• Table of contents

To do

General

HELP

• :h[elp] keyword - open help for keyword
• K - open man page for word under the cursor

EXITING

• :x or ZZ writes (only if changes are made) and quit the file
• :wq writes (even if no changes are made) and quit the file
• :q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
• :q! or ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes

FILE OPERATIONS

• :wq or :x or ZZ - write (save) and quit
• :q - quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
• :q! or ZQ - quit and throw away unsaved changes
• :wq filename.ext - writes and saves a file with a given name
• :sav[eas] file - save file as
• :ter[minal] - open a terminal window
• :w - write (save) the file, but don't exit
• :w !sudo tee % - write out the current file using sudo
• :wqa - write (save) and quit on all tabs

<aside> 💡 Tip Run vimtutor in a terminal to learn the first Vim commands.

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<aside> 💡 Writing a file modifies its timestamp

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Movement

CURSOR MOVEMENT

• h - move cursor left
• j - move cursor down
• k - move cursor up
• l - move cursor right

QUICK MOVEMENT

• % - move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)
• ^ - 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
• 5gg or 5G - go to line 5

DECLARATION MOVEMENT

• gd - move to local declaration
• gD - move to global declaration

CURSOR MOVEMENT RELATIVE TO SCREEN

• H - move to top of screen
• M - move to middle of screen
• L - move to bottom of screen
• zz - center cursor on screen

CONTENT MOVEMENT

• 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)
• ge - jump backwards to the end of a word
• gE - jump backwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)

REPEAT MOVEMENT

• ; - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
• , - repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards

OCURRENCE MOVEMENT

• fx - jump to next occurrence of character x
• tx - jump to before next occurrence of character x
• Fx - jump to previous occurrence of character x
• Tx - jump to after previous occurrence of character x

SCREEN MOVEMENT

• 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

PARAGRAPH MOVEMENT

• } - jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
• { - jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)

<aside> 💡 Tip Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.

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Insert mode

BASIC INSERTION

• i - insert before the cursor
• I - insert at the beginning of the line
• a - insert (append) after the cursor
• A - insert (append) at the end of the line

NEWLINE INSERTION

• Ctrl + j - begin new line during insert mode

AUTO-COMPLETE INSERTION

• Ctrl + n - insert (auto-complete) next match before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + p - insert (auto-complete) previous match before the cursor during insert mode

EXIT INSERT MODE

• Esc - exit insert mode
• Ctrl + c - exit insert mode
• Ctrl + [ - exit insert mode

APPEND

• o - append (open) a new line below the current line
• O - append (open) a new line above the current line

DELETION

• Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode
• Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode

INDENTATION

• Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode
• Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode

REGISTER INSERTION

• Ctrl + rx - insert the contents of register x

TEMPORAL NORMAL MODE

• Ctrl + ox - Temporarily enter normal mode to issue one normal-mode command x.

Visual mode

BASIC VISUAL MODE

• v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
• V - start linewise visual mode
• Ctrl + v - start visual block mode

MOVEMENT

• o - move to other end of marked area
• O - move to other corner of block

EXIT VISUAL MODE

• Esc - exit visual mode

<aside> 💡 Tip Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.

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Editing