Moving the display, as opposed to moving the cursor, allows you to choose the part of the file that displays in the current window. For instance, the paragraph that you are reading is at the bottom of the current display and you would like to bring it somewhere near the middle of the screen. You could issue a CTRL+D to page down half a screen or if the cursor is located somewhere in the paragraph you might also issue a "zz" or "z." to bring the line pointed to by the cursor to the middle of your display. Actions Results Notes CTRL-D Down one half-screen CTRL-E Down one line CTRL-F Down one screen CTRL-U Up one half-screen CTRL-Y Up one line CTRL-B Up one screen z+enter current line at top of the screen 88z+enter line 88 at top of the screen zt current line at top of the screen zb current line at bottom of the screen zz current line at center of the screen z. current line at center of the screen CTRL-G info about current location Under gnu/screen escape the screen hotkey via "CTRL-G g" 1CTRL-G more info Under gnu/screen escape the screen hotkey via "1 CTRL-G g". This provides the full pathname to the file among other things. 2CTRL-G etc. Under gnu/screen escape the screen hotkey via "2 CTRL-G g" gCTRL-G more fun with current location Since I normally run vim under gnu/screen and my screen "command key" is CTRL-G I need to issue a "g CTRL-G g" to achieve the same result. < shift left (use with visual select for block) granted that these are not actions that affect the display since they indent a line or a block of text by the shiftwidth specified. > shift right (use with visual select for block) to move a block seven positions to the left, it is first necessary to specify a "shiftwidth" of seven (:set sw=7) .. move the cusor to the first line of the block, issue a CTRL+v to switch to visual line mode, issue a cursor movement command to position the cursor at the end of the block such as "12j", "}", ")" .. "G" etc. depending on the circumstances and then hit the ">" right indent command. It is also possible to set "sw" to one (":set sw=1") and issue a "7>" command to obtain the same result. Moving the cursor around is the number one skill when it comes to efficient editing. These actions should be mastered before anything else since vim offers and wide variety of methods to move the cursor and a nimble cursor will dramatically increase your productivity. Actions Results Notes W/w move forward one "word" E/e move forward one word I move cursor to beginning of line and switch to insert mode A move cursor to end of line and switch to insert mode B move back one "word" gE move back to end of previous word 0 move to column 0 ^ move to beginning of line $ move to end of line - move to beginning of previous line fc find character 'c' forward Fc find character 'c' backward tc idem fc, but position cursor before 'c' Tc idem Fc, but position cursor before 'c' ; repeat latest fFtT command ' repeat latest fFtT command (opposite direction) G move to last line gg move to first line 44G move to line 44 44gg move to line 44 :44 <enter> ibid. 5000go move to 5000th byte in the file 33% move to ~33% mark in the file CTRL-O jump to previous location <TAB> jump to next location '' jump to previous location CTRL-D remove one level of indentation when in insert mode CTRL-T add one level of indentation when in insert mode ^CTRL-D go to column 0 for this line only - ie. for an #include 0CTRL-D go to column 0 for good - abandon indentation H, M, L move cursor to top (H).. middle (M) .. or bottom (L) of screen CTRL-o in insert mode - switch to command mode for next action CTRL-o o/O insert new line (below/above) and return ton insert mode CTRL-o 0/$ move cursor to beginning/end of line :ju list jumplist - ~ history in a web browser Vim has a built-in windowing mode that lets you split the screen both horizontally and vertically. This allows you make the the most of your screen's real estate. Typically you could display the contents of two or three different files as well as a help window and possibly the "preview window". Windows can be resized, giving you total control over your windowed display. Combining these features gives you the flexibility that you would expect of a tiling window manager. Actions Results Notes CTRL-w s open new window (horizontally) CTRL-w v open new window (vertically) With high resolution screens and a smallish font , splitting the display once vertically and twice horizontally can let you display up to six files or pages of text concurrently. CTRL-w n edit new file in new window CTRL-w c close window CTRL-w q close window CTRL-w p go to previous window CTRL-w w go to next window CTRL-w t go to top window CTRL-w b go to bottom window CTRL-w h (j,k,l) go to one window to the left - ibid. j, k, l.. CTRL-w h (J,K,L) move current window to far left - ibid. j, k, l.. This can be particularly useful when you want want to switch from horizontal to vertical split (and vice-versa). If for instance, you have two windows in horizontal split mode and your cursor is positioned in the top window, a [CTRL-w L] action will result in a switch to vertical split mode with the window where the cursor is located positioned to the far right. CTRL-w r rotate / switch windows CTRL-w CTRL-o / CTRL-w o hides other windows - see :vert unhide below CTRL-w = makes all windows the same width/height CTRL-w < decrease window width by one CTRL-w > increase window width by one CTRL-w 10> increase window width by ten CTRL-w 33 } open preview window for tag under cursor (window height = 33) CTRL-w z close the preview window :vne open empty vertical window :vert h ruler open vertical window for help on 'ruler' :vert unhide reveal hidden buffers in vertical windows :vert unhide 3 limit windows to 3 :ls list buffers :ls! list all buffers including help etc. :b n show buffer #n :bd n delete buffer #n $ vim -O lilo.conf{,.sav} edit lilo.conf & lilo.conf.sav in two vsplit windows $ vimdiff -O lilo.conf{,.sav} vimdiff lilo.conf & lilo.conf.sav in two vsplit windows $ vim main.c start vim on main.c :vne function.c open source file with functions CTRL-W r / CTRL-W w etc.. Vim has a slew of simple commands that make entering new data or making changes to existing files an absolute breeze.. Once you have learned them to the point where you only have to think about what you want to do and no longer how to do it, you're in business. Actions Results Notes . repeat previous action Vim remembers the last action that you performed on the buffer, such as pasting, deleting, etc. and issuing the minimal "." command, possibly after moving your cursor to a different location, asks Vim to repeat this command. i insert at cursor position a insert after cursor r replace character under cursor s delete character under cursor / switch to insert mode x delete character under cursor / stay in normal mode o insert new line below cursor O insert new line above cursor A jump to end of line and switch to insert mode C delete to end of line / switch to insert mode D delete to eol I jump to beginning of line and switch to insert mode R switch to overstrike (replace) mode cw change word dw delete word u undo last edit CTRL-r redo last (undone) editing CTRL-p word completion ~ change case ve~ highlight to end of word and (un)capitalize word CTRL-[ ESC - back to command mode gq} rewrap to end of paragraph using (cf. textwidth) gqap rewrap current paragraph gqip rewrap current paragraph V.. CTRL-V.. etc. + gq select & rewrap highlighted text gg.. V.. G.. :!par 72gqrj select beginning->end and justify w/ linewidth=72 :g/^#/d delete every line that has a # in col. 1 (comments usually) :v/^#/d delete every line that does NOT have a # in col. 1 :g/:v execute the command ('d' - delete above) for all lines that match / don't match :%s/^..// destructive shift of contents of buffer - 2 cols to the left any two characters (..) at the beginning of the line (^) are replaced with 'nothing' (//). a different approach: gg^VGld (visual block mode) :set shiftwidth=4 override default indentation of 8 :set textwidth=80 set width of text = 80 columns :set wrap/nowrap toggle wrapping :set virtualedit+=block visual block mode: allows selection of rectangles beyond the end of the logical line - so the blocks are rectangles Vim supports both trivial search for a string and complex regular expressions. Actions Results Notes * search forward for word under cursor # search backward for word under cursor' g* ibid * - but not limited to a 'word' - eg. not/nothing g# ibid # - but not limited to a 'word' - eg. not/nothing /string search forward for "string" /string\c search forward for "string" - ignore case ?string search forward for "string" n/N search for next/previous occurrence /\<I\> search for occurrences of the *word* 'I' - '<' and '>' must be escaped :noh "nohighlight" - remove those often annoying reverse video highlights :%s/oldstring/newstring/g change all occurrencs of 'oldstring' to 'newstring' :%s/\(.*\).jpg/mv & \1-pic.png/ w/ regex - lets you change all 'xxx.jpg' to 'mv xxx.jpg xxx-pic.jpg' the resulting file can be sourced to rename files en-masse. note: when reversing the above I found awk a lot easier: $ awk '{print $1, $3, $2}' /tmp/fndc0 > /tmp/fndc1 :helpgrep <regex> search for all occurrences of <regex> in help files :cope open window with all matches this does not seem to work with search matches .. only with "errors". In that case this command and the following only concern the "quickfix" window should be moved to a separate chapter: The "edit-compile-edit" cycle. :ccl close the window -- AKA the quickfix window **tip** [CTRL-W K] switches to a nice vertically split view with the list of matches to the right and the current article to the left.