Cursor movement

• h – move cursor left
• j – move cursor down
• k – move cursor up
• l – move cursor right
• w – jump forwards to the start of a word
• W – jump forwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• e – jump forwards to the end of a word
• E – jump forwards to the end of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• b – jump backwards to the start of a word
• B – jump backwards to the start of a word (words can contain punctuation)
• 0 – jump to the start of the line
• ^ – jump to the first non-blank character of the line
• $ – jump to the end of the line
• G – go to the last line of the document
• 5G – go to line 5
• fx – jump to next occurrence of character x
• tx – jump to before next occurrence of character x
• } – Jump to next paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)
• { – Jump to previous paragraph (or function/block, when editing code)

Insert mode – inserting/appending text

• i – insert before the cursor
• I – insert at the beginning of the line
• a – insert (append) after the cursor
• A – insert (append) at the end of the line
• o – append (open) a new line below the current line
• O – append (open) a new line above the current line
• ea – insert (append) at the end of the word
• Esc – exit insert mode

Editing

• r – replace a single character
• J – join line below to the current one
• cc – change (replace) entire line
• cw – change (replace) to the end of the word
• c$ – change (replace) to the end of the line
• s – delete character and substitute text
• S – delete line and substitute text (same as cc)
• xp – transpose two letters (delete and paste)
• u – undo
• Ctrl + r – redo
• . – repeat last command

Marking text (visual mode)

• v – start visual mode, mark lines, then do a command (like y-yank)
• V – start linewise visual mode
• o – move to other end of marked area
• Ctrl + v – start visual block mode
• O – move to other corner of block
• aw – mark a word
• ab – a block with ()
• aB – a block with {}
• ib – inner block with ()
• iB – inner block with {}
• Esc – exit visual mode

Visual commands

• > – shift text right
• < – shift text left
• y – yank (copy) marked text
• d – delete marked text
• ~ – switch case

Cut and paste

• yy – yank (copy) a line
• 2yy – yank (copy) 2 lines
• yw – yank (copy) word
• y$ – yank (copy) to end of line
• p – put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
• P – put (paste) before cursor
• dd – delete (cut) a line
• 2dd – delete (cut) 2 lines
• dw – delete (cut) word
• D – delete (cut) to the end of the line
• d$ – delete (cut) to the end of the line
• x – delete (cut) character

Exiting

• :w – write (save) the file, but don’t exit
• :wq or :x or ZZ – write (save) and quit
• :q – quit (fails if there are unsaved changes)
• :q! or ZQ – quit and throw away unsaved changes

Search and replace

• /pattern – search for pattern
• ?pattern – search backward for pattern
• \vpattern – ‘very magic’ pattern: non-alphanumeric characters are interpreted as special regex symbols (no escaping needed)
• n – repeat search in same direction
• N – repeat search in opposite direction
• :%s/old/new/g – replace all old with new throughout file
• :%s/old/new/gc – replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations

Working with multiple files

• :e filename – edit a file in a new buffer
• :bnext or :bn – go to the next buffer
• :bprev or :bp – go to the previous buffer
• :bd – delete a buffer (close a file)
• :sp filename – open a file in a new buffer and split window
• :vsp filename – open a file in a new buffer and vertically split window
• Ctrl + ws – split window
• Ctrl + ww – switch windows
• Ctrl + wq – quit a window
• Ctrl + wv – split window vertically
• Ctrl + wh – move cursor to the left window (vertical split)
• Ctrl + wl – move cursor to the right window (vertical split)
• Ctrl + wj – move cursor to the window below (horizontal split)
• Ctrl + wk – move cursor to the window above (horizontal split)

Tabs

• :tabnew filename or :tabn filename – open a file in a new tab
• Ctrl + wT – move the current split window into its own tab
• gt or :tabnext or :tabn – move to the next tab
• gT or :tabprev or :tabp – move to the previous tab
• #gt – move to tab number #
• :tabmove # – move current tab to the #th position (indexed from 0)
• :tabclose or :tabc – close the current tab and all its windows
• :tabonly or :tabo – close all tabs except for the current one