VIM Keyboard Shortcuts

 

Cursor movement
h	move left
j	move down
k	move up
l	move right
w	jump by start of words (punctuation considered words)
W	jump by words (spaces separate words)
e	jump to end of words (punctuation considered words)
E	jump to end of words (no punctuation)
b	jump backward by words (punctuation considered words)
B	jump backward by words (no punctuation)
0	(zero) start of line
^	first non-blank character of line
$	end of line
G	Go To command (prefix with number
Note:	Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example, 4j moves down 4 lines.
Insert Mode	Inserting/Appending text
i	start insert mode at cursor
I	insert at the beginning of the line
a	append after the cursor
A	append at the end of the line
o	open (append) blank line below current line (no need to press return)
O	open blank line above current line
ea	append at end of word
Esc	exit insert mode
Editing
r	replace a single character (does not use insert mode)
J	join line below to the current one
cc	change (replace) an entire line
cw	change (replace) to the end of word
c$	change (replace) to the end of line
s	delete character at cursor and subsitute text
S	delete line at cursor and substitute text (same as cc)
xp	transpose two letters (delete and paste, technically)
u	undo
.	repeat last command
Marking text (visual mode)
v	start visual mode, mark lines, then do command (such as 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 braces)
aB	a {} block (with brackets)
ib	inner () block
iB	inner {} block
Esc	exit visual mode
Visual commands
>	shift right
<	shift left
y	yank (copy) marked text
d	delete marked text
~	switch case
Cut and Paste
yy	yank (copy) a line
2yy	yank 2 lines
yw	yank word
y$	yank to end of line
p	put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
P	put (paste) before cursor
dd	delete (cut) a line
dw	delete (cut) the current word
x	delete (cut) current character
Exiting
:w	write (save) the file, but don't exit
:wq	write (save) and quit
:q	quit (fails if anything has changed)
:q!	quit and throw away changes
Search/Replace
/pattern	search for pattern
?pattern	search backward for pattern
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
Working with multiple files
:e filename	Edit a file in a new buffer
:bnext (or :bn)	go to next buffer
:bprev (of :bp)	go to previous buffer
:bd	delete a buffer (close a file)
:sp filename	Open a file in a new buffer and split window
ctrl+ws	Split windows
ctrl+ww	switch between windows
ctrl+wq	Quit a window
ctrl+wv	Split windows vertically

 

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