Global
- :help keyword – open help for keyword
- :saveas file – save file as
- :close – close current pane
- K – open man page for word under the cursor
Cursor movement
- h – move cursor left
- j – move cursor down
- k – move cursor up
- l – move cursor right
- H – move to top of screen
- M – move to middle of screen
- L – move to bottom of screen
- w – jump forwards to the start of a word
- W – jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
- e – jump forwards to the end of a word
- E – jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
- b – jump backwards to the start of a word
- B – jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
- 0 – jump to the start of the line
- ^ – jump to the first non-blank character of the line
- $ – jump to the end of the line
- g_ – jump to the last non-blank character of the line
- gg – go to the first line of the document
- G – go to the last line of the document
- 5G – go to line 5
- fx – jump to next occurrence of character x
- tx – jump to before next occurrence of character x
- Fx – jump to previous occurence of character x
- Tx – jump to after previous occurence of character x
- ; – repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
- , – repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards
- } – jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
- { – jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
- zz – center cursor on screen
- Ctrl + e – move screen down one line (without moving cursor)
- Ctrl + y – move screen up one line (without moving cursor)
- Ctrl + b – move back one full screen
- Ctrl + f – move forward one full screen
- Ctrl + d – move forward 1/2 a screen
- Ctrl + u – move back 1/2 a screen
Editing
- r – replace a single character
- J – join line below to the current one with one space in between
- gJ – join line below to the current one without space in between
- gwip – reflow paragraph
- cc – change (replace) entire line
- C – change (replace) to the end of the line
- c$ – change (replace) to the end of the line
- ciw – change (replace) entire word
- cw – change (replace) to the end of the word
- s – delete character and substitute text
- S – delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
- xp – transpose two letters (delete and paste)
- u – undo
- Ctrl + r – redo
- . – repeat last command
Marking text (visual mode)
- v – start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
- V – start linewise visual mode
- o – move to other end of marked area
- Ctrl + v – start visual block mode
- O – move to other corner of block
- aw – mark a word
- ab – a block with ()
- aB – a block with {}
- ib – inner block with ()
- iB – inner block with {}
- Esc – exit visual mode
Visual commands
- > – shift text right
- < – shift text left
- y – yank (copy) marked text
- d – delete marked text
- ~ – switch case
Registers
- :reg – show registers content
- “xy – yank into register x
- “xp – paste contents of register x
Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim.Tip Register 0 contains always the value of the last yank command.
Marks
- :marks – list of marks
- ma – set current position for mark A
Macros
- qa – record macro a
- q – stop recording macro
- @a – run macro a
- @@ – rerun last run macro
Cut and paste
- yy – yank (copy) a line
- 2yy – yank (copy) 2 lines
- yw – yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
- y$ – yank (copy) to end of line
- p – put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
- P – put (paste) before cursor
- dd – delete (cut) a line
- 2dd – delete (cut) 2 lines
- dw – delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor position to the start of the next word
- D – delete (cut) to the end of the line
- d$ – delete (cut) to the end of the line
- x – delete (cut) character
Exiting
- :w – write (save) the file, but don’t exit
- :w !sudo tee % – write out the current file using sudo
- :wq or ZZ – write (save) and quit
- :q – quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
- :q! or ZQ – quit and throw away unsaved changes
- :wqa – write (save) and quit on all tabs
Search and replace
- /pattern – search for pattern
- ?pattern – search backward for pattern
- \vpattern – ‘very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
- n – repeat search in same direction
- N – repeat search in opposite direction
- :%s/old/new/g – searchAndReplace.commands .colonPercentForwardSlashOldForwardSlashNewForwardSlashg
- :%s/old/new/gc – searchAndReplace.commands .colonPercentForwardSlashOldForwardSlashNewForwardSlashgc
- :noh – remove highlighting of search matches
Search in multiple files
- :cn – jump to the next match
- :cp – jump to the previous match
- :copen – open a window containing the list of matches
Working with multiple files
- :e file – edit a file in a new buffer
- :bnext or :bn – go to the next buffer
- :bprev or :bp – go to the previous buffer
- :bd – delete a buffer (close a file)
- :ls – list all open buffers
- :sp file – open a file in a new buffer and split window
- :vsp file – open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
- Ctrl + ws – split window
- Ctrl + ww – switch windows
- Ctrl + wq – quit a window
- Ctrl + wv – split window vertically
- Ctrl + wh – move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
- Ctrl + wl – move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
- Ctrl + wj – move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
- Ctrl + wk – move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)
Tabs
- :tabnew or :tabnew {page.words.file} – open a file in a new tab
- Ctrl + wT – move the current split window into its own tab
- gt or :tabnext or :tabn – move to the next tab
- gT or :tabprev or :tabp – move to the previous tab
- #gt – move to tab number #
- :tabmove # – move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
- :tabclose or :tabc – close the current tab and all its windows
- :tabonly or :tabo – close all tabs except for the current one
