VIM: A Great Vim Cheat Sheet

#A Great Vim Cheat Sheet Note: If you’re decent at vim and want your mind blown, check out Advanced Vim. I’ve compiled a list of essential vim commands that I use every day. I then give a few instructions on how to making vim as great as it should be, because it’s painful without configuration. ##Cursor movement (Inside command/normal mode) w

- jump by start of words (punctuation considered words)W
- jump by words (spaces separate words)e
- jump to end of words (punctuation considered words)E
- jump to end of words (no punctuation)b
- jump backward by words (punctuation considered words)B
- jump backward by words (no punctuation)0
- (zero) start of line^
- first non-blank character of line (same as 0w)$
- end of line- Advanced (in order of what I find useful)

Ctrl+d

• move down half a pageCtrl+u

- move up half a page}
- go forward by paragraph (the next blank line){
- go backward by paragraph (the next blank line)gg

• go to the top of the pageG
• go the bottom of the page: [num] [enter]
• Go To that line in the document- Searching f [char]
• Move to the next char on the current line after the cursorF [char]
• Move to the next char on the current line before the cursort [char]
• Move to before the next char on the current line after the cursorT [char]
• Move to before the next char on the current line before the cursor- All these commands can be followed by ; (semicolon) to go to the next searched item, and, (comma) to go the the previous searched item ##Insert/Appending/Editing Text
• Results in insert mode i
• start insert mode at cursorI
• insert at the beginning of the linea
• append after the cursorA
• append at the end of the lineo
• open (append) blank line below current line (no need to press return)O
• open blank line above current linecc

- change (replace) an entire linec [movement command]
- change (replace) from the cursor to the move-to point.- ex.

ce changes from the cursor to the end of the cursor word

- Esc - exit insert mode
r [char]

• replace a single character with the specified char (does not use insert mode)d
• deleted
• [movement command] deletes from the cursor to the move-to point.- ex. de deletes from the cursor to the end of the current word dd
• delete the current line- Advanced J
• join line below to the current one ##Marking text (visual mode) v
• starts visual mode- From here you can move around as in normal mode (hjkl etc.) and can then do a command (such as y ,d , orc )
• From here you can move around as in normal mode (hjkl etc.) and can then do a command (such as V
• starts linewise visual modeCtrl+v
• start visual block modeEsc
• exit visual mode- Advanced O
• move to Other corner of blocko
• move to other end of marked area ##Visual commands Type any of these while some text is selected to apply the action y
• yank (copy) marked textd
• delete marked textc
• delete the marked text and go into insert mode (like c does above) ##Cut and Paste yy

- yank (copy) a linep
- put (paste) the clipboard after cursorP
- put (paste) before cursordd
- delete (cut) a linex
- delete (cut) current characterX
- delete previous character (like backspace)

##Exiting :w

- write (save) the file, but don't exit:wq
- write (save) and quit:q
- quit (fails if anything has changed):q!

• quit and throw away changes ##Search/Replace /pattern
• search for pattern?pattern
• search backward for patternn
• repeat search in same directionN
• repeat search in opposite direction:%s/old/new/g
• replace all old with new throughout file (gn is better though):%s/old/new/gc
• replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations ##Working with multiple files :e filename
• Edit a file:tabe
• make a new tabgt
• go to the next tabgT
• go to the previous tab- Advanced :vsp
• vertically split windowsctrl+ws
• Split windows horizontallyctrl+wv
• Split windows verticallyctrl+ww
• switch between windowsctrl+wq
• Quit a window ##Marks Marks allow you to jump to designated points in your code.

m{a-z}
- Set mark {a-z} at cursor position- A capital mark {A-Z} sets a global mark and will work between files
‘{a-z}

• move the cursor to the start of the line where the mark was set‘’
• go back to the previous jump location ##General u
• undoCtrl+r
• redo.
• repeat last command #Making Vim actually useful Vim is quite unpleasant out of the box. For example, typeing :w for every file save is awkward and copying and pasting to the system clipboard does not work. But a few changes will get you much closer to the editor of your dreams. ##.vimrc
• My .vimrc file has some pretty great ideas I haven't seen elsewhere.
• This is a minimal vimrc that focuses on three priorities:
• adding options that are strictly better (like more information showing in autocomplete)

- more convenient keystrokes (like
[space]w
for write, instead of:w [enter]
) - a similar workflow to normal text editors (like enabling the mouse)

• Copy this to your home directory and restart vim. Read through it to see what you can now do (like [space]w to save a file)- mac users - making a hidden normal file is suprisingly tricky. Here’s one way:
• in the command line, go to the home directory
• type nano .vimrc
• paste in the contents of the .vimrc file ctrl+x ,y ,[enter] to save
• mac users - making a hidden normal file is suprisingly tricky. Here’s one way:
• You should now be able to press

[space]w
in normal mode to save a file. [space]p

should paste from the system clipboard (outside of vim).- If you can’t paste, it’s probably because vim was not built with the system clipboard option. To check, run vim --version and see if+clipboard exists. If it says-clipboard , you will not be able to copy from outside of vim. - For mac users, homebrew install vim with the clipboard option. Install homebrew and then run brew install vim .- then move the old vim binary: $ mv /usr/bin/vim /usr/bin/vimold

• restart your terminal and you should see vim --version now with+clipboard
• then move the old vim binary:
• If you can’t paste, it’s probably because vim was not built with the system clipboard option. To check, run ##Plugins

The easiest way to make vim more powerful is to use Vintageous in sublime (version 3). This gives you Vim mode inside sublime. I suggest this (or a similar setup with the Atom editor) if you aren't a vim master. Check out Advanced Vim if you are. #

Vintageous is great, but I suggest you change a few settings to make it better.

• Clone this repository to ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/Vintageous , or similar. Then check out the "custom" branch.- Alternatively, you can get a more updated Vintageous version by cloning the official repo and then copying over this patch.
• Change the user settings ( User/Preferences.sublime-settings ) to include:"caret_style": "solid"
• This will make the cursor not blink, like in vim.
• sublime might freeze when you do this. It’s a bug; just restart sublime after changing the file. ctrl+r in vim means "redo". But there is a handy ctrl+r shortcut in sublime that gives an "outline" of a file. I remapped it to alt+r by putting this in the User keymap{ "keys": ["alt+r"], "command": "show_overlay", "args": {"overlay": "goto", "text": "@"} },
• Add the ability to toggle vintageous on and off
• Mac users: you will not have the ability to hold down a navigation key (like holding j to go down). To fix this, run the commands specified here: https://gist.github.com/kconragan/2510186
• Clone this repository to

Now you should be able to restart sublime and have a great vim environment! Sweet Dude. ##Switch Caps Lock and Escape

• I highly recommend you switch the mapping of your caps lock and escape keys. You'll love it, promise! Switching the two keys is platform dependent; google should get you the answer ##Other I don’t personally use these yet, but I’ve heard other people do! :wqa
• Write and quit all open tabs (thanks Brian Zick)