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VimTutor interactive tutorial summary.

• Home » Vim summary
• Summary
  • Lesson 1
  • Lesson 2
  • Lesson 3
  • Lesson 4
  • Lesson 5
  • Lesson 6
  • Lesson 7

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Summary

Interactive tutorial: :Tutor.

Lesson 1

Moving, Exiting, Deletion, Insertion, Appending, Editing

1. The cursor is moved using either the arrow keys or the hjkl keys. h (left) j (down) k (up) l (right)

2. To start Neovim from the shell prompt type:

$ nvim FILENAME

1. To exit Neovim type: <Esc>{normal} :q!{vim} <Enter>{normal} to trash all changes. OR type: <Esc>{normal} :wq{vim} <Enter>{normal} to save the changes.

2. To delete the character at the cursor type: x{normal}

3. To insert or append text type: i{normal} insert text <Esc>{normal} insert before the cursor. A{normal} append text <Esc>{normal} append after the line.

NOTE: Pressing <Esc>{normal} will place you in Normal mode or will cancel an unwanted and partially completed command.

Lesson 2

Deletion, Operators and motions, Count for a motion, Count to delete, Operating on lines, Undo

1. To delete from the cursor up to the next word type: dw{normal}

2. To delete from the cursor to the end of a line type: d${normal}

3. To delete a whole line type: dd{normal}

4. To repeat a motion prepend it with a number: 2w{normal}

5. The format for a change command is:

operator [number] motion

where:

operator - is what to do, such as d for delete [number] - is an optional count to repeat the motion motion - moves over the text to operate on, such as: w (word), $ (to the end of line), etc.

1. To move to the start of the line use a zero: 0

2. To undo previous actions, type: u{normal} (lowercase u) To undo all the changes on a line, type: U{normal} (capital U) To undo the undo’s, type: <C-r>{normal}

Lesson 3

Put, Replace, Change

1. To put back text that has just been deleted, type p. This puts the deleted text AFTER the cursor (if a line was deleted it will go on the line below the cursor).

2. To replace the character under the cursor, type r and then the character you want to have there.

3. The change operator allows you to change from the cursor to where the motion takes you. Type ce{normal} to change from the cursor to the end of the word, c${normal} to change to the end of a line, etc.

4. The format for change is:

c [number] motion

Lesson 4

Cursor location and file status, Search, Matching parentheses search, Substitute

1. <C-g>{normal} displays your location and the file status. G{normal} moves to the end of the file. number G{normal} moves to that line number. gg{normal} moves to the first line.

2. Typing /{normal} followed by a phrase searches FORWARD for the phrase. Typing ?{normal} followed by a phrase searches BACKWARD for the phrase. After a search type n{normal} to find the next occurrence in the same direction or N{normal} to search in the opposite direction. <C-o>{normal} takes you back to older positions, <C-i>{normal} to newer positions.

3. Typing %{normal} while the cursor is on a (,),[,],{, or } goes to its match.

4. To substitute new for the first old in a line type

   :s/old/new
   

   To substitute new for all ‘old’s on a line type

   :s/old/new/g
   

   To substitute phrases between two line #’s type

   :#,#s/old/new/g
   

   To substitute all occurrences in the file type

   :%s/old/new/g
   

   To ask for confirmation each time add ‘c’

   :%s/old/new/gc
   

Lesson 5

Execute external command, More on writing files, Selecting text to write, Retrieving ane merging files

1. :!command executes an external command.

Some useful examples are: :!ls{vim} - shows a directory listing :!rm FILENAME{vim} - removes file FILENAME

1. :w FILENAME writes the current Neovim file to disk with name FILENAME.

2. v motion :w FILENAME saves the Visually selected lines in file FILENAME.

3. :r FILENAME retrieves disk file FILENAME and puts it below the cursor position.

4. :r !dir reads the output of the dir command and puts it below the cursor position.

Lesson 6

Open, Append, Another way to replace, Copy and paste, Set option

1. Type o{normal} to open a line BELOW the cursor and start Insert mode. Type O{normal} to open a line ABOVE the cursor.

2. Type a{normal} to insert text AFTER the cursor. Type A{normal} to insert text after the end of the line.

3. The e{normal} command moves to the end of a word.

4. The y{normal} operator copies text, p{normal} pastes it.

5. Typing a capital R{normal} enters Replace mode until <Esc>{normal} is pressed.

6. Typing “:set xxx” sets the option “xxx”. Some options are:

‘ic’ ‘ignorecase’ ignore upper/lower case when searching ‘is’ ‘incsearch’ show partial matches for a search phrase ‘hls’ ‘hlsearch’ highlight all matching phrases

You can either use the long or the short option name.

1. Prepend “no” to switch an option off:

   :set noic
   

2. Prepend “inv” to invert an option:

   :set invic
   

Lesson 7

Getting help, Create a startup script, Completion

1. Type :help{vim} or press <F1>{normal} or <Help>{normal} to open a help window.

2. Type :help TOPIC{vim} to find help on TOPIC.

3. Type <C-w><C-w>{normal} to jump to another window

4. Type :q{vim} to close the help window

5. Create an init.vim startup script to keep your preferred settings.

6. While in command mode, press <C-d>{normal} to see possible completions. Press <Tab>{normal} to use one completion.