Vim is a very efficient text editor. This reference was made for Vim 8.0.
For shortcut notation, see :help key-notation
.
Getting started
Exiting
Shortcut |
Description |
:qa |
Close all files |
:qa! |
Close all files, abandon changes |
:w |
Save |
:wq / :x |
Save and close file |
:q |
Close file |
:q! |
Close file, abandon changes |
ZZ |
Save and quit |
ZQ |
Quit without checking changes |
Navigating
Shortcut |
Description |
h j k l |
Arrow keys |
<C-U> / <C-D> |
Page up/page down |
Words
Shortcut |
Description |
b / w |
Previous/next word |
e / ge |
Previous/next end of word |
Line
Shortcut |
Description |
0 (zero) |
Start of line |
^ |
Start of line (after whitespace) |
$ |
End of line |
Character
fc |
Go forward to character c |
Fc |
Go backward to character c |
Document
Shortcut |
Description |
gg |
First line |
G |
Last line |
:n |
Go to line n |
nG |
Go to line n |
Window
Shortcut |
Description |
zz |
Center this line |
zt |
Top this line |
H |
Move to top of screen |
M |
Move to middle of screen |
L |
Move to bottom of screen |
Tab pages
Shortcut |
Description |
:tabedit [file] |
Edit file in a new tab |
:tabfind [file] |
Open file if exists in new tab |
:tabclose |
Close current tab |
:tabs |
List all tabs |
:tabfirst |
Go to first tab |
:tablast |
Go to last tab |
:tabn |
Go to next tab |
:tabp |
Go to previous tab |
Editing
Shortcut |
Description |
a |
Append |
i |
Insert |
o |
Next line |
O |
Previous line |
s |
Delete char and insert |
S |
Delete line and insert |
C |
Delete until end of line and insert |
r |
Replace one character |
R |
Enter Replace mode |
u |
Undo changes |
<C-R> |
Redo changes |
Exiting insert mode
Shortcut |
Description |
Esc / <C-[> |
Exit insert mode |
<C-C> |
Exit insert mode, and abort current command |
Clipboard
Shortcut |
Description |
x |
Delete character |
dd |
Delete line (Cut) |
yy |
Yank line (Copy) |
p |
Paste |
P |
Paste before |
Visual mode
Shortcut |
Description |
v |
Enter visual mode |
V |
Enter visual line mode |
<C-V> |
Enter visual block mode |
In visual mode
Shortcut |
Description |
d / x |
Delete selection |
s |
Replace selection |
y |
Yank selection (Copy) |
See Operators for other things you can do.
Operators
Usage
Operators let you operate in a range of text (defined by motion). These are performed in normal mode.
Operators list
Shortcut |
Description |
d |
Delete |
y |
Yank (copy) |
c |
Change (delete then insert) |
> |
Indent right |
< |
Indent left |
g~ |
Swap case |
gU |
Uppercase |
gu |
Lowercase |
! |
Filter through external program |
See :help operator
Examples
Combine operators with motions to use them.
Shortcut |
Description |
d d |
(repeat the letter) Delete current line |
d w |
Delete to next word |
d b |
Delete to beginning of word |
2dd |
Delete 2 lines |
d ip |
Delete a text object (inside paragraph) |
(in visual mode) d |
Delete selection |
See: :help motion.txt
Text objects
Usage
Text objects let you operate (with an operator) in or around text blocks (objects).
v |
i |
p |
Operator |
[i]nside or [a]round |
Text object |
Text objects
Shortcut |
Description |
p |
Paragraph |
w |
Word |
s |
Sentence |
[ ( { < |
A [], (), or {} block |
' " ` |
A quoted string |
b |
A block [( |
B |
A block in [{ |
t |
A XML tag block |
Examples
Shortcut |
Description |
vip |
Select paragraph |
vipipipip |
Select more |
yip |
Yank inner paragraph |
yap |
Yank paragraph (including newline) |
dip |
Delete inner paragraph |
cip |
Change inner paragraph |
See Operators for other things you can do.
Diff
Shortcut |
Description |
gvimdiff file1 file2 [file3] |
See differencies between files, in HMI |
Misc
Folds
Shortcut |
Description |
zo / zO |
Open |
zc / zC |
Close |
za / zA |
Toggle |
zv |
Open folds for this line |
zM |
Close all |
zR |
Open all |
zm |
Fold more (foldlevel += 1) |
zr |
Fold less (foldlevel -= 1) |
zx |
Update folds |
Uppercase ones are recursive (eg, zO
is open recursively).
Navigation
Shortcut |
Description |
[( [{ [< |
Previous ( or { or < |
]) |
Next |
[m |
Previous method start |
[M |
Previous method end |
Jumping
Shortcut |
Description |
<C-O> |
Go back to previous location |
<C-I> |
Go forward |
gf |
Go to file in cursor |
Counters
Shortcut |
Description |
<C-A> |
Increment number |
<C-X> |
Decrement |
Windows
z{height}<Cr> |
Resize pane to {height} lines tall |
Shortcut |
Description |
:tag Classname |
Jump to first definition of Classname |
<C-]> |
Jump to definition |
g] |
See all definitions |
<C-T> |
Go back to last tag |
<C-O> <C-I> |
Back/forward |
:tselect Classname |
Find definitions of Classname |
:tjump Classname |
Find definitions of Classname (auto-select 1st) |
Case
Shortcut |
Description |
~ |
Toggle case (Case => cASE) |
gU |
Uppercase |
gu |
Lowercase |
gUU |
Uppercase current line (also gUgU ) |
guu |
Lowercase current line (also gugu ) |
Do these in visual or normal mode.
Marks
Shortcut |
Description |
`^ |
Last position of cursor in insert mode |
`. |
Last change |
`` |
Last jump |
ma |
Mark this cursor position as a |
`a |
Jump to the cursor position a |
'a |
Jump to the beginning of the line with position a |
Misc
Shortcut |
Description |
. |
Repeat last command |
]p |
Paste under the current indentation level |
Command line
Shortcut |
Description |
<C-R><C-W> |
Insert current word into the command line |
<C-R>" |
Paste from “ register |
<C-X><C-F> |
Auto-completion of path in insert mode |
Text alignment
:center [width]
:right [width]
:left
See :help formatting
Calculator
Shortcut |
Description |
<C-R>=128/2 |
Shows the result of the division : ‘64’ |
Do this in insert mode.
Exiting with an error
:cq
:cquit
Works like :qa
, but throws an error. Great for aborting Git commands.
Spell checking
Shortcut |
Description |
:set spell spelllang=en_us |
Turn on US English spell checking |
]s |
Move to next misspelled word after the cursor |
[s |
Move to previous misspelled word before the cursor |
z= |
Suggest spellings for the word under/after the cursor |
zg |
Add word to spell list |
zw |
Mark word as bad/mispelling |
zu / C-X (Insert Mode) |
Suggest words for bad word under cursor from spellfile |
See :help spell
Also see
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