Learning Vim keyboard shortcuts can transform your text editing experience from tedious to efficient, making you a more productive developer or writer. Vim, famed for its steep learning curve and unparalleled editing capabilities, offers a wide array of keyboard shortcuts that can significantly enhance your workflow.
Whether you’re a novice just beginning to explore Vim’s powerful features or a seasoned user looking to fine-tune your skills, mastering these shortcuts will help you navigate, edit, and manipulate text with speed and precision.
In this article, we’re presenting an essential list of Vim keyboard shortcuts that can streamline your editing process and unleash the full potential of this robust text editor.
FAQ on Vim Keyboard Shortcuts
What is Vim?
Vim is a powerful, highly configurable text editor built for efficiency. It’s popular in programming due to its speed and versatility in editing code. Unlike typical editors, Vim has multiple modes like Normal, Insert, and Visual, allowing for complex text manipulation with minimal keystrokes.
How do I enter Insert mode in Vim?
To enter Insert mode, press i while in Normal mode. This allows you to insert text at the cursor position. Other keys like I, a, and A also switch modes but with slight variations. You’ll find Insert mode invaluable for straightforward text entry.
How can I save and exit in Vim?
Saving in Vim is straightforward. While in Normal mode, type :w to save your file. To exit, use :q. For a combined save and exit, :wq does the trick. Want to force it? Append ! to the commands, like :wq!. Vim’s command line mode makes this process seamless.
What are the basic movement commands in Vim?
Navigating text in Vim is about mastering simple keys. For basic movement, use h (left), j (down), k (up), and l (right). While w moves to the next word, b moves back. These commands turn text navigation into second nature, enhancing your editing speed.
How do I copy and paste text in Vim?
Cut, copy, and paste commands in Vim are quick. Use yy to copy (yank) a line, dd to cut, and p to paste after the cursor. For Visual mode, press v, select text, and use y or d followed by p. Clipboard management becomes intuitive with these shortcuts.
How can I undo and redo in Vim?
Mistakes aren’t fatal in Vim. Undo with u when in Normal mode. To redo, press Ctrl-r. These commands allow for efficient error correction, making edits reversible within seconds. Confidence in your work improves as you quickly rectify any slip-ups.
What are Vim’s different modes?
Vim operates in several modes. Normal mode is for commands; Insert mode is for typing text. Visual mode allows text selection, and Command-line mode (:) is for commands like saving. Mastering the switch between modes unlocks Vim’s full potential.
How do I search for text in Vim?
Searching in Vim is precise. Press / and type your query, hitting Enter to search forward. Use ? to search backward. Navigate results with n for next and N for previous. These search functionalities, enhanced by regex support, streamline code scanning.
How do I replace text in Vim?
Replacing text involves the :s command. For instance, :s/old/new replaces “old” with “new” in the current line. To replace globally, use :%s/old/new/g. This command can utilize regular expressions, allowing for sophisticated text substitutions effortlessly.
How do I customize Vim shortcuts?
Customizing Vim is simple with the .vimrc file. Map keys using commands like :map, :noremap, or :imap for different modes. For example, adding noremap <C-A> :w<CR> in .vimrc maps Ctrl-A to save. Personalizing shortcuts optimizes your editing workflow.
And here’s the table with all the Vim keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
: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 |
h | Move cursor left |
j | Move cursor down |
k | Move cursor up |
l | Move cursor right |
gj | Move cursor down (multi-line text) |
gk | Move cursor up (multi-line text) |
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) |
ge | Jump backwards to the end of a word |
gE | Jump backwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation) |
% | Move cursor to matching character |
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 |
gd | Move to local declaration |
gD | Move to global declaration |
fx | Jump to next occurrence of character x |
tx | Jump to before next occurrence of character x |
Fx | Jump to the previous occurrence of character x |
Tx | Jump to after previous occurrence of character x |
; | Repeat previous f, t, F or T movement |
, | Repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards |
} | Jump to next paragraph |
{ | Jump to previous paragraph |
zz | Center cursor on screen |
zt | Position cursor on top of the screen |
zb | Position cursor at the bottom of the screen |
Ctrl + e | Move screen down one line (without moving cursor) |
Ctrl + y | Move screen up one line (without moving cursor) |
Ctrl + b | Move screen up one page (cursor to last line) |
Ctrl + f | Move screen down one page (cursor to first line) |
Ctrl + d | Move cursor and screen down 1/2 page |
Ctrl + u | Move cursor and screen up 1/2 page |
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 | Add a line break at cursor position 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 |
Ctrl + rx | Insert the contents of register x during insert mode |
Ctrl + ox | Temporarily enter normal mode to issue one normal-mode command x during insert mode |
Esc or Ctrl + c | Exit insert mode |
r | Replace a single character |
R | Replace more than one character, until ESC is pressed |
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$ or C | Change (replace) to the end of the line |
ciw | Change (replace) entire word |
cw or ce | Change (replace) to the end of the word |
s | Delete character and substitute text (same as cl) |
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 |
v | Start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank) |
V | Start linewise visual mode |
o | Move to the 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 or Ctrl + c | Exit visual mode |
> | 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 |
: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 |
:marks | List of marks |
ma | Set current position for mark A |
`a | Jump to position of mark A |
ya“ | 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 |
qa | Record macro a |
q | Stop recording macro |
@a | Run macro a |
@@ | Rerun last run macro |
yy | Yank (copy) a line |
2yy | Yank (copy) 2 lines |
yw | Yank (copy) the characters of the word from the cursor to the start of the next word |
yiw | Yank (copy) word under the cursor |
yaw | Yank (copy) word under the cursor and the space after or before it |
y$ or Y | Yank (copy) to end of line |
p | Put (paste) the clipboard after cursor |
P | Put (paste) before cursor |
gp | Put (paste) the clipboard after cursor and leave cursor after the new text |
gP | Put (paste) before cursor and leave cursor after the new text |
dd | Delete (cut) a line |
2dd | Delete (cut) 2 lines |
dw | Delete (cut) the characters of the word from the cursor to the start of the next word |
diw | Delete (cut) word under the cursor |
daw | Delete (cut) word under the cursor and the space after or before it |
:3,5d | Delete lines starting from 3 to 5 |
:g/{pattern}/d | Delete all lines containing pattern |
:g!/{pattern}/d | Delete all lines not containing pattern |
d$ or D | Delete (cut) to the end of the line |
x | Delete (cut) character |
>> | Indent (move right) line one shiftwidth |
<< | De-indent (move left) line one shiftwidth |
>% | Indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace) |
<% | De-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace) |
>ib | Indent inner block with () |
>at | Indent a block with <> tags |
3== | Re-indent 3 lines |
=% | Re-indent a block with () or {} (cursor on brace) |
=iB | Re-indent inner block with {} |
gg=G | Re-indent entire buffer |
]p | Paste and adjust indent to current line |
:w | Write (save) the file, but don’t exit |
:w !sudo tee % | Write out the current file using sudo |
: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 |
:wqa | Write (save) and quit on all tabs |
/pattern | Search for pattern |
?pattern | Search backward for pattern |
\vpattern | ‘Very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols |
n | Repeat search in same direction |
N | Repeat search in opposite direction |
:%s/old/new/g | Replace all old with new throughout file |
:%s/old/new/gc | Replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations |
:noh[lsearch] | Remove highlighting of search matches |
:vim[grep] /pattern/ {file} | Search for pattern in multiple files |
:cn[ext] | Jump to the next match |
:cp[revious] | Jump to the previous match |
:cope[n] | Open a window containing the list of matches |
:ccl[ose] | Close the quickfix window |
: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[dit] file | Edit a file in a new buffer |
:bn[ext] | Go to the next buffer |
:bp[revious] | Go to the previous buffer |
:bd[elete] | Delete a buffer (close a file) |
:b[uffer]# | Go to a buffer by index # |
:b[uffer] file | Go to a buffer by file |
:ls or :buffers | 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) |
Ctrl + wH | Make current window full height at far left (leftmost vertical window) |
Ctrl + wL | Make current window full height at far right (rightmost vertical window) |
Ctrl + wJ | Make current window full width at the very bottom (bottommost horizontal window) |
Ctrl + wK | Make current window full width at the very top (topmost horizontal window) |
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 |
In case the searchable table doesn’t load.
With over a decade in the tech field, Bogdan blends technical expertise with insights on business innovation in technology.
A regular contributor to TMS Outsource's blog, where you'll find sharp analyses on software development, tech business strategies, and global tech dynamics.
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