Square brackets: [ ]
• Curly braces: { }
• Double quotes: " "
• Single quotes: ' '
• Backticks: `

CJK brackets:

• Fullwidth parentheses: （ ）
• Lenticular brackets: 【 】
• Corner brackets: 「 」
• White corner brackets: 『 』
• Double angle brackets: 《 》
• Angle brackets: 〈 〉

Curly quotes:

• Double curly quotes: " "
• Single curly quotes: ' '

How It Works

function hello(world|)
                    ↑ cursor before )

Press Tab:

function hello(world)|
                     ↑ cursor after )

This works with nested brackets too — Tab jumps over the immediately adjacent closing character.

CJK Example

这是「测试|」文字
         ↑ cursor before 」

Press Tab:

这是「测试」|文字
          ↑ cursor after 」

Formatting Escape (WYSIWYG Mode)

In WYSIWYG mode, Tab can escape from inline formatting marks.

Supported Formats

• Bold text
• Italic text
• Inline code
• Strikethrough
• Links

How It Works

When your cursor is anywhere inside formatted text:

This is **bold te|xt** here
                 ↑ cursor inside bold

Press Tab:

This is **bold text**| here
                     ↑ cursor after bold

Link Escape

Tab also escapes from links:

Check out [VMark|](https://vmark.app)
               ↑ cursor inside link text

Press Tab:

Check out [VMark](https://vmark.app)| and...
                                    ↑ cursor after link

Link Navigation (Source Mode)

In Source mode, Tab provides smart navigation within Markdown link syntax.

Nested and Escaped Brackets

VMark handles complex link syntax correctly:

[text [with nested] brackets](url)     ✓ Works
[text \[escaped\] brackets](url)       ✓ Works
[link](https://example.com/page(1))    ✓ Works

Tab navigation correctly identifies link boundaries even with nested or escaped brackets.

Standard Links

[link text|](url)
          ↑ cursor in text

Press Tab → cursor moves to URL:

[link text](|url)
            ↑ cursor in URL

Press Tab again → cursor exits the link:

[link text](url)|
                ↑ cursor after link

Wiki Links

[[page name|]]
           ↑ cursor in link

Press Tab:

[[page name]]|
             ↑ cursor after link

Source Mode: Markdown Character Escape

In Source mode, Tab also jumps over Markdown formatting characters:

Characters	Used For
*	Bold/italic
_	Bold/italic
^	Superscript
~~	Strikethrough
==	Highlight

Example

This is **bold|** text
              ↑ cursor before **

Press Tab:

This is **bold**| text
                ↑ cursor after **

Table Navigation

When cursor is inside a table:

Action	Key
Next cell	Tab
Previous cell	Shift + Tab
Add row (at last cell)	Tab

Tab at the last cell of the last row automatically adds a new row.

List Indentation

When cursor is in a list item:

Action	Key
Indent item	Tab
Outdent item	Shift + Tab

Settings

Tab escape behavior can be customized in Settings → Editor:

Setting	Effect
Auto-pair Brackets	Enable/disable bracket pairing and Tab escape
CJK Brackets	Include CJK bracket pairs
Curly Quotes	Include curly quote pairs ("" '')

TIP

If Tab escape conflicts with your workflow, you can disable auto-pair brackets entirely. Tab will then insert spaces (or indent in lists/tables) as normal.

Comparison: WYSIWYG vs Source Mode

Feature	WYSIWYG	Source
Bracket escape	✓	✓
CJK bracket escape	✓	✓
Curly quote escape	✓	✓
Mark escape (bold, etc.)	✓	N/A
Link escape	✓	✓
Markdown char escape (*, _)	N/A	✓
Table navigation	✓	N/A
List indentation	✓	✓
Multi-cursor support	✓	✓

Multi-Cursor Support

Tab escape works with multiple cursors — each cursor is processed independently.

How It Works

When you have multiple cursors and press Tab:

• Cursors inside formatting (bold, italic, etc.) escape to the end of that formatting
• Cursors inside links escape from the link
• Cursors before closing brackets jump over them
• Cursors in plain text stay in place

Example

**bold|** and [link|](url) and plain|
     ^1          ^2            ^3

Press Tab:

**bold**| and [link](url)| and plain|
        ^1               ^2         ^3

Each cursor escapes independently based on its context.

TIP

This is particularly powerful for bulk editing — select multiple occurrences with Mod + D, then use Tab to escape from all of them at once.

Tips

1. Muscle memory — Once you get used to Tab escape, you'll find yourself navigating much faster without arrow keys.

2. Works with auto-pair — When you type (, VMark auto-inserts ). After typing inside, just Tab to jump out.

3. Nested structures — Tab escapes one level at a time. For ((nested)), you need two Tabs to fully exit.

4. Shift + Tab — In tables and lists, Shift + Tab moves backward or outdents. In other contexts, it removes leading spaces.

5. Multi-cursor — Tab escape works with all your cursors simultaneously, making bulk edits even faster.