How do I make imap work in paste mode in Vim?

Question

I recently started use :imap jj and am trying to unlearn Ctrl+[.

However, imap doesn't work when paste mode is on. How do I make it work in paste mode?

Answer 1

You simply can not have mappings work when 'paste' is enabled, since that is the whole point of Vim's paste mode.

Vim's paste mode is meant to allow you to paste stuff even in an instance of console Vim in a terminal—where Vim may not be aware you're using the mouse to paste—and you want to insert literal text form your paste buffer without triggering mappings, or auto/smart/expression indenting, etc.

I suggest you take a look at:

:help 'paste'
:help 'pastetoggle'

Answer 2

Add following snippet to your .vimrc to trigger paste mode automatically when pasting via the terminal:

let &t_SI .= "\<Esc>[?2004h"
let &t_EI .= "\<Esc>[?2004l"

inoremap <special> <expr> <Esc>[200~ XTermPasteBegin()

function! XTermPasteBegin()
   set pastetoggle=<Esc>[201~
   set paste
return ""
endfunction

From: https://coderwall.com/p/if9mda