Vim / Vi Essentials - CodeSwordsman

Open a file in vim; a missing file is created, with the cursor on line 1

Open a file at line 42, handy when jumping to an error line

Enter insert mode before the cursor; a inserts after, o opens a new line below

Return to normal mode, where all motion and editing commands work

Enter character-wise, line-wise or block-wise visual mode before acting on a selection

Save and quit; :x and ZZ behave the same and only write when the buffer changed

Quit and discard every change; accidental use loses unsaved work

Move left, down, up, right by one character; prefix a count such as 5j to move five lines

Jump to the next word, the previous word, or the end of the current word

Jump to the start of the line, its first non-blank character, or the end

Jump to the first line, the last line, or a specific line number

Scroll half a page down or up; Ctrl+f and Ctrl+b scroll a full page

Jump by paragraph, delimited by blank lines, which is fast in config files

f jumps to the next x in the line, t to the character before it, ; repeats the jump

Jump between matching brackets, useful when reading scripts

Delete the character under the cursor or the one before it

Delete a line, yank a line, paste below or paste above

Delete to the next word, to the end of the line, or to the start; prefix a count to repeat

Change the current word and enter insert mode, the everyday way to edit a setting

Undo the last change, or redo an undone change

Indent or outdent the current line; works on a visual selection as well

Join the next line into the current one, useful for wrapped settings

r replaces one character and returns to normal mode; R keeps replacing until Esc

Search downward; use ? to search upward, then n and N to jump between matches

Search for the word under the cursor downward with * or upward with #

Replace every match in the file; check the scope with :set number first

Confirm each replacement: y replaces, n skips and a replaces the rest

Delete every line matching the pattern; preview with :g/pattern/p first

Clear the highlight left by the last search

Select whole lines and delete them; a selection can also be yanked or indented

Block-select several lines, insert a comment marker, then Esc to apply it everywhere

Replace only inside the previous visual selection

Start recording a macro into register a; press q again to stop

Run the macro in register a; @@ repeats the last executed macro

Split horizontally to open another file; use :vsp to split vertically

Move between split windows by direction

Equalize split sizes

Open a new tab; gt and gT switch to the next and previous tab

Keep only the current window, close the current one, or :qa to quit all

Write the current file without quitting

Write a copy to another path, a cheap backup before editing configs

Write back with elevated rights when the file was opened without sudo

Reload the file and discard local changes, useful after external edits

Insert the contents of another file below the cursor

Convert CRLF to LF, fixing bad interpreter errors for scripts copied from Windows

Edit the personal config file; set commands there apply on every start

Show line numbers; :set relativenumber shows relative numbers for fast jumps

Set tab width 4, shift width 4 and expand tabs to spaces

Enable before pasting so auto-indent does not cascade; turn it off with :set nopaste

Turn on syntax highlighting

Leave vi-compatible mode to enable undo trees, completion and plugins

Start the built-in interactive tutorial; use :help for the full manual