Vim Cheat Sheet
Vim Cheat Sheet
Global
:h[elp] keyword - open help for keyword :sav[eas] file - save file as :clo[se] - close current pane :ter[minal] - open a terminal window K - open man page for word under the cursor
Tip Run vimtutor in a terminal to learn the first Vim commands.
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) % - move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info) 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 5gg or 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
Tip Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.
Insert mode - inserting/appending text 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 o - append (open) a new line below the current line O - append (open) a new line above the current line ea - insert (append) at the end of the word Ctrl + h - delete the character before the cursor during insert mode Ctrl + w - delete word before the cursor during insert mode Ctrl + j - begin new line during insert mode Ctrl + t - indent (move right) line one shiftwidth during insert mode Ctrl + d - de-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth during insert mode 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 Esc - exit insert mode
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 g~ - switch case up to motion gu - change to lowercase up to motion gU - change to uppercase up to motion 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 U - restore (undo) last changed line 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 {} at - a block with "<" ">" tags ib - inner block with () iB - inner block with {} it - inner block with "<" ">" tags Esc - exit visual mode
Tip Instead of b or B one can also use ( or { respectively.
Visual commands
> - shift text right < - shift text left y - yank (copy) marked text d - delete marked text ~ - switch case u - change marked text to lowercase U - change marked text to uppercase Registers :reg[isters] - show registers content "xy - yank into register x "xp - paste contents of register x "+y - yank into the system clipboard register "+p - paste from the system clipboard register Tip Registers are being stored in ~/.viminfo, and will be loaded again on next restart of vim. Tip Special registers: 0 - last yank " - unnamed register, last delete or yank % - current file name
alternate file name
* - clipboard contents (X11 primary) + - clipboard contents (X11 clipboard) / - last search pattern : - last command-line . - last inserted text - - last small (less than a line) delete = - expression register _ - black hole register
Marks and positions
:marks - list of marks ma - set current position for mark A `a - jump to position of mark A y`a - yank text to position of mark A `0 - go to the position where Vim was previously exited `" - go to the position when last editing this file `. - go to the position of the last change in this file `` - go to the position before the last jump :ju[mps] - list of jumps Ctrl + i - go to newer position in jump list Ctrl + o - go to older position in jump list :changes - list of changes g, - go to newer position in change list g; - go to older position in change list Ctrl + ] - jump to the tag under cursor
Tip To jump to a mark you can either use a backtick (`) or an apostrophe ('). Using an apostrophe jumps to the beginning (first non-black) of the line holding the mark.
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
Indent text
: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 :tabn[ext] - move to the next tab gT or :tabp[revious] - move to the previous tab #gt - move to tab number # :tabm[ove] # - move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0) :tabc[lose] - close the current tab and all its windows :tabo[nly] - close all tabs except for the current one :tabdo command - run the command on all tabs (e.g. :tabdo q - closes all opened tabs)
Working with multiple files
:e[dit] file - edit a file in a new buffer :bn[ext] or :bn - go to the next buffer :bp[revious] or :bp - go to the previous buffer :bd[elete] - delete a buffer (close a file) :b# - go to a buffer by # :b file - go to a buffer by file :ls - list all open buffers :sp[lit] file - open a file in a new buffer and split window :vs[plit] file - open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window :vert[ical] ba[ll] - edit all buffers as vertical windows :tab ba[ll] - edit all buffers as tabs Ctrl + ws - split window Ctrl + wv - split window vertically Ctrl + ww - switch windows Ctrl + wq - quit a window Ctrl + wx - exchange current window with next one Ctrl + w= - make all windows equal height & width 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)
Diff
zf - manually define a fold up to motion zd - delete fold under the cursor za - toggle fold under the cursor zo - open fold under the cursor zc - close fold under the cursor zr - reduce (open) all folds by one level zm - fold more (close) all folds by one level zi - toggle folding functionality ]c - jump to start of next change [c - jump to start of previous change do or :diffg[et] - obtain (get) difference (from other buffer) dp or :diffpu[t] - put difference (to other buffer) :diffthis - make current window part of diff :dif[fupdate] - update differences :diffo[ff] - switch off diff mode for current window
Tip The commands for folding (e.g. za) operate on one level. To operate on all levels, use uppercase letters (e.g. zA). Tip To view the differences of files, one can directly start Vim in diff mode by running vimdiff in a terminal. One can even set this as git difftool.