Question

I’m being quite new to Vim and I consider setting it up so I can use Ctrl + movement keys (H, J, K, L) for moving around in Insert mode.

Two questions:

1. How is this set in .vimrc?
2. Is this recommendable (at least the slightest considerable), or just plain ‘backwards’?

Answer 1

You can achieve what you want with these mappings:

inoremap <c-k> <up>
inoremap <c-j> <down>
inoremap <c-h> <left>
inoremap <c-l> <right>

I don’t see anything really wrong with it, although you obviously lose the existing mappings (e.g. <c-l> to redraw the screen.

Vi purists will probably baulk at the idea of staying in insert mode whilst navigating around your file, but there are worse sins.