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Moving in a Document from Normal Mode

Full documentation at: :h motion.txt.

Word Movements

A word is a sequence of characters or digits plus the underscore character. A WORD is a sequence of characters separated with any kind of spaces.

Keystrokes	Movement
`w=/=W`	Forward to start of next word / WORD
`b=/=B`	Backward to start of previous word / WORD
`e=/=E`	Forward to end of next word / WORD
`ge=/=gE`	Backward to end of next word / WORD

Character-Search Movements

Documentation at: :h f.

Keystrokes	Movement
`f{char}`	Forward to the next occurrence of char
`F{char}`	Backward to the previous occurrence of char
`t{char}`	Forward to the character before the next occurrence of char
`T{char}`	Backward to the character after the previous occurrence of char
`;`	Repeat the last Character-search movement
`,`	Reverse the last Character-search movement

Text Objects

Not used to move the cursor, but useful as a motion within a command. Documentation at: :h text-objects

Keystrokes	Movement
`iw=/=iW`	Current word/WORD
`aw=/=aW`	Current word/WORD plus one space
`is`	Current sentence
`as`	Current sentence plus one space
`is`	Current paragraph
`as`	Current paragraph plus one space

The following Text Objects interact with pair delimiters like '“', ')' or '}'.

Keystrokes	Movement
`a)` or `ab`	A pair of parentheses
`i)` or `ib`	Inside a pair of parentheses
`a}` or `aB`	A pair of braces
`i}` or `iB`	Inside a pair of braces
`a]`	A pair of square brackets
`i]`	Inside a pair of square brackets
`a>`	A pair of angle brackets
`i>`	Inside a pair of angle brackets
`a'`	A pair of single quotes
`i'`	Inside a pair of single quotes
`a"`	A pair of double quotes
`i"`	Inside a pair of double quotes
a`	A pair of back-ticks
i`	Inside a pair of back-ticks
`at`	A pair of xml tags
`it`	Inside a pair of xml tags

Operators

All the motion described above can be used with operators to modify the file from the Normal Mode.

Keystrokes	Ex command	Action
`c`	`:change`	Change: delete + switch to Insert Mode
`d`	`:delete`	Delete
`y`	`:yank`	Yank into register
`g~`		Swap case
`gu`		To lower case
`gU`		To upper case
`>`		Shift right
`<`		Shift left
`=`		Auto-indent

Examples

daw : Delete A Word
ci] : Delete what is inside of square brackets and switch to Insert Mode
=i} : Auto indent the content of {…}

Compound commands

Compound command	Equivalent	Action
`C`	`c$`	Change until the end of the line
`s`	`cl`	Change the letter under the cursor
`S`	`^C`	Change the current line
`I`	`^i`	Insert at the beginning of the line
`A`	`$a`	Insert at the end of the line
`o`	`A<CR>`	Insert a new line after the current line
`O`	`ko`	Insert a new line before the current line

Jumps

Documentation at :h jump.

Basic Jumps

Keystrokes	Jump description
`{number}G`	Jump to the line number
`%`	Jump to the matching parentheses
`(` / `)`	Jump to previous/next sentence
`{` / `}`	Jump to previous/next paragraph
`H` / `M` / `L`	Jump to the top / middle / bottom of the screen

Marked Jumps

A user has access to 52 markers corresponding to the alphabetic lower and upper case characters: [a-zA-Z]. There other marks described latter.

Documentation at: :h Mark.

Basic Marks

Keystrokes	Jump description
`m{a-zA-Z}`	Set mark at cursor position
`{mark}	Move the cursor to the exact position of the mark mark
`'{mark}`	Move the cursor to the begin of the line where the mark mark was defined

Automatic Marks

Mark	Function
`	Location before the last jump
`.`	Location of the last change
`[`	Start of the last change or yank
`]`	End of the last change or yank
`<`	Start of the last visual selection
`>`	End of the last visual selection

History of the jumps are accessible thanks to the Ex command :jump.

Keystrokes	Description
`<C-o>`	Backward through the history of jumps.
`<C-i>`	Forward through the history of jumps.

Visual Mode

Documentation at: :h visual-mode.

Enter Visual Mode

Keystrokes	Description
`v`	Enter visual mode character-wise
`V`	Enter visual mode line-wise
`C-v`	Enter visual mode block-wise
`gv`	Re-select the last visual selection

Exit Visual Mode

Keystrokes	Description
`<ESC>`	Exit visual mode
`v`	Exit visual from visual mode character-wise
`V`	Exit visual from visual mode line-wise
`C-v`	Exit visual from visual mode block-wise

Switch Visual Mode Type

Keystrokes	Description
`v`	Switch to visual character-wise from line/block wise
`V`	Switch to visual line-wise from character/block wise
`C-v`	Switch to visual block from character/line wise

Operations in Visual Mode

Keystrokes	Description
`~=/=d=/=y`…	Switch case/Delete/Yank… See `:h visual-operators`
`o`	Go to other end of highlighted selection

Insert Mode

Keystrokes	Description
`<C-h>`	Like backspace
`<C-w>`	Delete the previous word
`<C-u>`	Remove the current line (like in shell)
`<C-o>`	Switch to Insert Normal Mode
`<C-v>{code}`	Insert special character by its code
`<C-k>{char1}{char2}`	Insert special character by digraph

Examples:

To insert a character from Unicode code-point, for instance, unbreakable space (0X00A0), use <C-v>xa0.
In french, to insert 'œ' simply type: <C-k>oe.

Registers

Documentation at: :h reg.

User's registers ([a-z]) are called Named Register. They are accessible:

from Normal Mode with " (e.g. "ay will yank into register a)
from Insert/CmdLine/Replace Modes with <C-r>{register}

Special Registers

Register	Meaning
`"`	Unnamed register is the default register.
`_`	Black Hole register: putting something in it is lost.
`0`	By default, yanking operation fills this register.
`1`..=9=	The history of the delete/yank is stored in these registers.
`+`	System Clipboard Register.
`*`	System Clipboard Register.
`=`	Expression Register.
`%`	Name of the current file.
`/`	Last search command.
`:`	Last Ex command.
`.`	Last inserted text.

Example:

In Insert Mode, <C-=>5*6<CR> will display '30'.
To definitively delete something you can use "_d.
To paste something in Vim for your OS Clipboard, "*p.

Macros

Documentation at: :h complex-repeat.

Keystrokes	Description
`q{register}`	Start recording a macro in register
`q{REGISTER}`	Amend the register (use uppercase named register)
`@{register}`	Play the macro in register

Search and Substitute

Search

Documentation at :h /.

Keystrokes	Description
`/{pattern}<CR>`	Search forward pattern.
`?{pattern}<CR>`	Search backward pattern.
`n`	Next matching element.
`N`	Previous matching element.
`/\v{pattern}<CR>`	Search forward pattern in very magic mode.
`/\V{text}<CR>`	Search forward the exact text.
`/<CR>`	Search forward last pattern.

Substitute

Documentation at: :h substitute.

Basics

Keystrokes	Description
`:s/old/new`	Substitute the first matching old into new in the current line
`:s/old/new/g`	Substitute all the matching old into new in the current line.
`:%s/old/new/g`	Substitute all the matching old into new in the current file.
`:%s/old/new/gc`	Substitute all the matching old into new in the current file with confirmation request.
`:5,8s/old/new/g`	Substitute all the matching old into new between line 5 and 8.

Side note: When in Visual Mode, pressing : will automatically fill the range corresponding to the select block of text.

Tips
- Substitute in several files
  1. Fill the args with the list of file to modify: :args **/*.cpp.
  2. Apply the substitution: :argdo %s/old/new/g.
- Convert from Camel-Case to underscore_case
  The trick is to use:
  - the \l (lowercase 'L'). Documentation at: :h \l.
  - the \1, \2… syntax. Documentation at: :h pattern.
  This gives the following command: :%s/\v(\l)(\u)/\1_\l\2/gc.

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