Vim exit Insert mode with some key press

Question

I have reassigned ; to : in Vim. I am constantly saving my code using :w . When I am in the insert mode, after making some changes, due to my muscle memory, I type ;w to save the document, but it adds ;w text in the code. Is it possible to assign ;w in insert mode to exit and save the document. If there is a better method, please let me know.

Answer 1

You can remap : and ; at the OS level, and just get used to it. I started that some months ago and the adjustment was fairly smooth. Now I love it. Not sure what OS you're on, but I'm sure there's a solution for any. In X, you'd use xmodmap . In my ~/.xinitrc I have (among many remappings):

# Swap ; and :
xmodmap -e "keycode 47 = colon semicolon"

Use xev to see what exactly your keycodes are.

Answer 2

:inoremap ;w <esc>:w<cr>i save buffer and return to insert mode
:inoremap ;w <esc>:wq<cr> save and close buffer (exit vim if buffer only one).