Vim Basics

1. Modes
Vim, by default, runs in a mode which does not let you begin typing (unlike notepad, Word, etc).
Instead, vim begins in command mode. Each mode is accessed by pressing a key, and escape returns
to command mode. The various modes are as follows.

(a) Insert mode: The mode that lets you type normally. When in command mode, vim allows you to
start typing before the cursor (i /I ), after the cursor (a/A), or in adjacent lines (o/O).
(b) Visual mode: v allows you to highlight text, as you would by using a mouse in a graphical editor.
i. Block: ctrl+V Visual Block selects characters in a rectangular shape, controlled by the
movement (h, j, k, l ) keys.
ii. Line: shift+V Selects entire lines at a time.
(c) Movement: h, j, k, l These four keys are located adjacent to each other on the keyboard, where
the right hand sits. This is intentional; they seem to be a strange collection, but the arrangement
allows easy movement of the cursor without having to move your hand to a mouse, or the arrow
keys.

Vim deals with text by the character, word, line, or paragraph. With many commands, you can
combine a command with one of the letters w, W, (for ’words’), b, B, (for words, moving backwards
from the cursor), or l (for lines). Simply pressing w, W, b, or B moves forward or backward by that
amount while in command mode. The brackets, { and } move forward and backward one paragraph
at a time.

2. Deleting text: d and x delete text. x removes one character at a time; X deletes backwards. dw and
dW delete words, whereas db and dB delete words backwards. dd deletes an entire line, and D deletes
everything from the cursor to the end of the line.

3. Copy/Pasting text

(a) ”yanking” is the equivalent to copying, so named because you use the y key to copy selected
text. Anything highlighted (in Visual mode) will be placed into a buffer. There are other buffers
available for your use, named a - z. To use the registers, prefix the commands with a quotation
mark, ”, followed by the letter of the buffer. For example, to yank into register q, the command
is ”qy. Pressing yy grabs an entire line.
(b) ”pasting” puts the contents of a buffer back into the file being edited. To paste, p pastes after
the cursor, P before. Similar to yanking, prefixing the command with ” and a letter will paste
from the specified buffer.

4. Files

(a) Opening: The most basic way to open a file is from the terminal, when launching vim. Once you
are using vim, the :e command, followed by a filename, opens a file for reading.
(b) Saving: The :w command writes your document to disk. Adding a name, i.e. :w main.cpp will
save to that filename.
(c) Quitting: :q quits vim. This can be used in conjunction with :w, to form the command :wq, which
writes your file, then quits.
If you are editing a file and have not saved it when trying to quit or open a new file, you will get
a message saying No write since last change (use ! to override). By appending an ! to the :e or
:q commands, you can discard any changes since your last save.

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 Advanced Vim Features
1. The tilde (˜) key will change the capitalization of the current selection (i.e., ’vim’ becomes ’VIM’)
2. Moving to the beginning or end of a line can be accomplished with 0 and $, respectively.
3. By pressing m, followed by any letter a-z, you can save (”mark”) a location in your document, and
jump to it using the apostrophe ´ key, followed by the same letter. This lets you jump to important
points of a file quickly.
4. Syntax highlighting can be turned on using the :syntax on command. It can be turned off with :syntax
off.
5. Vim allows you to run terminal commands without having to quit vim. Pressing :!, followed by a
terminal command, vim will execute the command, then return you to the vim window. For example,
:!ls will print out the contents of the current directory, prompt you to hit Enter, then return to vim.
6. The .vimrc file resides in your home directory, and contains a list of preferences. In this file, you can
set your favorite options (syntax highlighting, etc) to be set every time vim is launched.
7. u undoes the last action. ctrl+r redoes it.
8. The / command allows you to search a file for a string. /linux will search the document for the string
’linux’. Pressing n jumps to the next occurrence of the string, and N moves backwards.
9. Folding
In a class such as cs225, Folding is one of the most useful features of vim. Folding lets you ’hide’ areas
of your document, which you can collapse and expand at will. Vim creates folds based on syntax,
indentation, or you can create them manually. When dealing with a language such as C++, vim’s
syntax detection does an excellent job of creating folds.
(a) Enabling folds: Folds are turned on and off with the :set foldenable and :set nofoldenable options.
(b) Fold method: There are three primary methods of doing this; syntax, indent, manual. Toggle
between them with :set foldmethod=OPTION, i.e. :set foldmethod=syntax.
(c) Folding Commands: There are several ways to expand and collapse folds.
za toggles a fold.
zc and zC close a fold, and recursively close all folds that contain the area under the cursor.
zo and zO opens a fold, and recursively opens all folds under the cursor.
zR and zM open all folds in a document, and close all folds in a document.
In manual folding mode, zfNj creates a fold from the cursor down N lines. zd deletes the fold at
the cursor, and zE deletes all folds.
10. Tabs
New versions of Vim allow you to open up separate tabs with different documents in each. To create a
tab, use the command :tabnew. The commands :tabnext and :tabprev move to the next and previous
open tabs.
11. Split Windows
Vim lets you divide your window into multiple areas to edit different regions of the same file, or different
files concurrently.
:split divides the window in half horizontally. Prefixing it with a number, such as :20 split, creates a
split of 20 characters.
:vsplit divides the window vertically.
Pressing ctrl+w, followed by one of the direction (j, k, l, ) keys, will move focus from one area to
another.
The quit (:q) command will close a split area.