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Make CAPSLOCK Esc Again!
date: 2020-02-17
Most people don't use the Caps Lock key, except by mistake. Here's how to make that key useful by remapping it to something else.
This guide is for the Cinnamon desktop environment. Screenshots were taken on Linux Mint, but this applies to Cinnamon installed on any Linux varient (Manjaro, Fedora, et cetera).
I've been using vim, a text editor with modes. To get out of the insert mode, you press the "esc" key. However, that key is far from the home row so it's not easy to reach. The Caps Lock key is on the home row, just to the left of "a".
Let's make Caps Lock have the fuction of Esc and make that key useful again!
Press the super key, bringing up the Mint Menu. Type "keyboard". The keyboard settings are one of the results. Open that.
Choose the "layout" pane at the top and then clock "options" in the bottom right.
Select the desired behavior for the Caps Lock key. My preference is that it become an additional Esc key.
That's it!
Now much easier to escape out of insert mode while in vim.