I assume you understand the difference between insert, visual and normal mode.
Movement
| `j`, `k`, `h` and `l` will move your cursor down, up, left and right respectively | |
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| `gg` will jump you to the top of the file |
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| `G` will jump you to the bottom of the file |
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| `0` will move you to the front of the line |
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| `$` will move you to the end of the line |
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Editing
| `dd` deletes the line your cursor is on |
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| `x` deletes the character you cursor is on |
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| `D` deletes all the characters from your cursor to the end of the line |
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| `r` + "some character" will replace the character your cursor is on with "some-character" |
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| `p` will paste what you've copied in the line below your cursor |
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| `P` will paste what you've copied in the line above your cursor |
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| `y` will copy the highlighted text |
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| `yy` will copy the line your cursor is on |
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“Scrolling”
| I use these two often to "scroll" through a file. `{` will move your cursor to the next empty new line above your cursor |
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| `}` will move your cursor to the next empty new line below your cursor |
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| Alternatively you can use `ctrl+f` or `cftrl+b` to scroll to the previous or next "page" where page is the amount of lines that your screen can fit. I find i don't use this as often. |
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Switching to insert mode
| `a` puts your cursor in insert mode after the character the cursor was on. `i` puts your cursor in insert mode before the character the cursor was on. |
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| `A` puts your cursor in insert mode at the end of the current line. `I` puts your cursor in insert mode at the beginning of the line.
To remember which is which I tell myself that `a` stands for append and `i` ... is the other one. |
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| `o` puts you in insert mode on a new line below your current line. `O` puts you in insert mode on a new line above your current line. |
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Text manipulation
| `ciw` will delete the word you're cursor is on and put you in insert mode. I remember this as "change in word" |
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| `viw` is similar to `ciw` but only highlights the word and puts you in visual mode. I remember this as "view in word" |
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| `d/` + "some-characters" + `enter` will delete characters from your cursor to "some-characters". This is equivalent to highlighting and deleting part of a line in say sublime. |
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| `J` will delete and append the line below your cursor the end of your current line. It's handy when you want to "glue" together some lines of text. |
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Commands
As a quick summary for complete beginners to VIM, you can enter commands while in normal mode by type : followed by the command and enter. Here are some basic ones everyone should know.
:w saves the current file. I remember it as “writes” the file.
:q quits the file.
:wq saves the file and quits the file. :x is equivalent. Not sure why it exists but I use it often.
:qa quits all the buffers.
| `:set cursorcolumn` creates a highlight bar on the column your cursor is on. It's just a visual aid which is helpful to check your tabbing is okay. |
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| `:set nu` turns on line numbers. It's actually short for `:set number` which is easier to remember. |
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| `:set nonu` turns off line numbers. There is also an equivalent `:set nonumber`. |
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| `:e |
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| Use `ctrl+o` to move to the previously opened file or `ctrl+i` to move to the next opened file. |
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| `:set wrap` turns on wordwrapper. Handy when you're editing paragraphs of text and not code. `:set nowrap` will undo the wordwrapper. |
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When you’re pasting blocks of text from outside of vim, you should run :set paste to prevent vim auto inserting tabs in your text.
Find / Search
| `/` following by a word searches your file for that word. |
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| Type `n` to move your cursor to the next instance of that word. `N` will move your cursor to the previous one. |
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| A fun fact I later learnt about this is that even after you start editing or move your cursor to another line, `n` and `N` will still work for the last word you searched for. |
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| When you do a find/search vim will highlight that text. Use `:noh` to remove this highlight. I remember it as "no highlight". |
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Multiple windows
| `:sp` is a handy command that will split your window into two horizontally. (I remember it as "**sp**litting" the window) This is convenient for when you want to look at two different files at the same time. I often follow `:sp` with `:e` to open up new files. |
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| I more commonly use `:vs` which I remember as a vertical split. This splits the screen side by side. |
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| To move around windows you can use `ctrl+w ctrl+w` to toggle your cursor between open windows. To be more exact you can use `ctrl+w (j/k/h/l)` to move in a specific window to the bottom, top, left or right. |
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Quickly highlight blocks of texts
| `V` will highlight the entire line your cursor is on. Follow through with movements like `j`, `k`, `{` or `}` to highlight large blocks of text. |
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Fancy stuff
So there are a few handy moves that I don’t know where to put. They are definitely beyond the basics.
| `:%s/existing-string/new-string/g` Will find all instances of "existing-string" and replace it with "new-string" |
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| A variation of the above is `:%s/existing-string/new-string/gc` which replaces instances of "existing-string" one by one but asks you to confirm first. Hit `y` to accept, hit `n` to skip. |
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| There is this multicursor command: `ctrl+v (j/k/h/l)`. This allows you to select the current column among multiple lines. |
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| More interestingly once you've selected a set of lines, by typing `I |
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Markers
| If you're editing a large file and are frequently jumping back and forward between two sections you can create markers to quickly jump between lines. `m |
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Plugins
There are tons of plugins available for VIM that does very specific things. The one I suggest as a must have is NERDTree.
| You can use `|` (pipe) to jump from your current file to the tree. Or you can use the same keys for window navigation such as `ctrl+w h` to move to the window to the left since NERDTree is just another window. |
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Conclusion
If you memorize this subset of commands I’m confident you’ll begin to navigate VIM with ease…
And when I step into the building everybody’s hands go … on the keyboard
