Master Vim: 12 Essential Tips to Boost Your Coding Efficiency

1. Use Built‑in Help

Vim’s internal help can be accessed with :help followed by a command or keyword, e.g., :help :w for the write command.

2. Edit as Normal User, Save as Root

When a file requires elevated privileges, type: :w !sudo tee % The command writes the buffer to stdout, pipes it to sudo tee, which writes to the original file ( %).

3. Convert Spaces ↔ Tabs

3.1 Convert spaces to tabs

:set noexpandtab</code>
<code>:retab!

3.2 Convert tabs to spaces

:set expandtab</code>
<code>:set tabstop=4</code>
<code>:set shiftwidth=4</code>
<code>:retab

4. Indent All Lines

Press gg to go to the top, then = and G to re‑indent the whole file, or use the command :gg=G.

5. Preserve Indentation When Pasting

Add the following to .vimrc: set pastetoggle=<F2> Press F2 before pasting to keep original indentation.

6. Start Writing at Correct Indent Depth

In normal mode, press S (uppercase) at the beginning of a line; Vim moves the cursor to the proper indent and enters insert mode.

7. Show Diff Before Saving

Use: :w !diff % - This writes the unsaved buffer to stdin and compares it with the file on disk.

8. Enable Spell Checking

Turn on Vim’s spell checker with: :set spell Misspelled words are highlighted according to the color scheme.

9. Display Line Numbers

Add to .vimrc: set number relativenumber This shows absolute numbers on the current line and relative numbers on others.

10. Open File at a Specific Line

Launch Vim with +n where n is the line number:

vim +n <file-name>

11. Use Readable Color Schemes

Select a color scheme that highlights syntax clearly; examples are shown in the accompanying screenshots.

12. Delete Text in Insert Mode

Ctrl+w

– delete the previous word. Ctrl+h – delete the previous character. Ctrl+u – delete everything before the cursor on the current line. Ctrl+k – delete everything after the cursor on the current line.