Introduction

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as "vi" with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X.

Common usage

* type: vim file-name.

* press "i", "o", or "a", switch to insert mode, input the text you need.

* press "Esc", switch to command mode, then type ":wq" to save and quit the vim(just type "q" to quit if you didn't make any change, or "q!" quit without change).

Move the cursor

The basics

• h(or ←): move cursor left
• j(or ↓): move cursor down
• k(or ↑): move cursor up
• l(or →): move cursor right
• gj(or g↓): move cursor down a line within multi-line text
• gk(or g↑): move cursor up a line within multi-line text
• Add a prefix number to the key above, move multiple times. e.g. 3h moves cursor 3 positions to the left.

The first and the last

• gg: move the cursor to the beginning of the document
• G: move the cursor to last line of the document(add a prefix number to G, jump to the specified line. e.g. 4G will jump to the fourth line )
• ^: move the cursor to the line's first non-whitespace character; Home(0): move the cursor to the beginning of line.
• $(End): move the cursor to the end of line; g_: jump to the last non-blank character of the line

Moving Relative to the Screen

• H: Moves the cursor to the start of the screen's first line(use the mnemonic "high").
• M: Moves the cursor to the start of the screen's middle line(use the mnemonic "Middle").
• L: Moves the cursor to the start of the screen's last line(use the mnemonic "Low").

Jump between words

• w: jump forward to the start of a word
• W: jump forward to the start of a word(words separated by spaces, so they can contain punctuation)
• e: jump forward to the end of a word
• E: jump forward to the end of a word(words separated by spaces)
• b: jump backward to the start of a word
• B: jump backward to the start of a word(words separated by spaces)
• ge: jump backward to the end of a word
• gE: jump backward to the end of a word(words separated by spaces)

Moving cursor by searching a single character

• %: move cursor to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)
• fx: jump to the next "x" character
• tx: jump to the position before the next "x" character
• Fx: jump to the previous "x" character
• Tx: jump to the position after the previous "x" character
• ;: repeat previous f, t, F or T movement
• ,: repeat previous f, t, F or T movement, backwards

Just move screen

• zz: center cursor on screen
• zt: position cursor on top of the screen
• zb: position cursor on 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

Others

• }: jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
• {: jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
• gd: move to local declaration
• gD: move to global declaration

Open multiple files

Split the screen to open multiple files

Use -d option to see the difference between two files

vim -d file1 file2

Use -o option or :split command split the screen horizontally:

vim -o file1 file2
OR vim file1, then :split file2

Use -O option or :vsplit(or vsp) command split the screen vertically:

vim -O file1 file2
OR vim file1, then :vsp file2

You can navigate between each split by using the key combination ctrl-wand then the direction key in which you want to move.

Use -p option or :tabnew command to open multiple files in tabs:

vim -p file1 file2
OR vim file1, then :tabnew file2.
use :tabn(ext) or gt to go to the next tab page. Wraps around from the last to the first one.
use :tabp(revious) or gT to go to the previous tab page. Wraps around from the first one to the last one.
Other usage like "tabn {count}" can be found by using the command ":help tabn".

Buffers

A buffer is something that is loaded into the memory, so it can be used in the immediate future.

The command ":edit(or :e) filename" is used to open a new file into a new buffer, and switch to this new buffer.

If you want add a file to the buffer list, without loading it, let it stay in the background, you can use the command ":badd(or:bad) filename".

There are three commands to list the open buffers:
:ls, :files, or :buffers.