How do I allow block selections past end-of-line while still permitting one-char past EOL cursor movement?

Explanation

virtualedit controls whether the cursor can move to positions that do not yet contain text. Combining block and onemore is a practical setup for advanced editing: blockwise operations can extend past short lines, while normal movement can still step one character past end-of-line for cleaner append workflows.

How it works

• block enables virtual positions for Visual Block mode only
• onemore allows the cursor to move one column past the last character in normal mode
• Together, they avoid the more invasive all setting while still enabling precise column edits

This is especially useful when aligning ragged columns, adding suffixes to uneven lines, or doing rectangular changes where some lines are shorter than others.

Example

alpha
beta-long
pi

With virtualedit=block,onemore, you can start a block selection on alpha, extend into the same visual column on pi even when the text is shorter, and insert/append consistently across all selected lines.

Tips

• Pair with <C-v>, I, and A for powerful multi-line column edits
• If motion feels too permissive, prefer this over virtualedit=all
• Use :set virtualedit? to confirm current effective value