Master Vim Navigation and Editing: Essential Keybindings Explained

Cursor Control

h

: Move cursor left j: Move cursor down k: Move cursor up l (or spacebar): Move cursor right w: Move forward one word b: Move backward one word e: Move to the end of the next word (: Jump to the beginning of the current sentence ): Jump to the beginning of the next sentence {: Jump to the beginning of the current paragraph }: Jump to the beginning of the next paragraph [[: Jump to the beginning of the current section ]]: Jump to the beginning of the next section 0: Jump to the start of the current line $: Jump to the end of the current line ^: Jump to the first non‑blank character of the line + or RETURN: Move to the first character of the next line -: Move to the first character of the previous line n | n: Move to the character at column n on the current line H: Move to the top of the screen M: Move to the middle of the screen L: Move to the bottom of the screen nH: Move n lines down from the top of the screen nL: Move n lines up from the bottom of the screen Ctrl‑F: Scroll forward one screen Ctrl‑B: Scroll backward one screen Ctrl‑D: Scroll down half a screen Ctrl‑U: Scroll up half a screen z RETURN: Redraw with cursor at top of screen z .: Redraw with cursor at middle of screen z -: Redraw with cursor at bottom of screen Ctrl‑L / Ctrl‑R: Redraw screen without moving cursor /text: Search forward for text /: Repeat last forward search ?text: Search backward for text ?: Repeat last backward search n: Repeat last search forward N: Repeat last search backward /text/+n: Move n lines below the line containing text ?text?-n: Move n lines above the line containing text nG: Jump to line

n

:

n : Jump to line

n

G

: Jump to the last line of the file

Content Editing

A

: Append text at end of line i: Insert text before cursor I: Insert text at beginning of line o: Open a new line below the current line O: Open a new line above the current line ESC: Exit insert/replace mode Ctrl‑T: Jump to next tab stop Backspace: Delete character before cursor Ctrl‑U: Delete from cursor to start of line cw: Change word (delete word and enter insert mode) cc: Change entire line (delete line and enter insert mode) C: Change from cursor to end of line dd: Delete current line ndd: Delete line

n

D

: Delete from cursor to end of line dw: Delete word under cursor d}: Delete to end of current paragraph d^: Delete to start of line c/pat: Delete up to first occurrence of pat dn: Delete up to next occurrence of n dfa: Delete up to and including first match of a dta: Delete up to but not including first match of a dL: Delete from cursor to last line on screen dG: Delete from cursor to end of file J: Join current line with the next line p: Paste after cursor from default register P: Paste before cursor from default register rx: Replace character x under cursor Rtext: Replace text starting at cursor with text u: Undo last change U: Restore the entire line to its original state x: Delete character under cursor X: Delete character before cursor nX: Delete n characters before cursor (cursor character stays) .: Repeat last change ~: Toggle case of character under cursor y: Yank (copy) current line into unnamed register yy: Yank current line "xyy: Yank current line into register

x

ye

: Yank to end of word

File Operations

:w

: Write (save) file :w!: Write file, force overwrite warnings :w! file: Overwrite file without warnings :wq: Write file and quit :q: Quit without saving :q!: Force quit without saving :w file: Write current buffer to file ZZ or :x: Write if modified, then quit :n1,n2w file: Write lines n1 ‑ n2 to file :n1,n2w >>file: Append lines n1 ‑ n2 to file :e file2: Edit file2 in the current window :e!: Reload file from disk, discarding changes :e#: Switch to alternate file :n: Edit next file in argument list :n!: Edit next file, ignoring warnings :r file: Read file and insert after cursor :r! command: Execute command and insert its output after cursor