If you have ever experienced Sublime Text overwriting your text when typing, and not knowing how to disable it other than re-opening your document, you know how frustrating it can be. I’ll show you how to toggle overwrite on/off and how to disable it completely if you never use it.
How to toggle overwrite on/off in Sublime Text
These are the default overwrite key bindings in Sublime Text:
Windows
simply press the [insert] key on your keyboard
Mac
cmd+alt+o
How to disable overwrite in Sublime Text
Overwrite can be handy in some circumstances, but if you never use it as me, it might just be easier to disable the key binding completely.
Sublime Text stores its key bindings in json format in a file which can’t be modified from within Sublime. Instead we will copy the “toggle_overwrite” key binding and paste it into our user key bindings file, which will overwrite the key binding specified in the default key bindings file.
Open up Sublime and go to the menu:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Key Bindings – Default
Search for “overwrite” and copy the line below:
[javascript]
{ "keys": ["super+alt+o"], "command": "toggle_overwrite" },
[/javascript]
Go to the menu again:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Key Bindings – User
Paste in the “toggle_overwrite” line you just copied from default key bindings file and change the command to “unbound”. This will unbind the overwrite key binding.
Your “Key Bindings – User” file will now look like this:
[javascript]
[
//Disable overwrite
{ "keys": ["super+alt+o"], "command": "unbound" }
]
[/javascript]
Save the file, and you’ll never be bothered again by Sublime overwriting your text.
If you on the other hand prefer to keep “toggle_overwrite” but change its key binding, simply change the key combination in “keys” and keep the command as per default.
