Vim Cheat Sheet ⌨️

A simple cheat sheet to help you become slightly more functional in Vim than i + esc + :wq.

Commands

Move Around

Key(s)	Action
h	left
j	down
k	up
l	right
0	go to start of line
^	go to first non-black character of line
$	go to end of line
gg	go to first line
G	go to last line
:5	go to line n
5G	got to line 5
Ctrl + f	move forward one screen
Ctrl + b	move backward one screen

Insert & Replace

Key(s)	Action
i	insert before the cursor
I	insert at the beginning of the line
a	append after the cursor
A	append at the end of the line
o	open a new line below the current line
O	open a new line above the current line
r	replace a character
cw	change a word
cc	change a line
esc	exit insert mode

Cut, Copy & Paste

Key(s)	Action
yy	yank (copy) a line
5yy	yank 5 lines
yw	yank a word from the cursor position to the next word
yiw	yank inner word (with no spaces)
x	delete (cut) a character
dd	delete a line
5dd	delete 5 lines
dw	delete a word
p	paste after cursor
P	paste before cursor

Undo, Redo & Repeat

Key(s)	Action
u	undo
Ctrl + r	redo
.	repeat previous command

Search, Find & Replace

Key(s)	Action
/pattern	forward search for pattern
n	repeat last search
N	repeat last search in the opposite direction
:noh	shut off highlighted search results until next search
:%s/old/new/	replace on the current line
:%s/old/new/g	replace globally throughout the document

Use Tabs

Key(s)	Action
:tabnew filename	open file in a new tab
:tabdo command	run a command on all tabs
:tabclose	close the current tab
:tabonly	close all tabs but the current one
gt	move to next tab
gT	move to previous tab
5gt	move to tab 5

Save & Close

Key(s)	Action
:w	write (save)
:wq	write (save) and quit (close)
:wq!	force write (save) and quit (close)
:q	quit (close)
:q!	force quit (close) without saving changes

Global

Key(s)	Action
:help keyword	get help on a command or topic
:set keyword	toggle editor option
:edit filename	open file to edit
:saveas filename	save file as

Also Included

• .vimrc: a lightweight Vim configuration
• .vim: contains An Old Hope colour scheme for Vim

References

• A great (more detailed) Vim cheat sheet: https://vim.rtorr.com
• An Old Hope colour scheme: https://github.com/j-tom/vim-old-hope