Vim

Quick Overview

Movement

Some movement keys

Key	Description
j	down
k	up
l	right
h	left
w	go forward 1 word
W	go forward 1 word, ignoring symbols and punctuations
b	go backward 1 word
B	go backward 1 word, ignoring symbols and punctuations
f $char	Go to next instance of '$char'
;	Repeat the previous f command
0	Move to beginning of the line
^	Move to first non-blank character of the line
$	Move to end of the line
gg	Move to top of file
G	Move to end of the file
-	Go to start of previous line
+	Go to start of next line
%	Jump to start/end of highlighted bracket/parenthesis

Splits

Splits let you split the VIM window and allow you to edit multiple files side by side. These splits aren't quite like tabs in a conventional editor since they share the same list of buffers. You can change a particular pane's 'view' by focusing on it and then changing buffers.

Key	Description
Ctrl + w, v	Create a new split horizontally
Ctrl + w, s	Create a new split vertically
Ctrl + w, q	Closes the focused split
:on	Close all other splits
Ctrl + w, l	Move to/focus on the split to the right
Ctrl + w, h	Move to/focus on the split to the left
Ctrl + w, j	Move to/focus on the split below
Ctrl + w, k	Move to/focus on the split above
Ctrl + w, >	Increase width of the focused split
Ctrl + w, <	Decrease width of the focused split
Ctrl + w, -	Decrease height of the focused split
Ctrl + w, +	Increase height of the focused split

Actions

Key	Description
u	Undo
Ctrl+r	Redo
/	find
>>	Indent by shiftwidth amount
<<	Un-indent by shiftwidth amount
~	Toggle selected character case
.	Repeat last command
x	Delete character
d<movement>	Delete in the given movement. Eg. dw deletes a word.
dd	Delete current line
D	Delete till the end of the line
p	Pastes what was last deleted

You can repeat actions by specifying the number prior to the command.

• Eg. To delete 10 characters: 10x
• Eg. To delete 10 lines: 10dd

Enter visual line mode with shift+v starting at the current location. Use movement keys to change what is selected. Actions can then be done to the selected portion of the text.

Enter visual block mode with ctrl+v starting at the current cursor location. This mode is useful if you wish to change multiple lines at a particular column.

Registers

Registers hold some value and are named a through z. You may use registers as a type of clipboard or temporary scratch space. Type :register to list all registers with values.

Key	Description
"<register>p	Paste whatever is in <register>
"xdd	Put deleted line into register x

Macros repeat a set of commands stored within a register.

Key	Description
q<register>	Begin recording macro into register. Eg. qq records into register q.
q	End the recording by pressing q again
@<register>	Repeat macro stored in register <register>. Eg. @q replays macro at q.

Tips

Execute Current File using Preset Key

To make vi execute a script that is being edited using a function key (in this case, F5), add the following to your .vimrc

" Mapping F5 to run hashbang scripts
" Will save, then run the interpreter.
au BufEnter * if match( getline(1) , '^\#!') == 0

Toggle Line Numbers

To make vi toggle line numbers using a key (in this case, F4), add the following to your .vimrc

" Map F4 to toggle line numbers
map <F4> :set nonumber!<CR>

Multi-line Edit

Indent lines 1-33 with 2 spaces.

1,33s/^/  /g

Vi Visual Bell Flash

Out of the box vim flashes to the point where I feel like I'll get a seizure. To turn it off:

:set noflash

Force Tabs

Force tabs instead of soft tabs with tab stops and width set to 4.

:set autoindent noexpandtab tabstop=4 shiftwidth=4

Force Soft Tabs

The reverse of the above:

:set tabstop=4 softtabstop=0 expandtab shiftwidth=4 smarttab

Mouse Scroll Only

To enable mouse wheel scrolling but not mouse interactions:

" Enable mouse support, except for visual mode which will cause right clicks to enter visual mode
:set mouse=nicr

" Disable left mouse
:nmap <LeftMouse> <nop>
:imap <LeftMouse> <nop>
:vmap <LeftMouse> <nop>

" Disable double click
:nmap <2-LeftMouse> <nop>

Search and Replace

You can search and replace with :%s/search/replace/. To search and replace within the selected range in visual mode, use: :'<,'>s/regex/replacement/options. Searching within the selected text is enabled by default with my vimrc; just select the text in visual mode and then invoke a search.

To replace with a newline, you cannot use \n since that maps to a NULL character (^@). Instead, hit ctrl+v ctrl+m in place of the newline.

See also

• https://superuser.com/questions/495652/vim-enable-mouse-scroll-only-not-cursor-positioning