Using Vim Text Editor

Vim is a free, open-source, highly efficient command-line text editor used in Unix systems. Vim/ vi Improved is an improved version of earlier favorite vi. It has five basic and distinct operation modes:

• Normal mode
• Insert mode
• Visual mode
• Command mode
• Ex mode

Normal mode

Normal mode is the default mode. It is the mode you are taken to after you open a file using Vim used for navigation and manipulation.

Cursor Movement

The mouse or touchpad are not used in Vim, all cursor movements involves the keyboard.

Letters Used in Cursor Movements

Letter	Action
h	left arrow key (left)
j	down arrow key (down)
k	up arrow key (up)
l	right arrow key (right)

Word Jump

These operations involve movements relative to words

Letters Used in Cursor Movements

Letter	Action
w	jump to start of next word
b	jump to beginning of previous word
e	jump to end of current word

Line Movements

Screen Movement

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
0	move to beginning of current line.
^	move to first non-blank character of the line.
$	move to the end of the line.

Word Search

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
gg	move cursor to first line of the file.
G	move cursor to last line of the file.
H/M/L	move High (top), move to Middle, move to Low (bottom)
U/D	scroll half page up or down.

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
/pattern	search the pattern forward relative to cursor e.g (1,10s/word1/word2/g or %s/word1/word2/g)
?pattern	search the pattern backwards relative to cursor.
n/N	find next and previous matches.

Character Search

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
f{char}	find the next occurrence of a character on the current line.
t{char}	move cursor to just before the occurrence of the char.

Command mode

Command mode is a subset of insert mode.

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
:n	specify newline**
:set nu	number lines
:set nonu	removes numbers/ undo :nu

Insert Mode

Insert mode allow editing, modification, navigation and save operations.

Navigation

Unlike in normal mode which is also the standard for navigation, insert mode append (mandatory) Ctrl to the characters and also support arrow keys.

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
Ctrl + h	left arrow key (left)
Ctrl + j	down arrow key (down)
Ctrl + k	up arrow key (up)
Ctrl + l	right arrow key (right)

Deletion

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
Backspace/ Ctrl + h	deletes characters before the cursor.
Ctrl + w	delete entire word before the cursor.
Delete	deletes after the cursor

Undo

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
u	undo
U	undo on the current line
R	undo last operation

Copy

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
u	undo
yy/Y	copy entire line
y[n]w	copy n words

cut n words

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
d[n]w	cut n words
[n]dd	cut n lines

Paste

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
p	paste after the cursor
P	paste before the cursor

Visual Mode

This mode is primarily used to target specific group of text that does not follow a pattern and make changes to them. It has three types, line-wise, character-wise and block-wise. It’s usage is advanced and we will not discuss them here.

Entering and Exiting Various Modes of Vim

A BareMetal Image

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
i	enter insert mode
Esc	exit insert mode.

Saving and exiting

Letters Used in Cursor Movements*

Instruction	Action
:w	save
:q	exit
:wq	save and exit
:q!	force exit
:wq!	force save then exit