How do I record a macro in Vim?

Explanation

Recording a macro captures a sequence of keystrokes into a register, which you can replay later. Press q followed by a register letter to start, perform your actions, then press q again to stop.

How it works

• qa starts recording into register a
• Perform any sequence of Vim commands
• q stops recording
• @a replays the macro

Example

To wrap each line in <li> tags:

1. qa — start recording
2. I<li><Esc>A</li><Esc>j — add tags and move down
3. q — stop recording
4. @a — replay on next line

Tips

• @@ replays the last macro
• 5@a runs macro a five times
• The recording indicator appears in the statusline
• All 26 registers (a-z) can store macros
• Macros and registers share the same storage