Vim Basics A Quick Start Guide

Vim is a lightweight, keyboard-driven text editor available on almost every Unix-like system. This quick guide covers the essential concepts and commands to get productive fast.

• Normal (command) mode: navigate and manipulate text.
• Insert mode: type text (enter with i, a, o; return to Normal with Esc).
• Visual mode: select text (v for char, V for line, Ctrl+v for block).

• h j k l : left, down, up, right
• w / e / b : word forward, end of word, word back
• 0 / ^ / $ : begin of line, first non-blank, end of line
• gg / G : top of file / end of file

• x : delete character
• dd / yy : delete line / yank (copy) line
• p / P : paste after / before cursor
• u / Ctrl+r : undo / redo
• ~ : toggle case

• /pattern + Enter : search forward
• n / N : next / previous match
• :%s/old/new/g : replace all in file (use c for confirm)

• :w : write (save)
• :q : quit
• :wq or :x : save and quit
• :q! : quit without saving

• Use counts: 5j moves down 5 lines, 2dw deletes two words.
• Combine commands: d$ deletes to end of line, caw changes a word.
• Use registers: “ayyp stores a line into register a and pastes it.
• Sessions and buffers: :e filename to open, :bn / :bp to cycle buffers.

• ~/.vimrc (or init.vim for Neovim) holds your settings. Example minimal options: set number set expandtab set shiftwidth=2 set tabstop=2
• Popular plugin managers: vim-plug, Vundle, Pathogen.

Further learning: vimtutor (run vimtutor in terminal) and practice small edits until motions become muscle memory.