How do I navigate Vim's undo tree branches to access states that u and Ctrl-R can't reach?
g- and g+
Vim's undo history is a tree, not a linear stack.
Category: editing
How do I open or close a fold and all its nested folds at once?
zO and zC
zO and zC are the recursive counterparts to zo and zc.
How do I re-indent the entire paragraph under my cursor to match the surrounding code?
=ip
The =ip command combines Vim's auto-indent operator (=) with the inner paragraph text object (ip) to re-indent every line in the current paragraph in a single k
How do I reopen the current file and force Vim to interpret it with a specific line ending format?
:e ++ff=unix
The ++ff modifier forces Vim to re-read the current file from disk using a specific fileformat — unix (LF), dos (CRLF), or mac (CR).
How do I save and quit Vim quickly from normal mode without typing a colon command?
ZZ
ZZ is a normal mode shorthand that saves and quits only if the buffer has been modified.
How do I re-insert the exact same text I typed during my last insert mode session?
<C-a> in insert mode
Pressing while in insert mode inserts the same text that was typed during the previous insert mode session.
How do I sort lines in reverse numerical order in Vim?
:sort! n
The :sort! n command sorts the lines of a buffer (or a range) by their numeric value in descending order.
How do I insert the current date or time into the buffer using Vim's built-in expression evaluation?
:put =strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
The :put = command inserts the result of a Vimscript expression directly into the buffer as a new line.
How do I view all available branches in Vim's undo tree to recover changes that u and Ctrl-R can't reach?
:undolist
Vim's undo history is a tree, not a linear stack.
How do I travel backward through undo history by time rather than by change count?
:earlier {time}
Vim's :earlier and :later commands let you travel through undo history using real-world time intervals instead of individual change counts.
How do I insert a literal tab character in insert mode even when expandtab is enabled?
<C-v><Tab>
When expandtab is set, pressing the Tab key inserts spaces instead of a real tab character.
How do I convert a file from Windows CRLF to Unix LF line endings in Vim?
:set fileformat=unix
When you open a Windows file in Vim on a Unix system, you may see ^M at the end of every line — that's the carriage return (\r) from CRLF line endings.
How do I reopen the current file with a different character encoding in Vim?
:e ++enc=utf-8
When Vim opens a file with the wrong encoding — producing garbled text or incorrect characters — you can reload it with a specific encoding using :e ++enc={
How do I center or right-align text within a specific column width in Vim?
:center / :left / :right
Vim has three built-in Ex commands for aligning text without any plugins: :left, :center, and :right.
How do I open or close folds one level at a time across the entire file?
zr and zm
The zr and zm commands let you incrementally adjust the global fold depth across the entire buffer — one level at a time.
How do I right-justify a line of text to a specific width using a built-in Vim command?
:right
Vim has three built-in Ex commands for text alignment that most users never discover: :right [width] right-justifies lines, :left [width] left-justifies (strips
How do I reformat text to fit textwidth without moving the cursor from its current position?
gw{motion}
The gw operator reformats text just like gq, but leaves the cursor exactly where it started.
How do I autocomplete words from a dictionary file while typing in insert mode?
<C-x><C-k>
Vim's insert-mode completion system includes dictionary lookup via .
How do I close one more level of folds without collapsing all folds at once?
zm
Instead of jumping between fully open (zR) and fully closed (zM), zm and zr let you step through fold levels one at a time.
How do I complete words using a thesaurus for synonym suggestions in Vim insert mode?
<C-x><C-t>
Vim's insert-mode completion includes a thesaurus mode triggered by .