Vim Cheat Sheet

Movement

By “Word”

• w forward to beginning of the next word
• W forward to beginning of the next word (whitespace separates)
• e forward to end of next word
• E forward to end of next word (whitespace separates)
• b back to beginning of the previous word
• B back to beginning of the previous word (whitespace separates)
• ge back to end of the next word
• gE back to end of the next word (whitespace separates)

Searching

On current line

• fn find and move to the next occurrence of n. You can follow this with a ; to repeat the find/move. You can also use , to go back one match.
• tn find and move to (until) the character preceding the next occurrence of n. As above, ; repeats, and , goes back one match.
• Fn find and move to the previous occurrence of n. ; repeats, , goes back one match.
• Tn find and move to (unTil) the character following the next occurence of n. ; repeats, , goes back one match.

In document

• /term search forwards for term
• ?term search backwards for term

Combining with other commands

• cfn - change the text up to where you find the next occurrence of n
• cFn - change the text back to where you Find the previous occurrence of n

By page/screen

• ^f forward a page/screen
• ^b back a page/screen
• ^u up half a page/screen
• ^d down half a page/screen

Positioning within a page/screen

• H go to Head (top) or “High point” of screen
• M go to Middle of screen
• L go to Last line or “Low point” of screen

Positioning within a document/file

• gg first line of document
• G last line of document
• 500G line 500
• * search forwards for word currently under cursor (use with n and N)
• # search backward for word currently under cursor (use with N and n - note that direction is reversed)
• % matching bracket, brace, square bracket - see matchit.vim for extended behavior

Marks

• ma set position of (book)mark a
• :marks list currently defined marks
• 'a jump to rot for mark a
• ```ajump to row/column for marka`

Editing

• i insert at cursor
• I insert at beginning of line
• a append after cursor
• A append at end of line
• r replace a single character
• R replace any number of characters
• c<motion> change, e.g. cw is change word
• x delete character under cursor
• X delete character before cursor
• d<motion> delete, e.g. dw is delete word, dd is delete line

Copy/Cut & Paste

See http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip386 for more detailed info.

1. press v (for visual mode) to start the selection (or V to select whole lines, or Ctrl-v for a vertical block)
2. move the cursor to where you want the selection to end
3. press d for delete (cut) or y for yank (copy)
4. position the cursor where you want to paste
5. press P or p for paste before or after cursor, respectively

Buffers

For an excellent tutorial, see http://reefpoints.dockyard.com/2013/10/22/vim-buffers.html

• add a buffer: :badd
• list open buffers: :ls
• switch to alternate (#) buffer: CTRL+6
• switch to previous buffer: :bp
• switch to next buffer: :bn
• switch to buffer x (where x is an integer): :bx
• delete (close) current buffer: :bd
• delete (close) buffers x and y: :bd x y

Windows

For another excellent tutorial, see http://reefpoints.dockyard.com/2013/11/27/vim-windows.html

• split current window: CTRL+w s
• split current window vertically: CTRL+w v
• switch to window to left: CTRL+w h
• switch to window to right: CTRL+w l
• switch to window above: CTRL+w k
• switch to window below: CTRL+w j
• rotate windows: CTRL+w r
• rotate windows (opposite direction): CTRL+w R
• move current window the far left and use the full height of the screen: CTRL-w H
• move current window the far bottom and use the full width of the screen: CTRL-w J
• move current window the far top and full width of the screen: CTRL-w K
• move current window the far right and full height of the screen: CTRL-w L
• resize the windows equally : CTRL-w =
• incrementally increase the window to the right: CTRL-w >
  • takes a parameter, e.g. CTRL-w 20 >
• incrementally increase the window to the left: CTRL-w <
  • takes a parameter, e.g. CTRL-w 20 <
• incrementally decrease the window’s height: CTRL-w -
  • takes a parameter, e.g. CTRL-w 10 -
• incrementally increase the window’s height: CTRL-w +
  • takes a parameter, e.g. CTRL-w 10 +