How do I use marks to define a range for Ex commands?
:'a,'b s/old/new/g
Marks can be used as range specifiers in any Ex command.
command-line #marks #command-line #ex-commands #ranges #editing
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How do I execute a single normal mode command without leaving insert mode?
<C-o> (in insert mode)
Pressing while in insert mode drops you into a special "insert-normal" mode where you can execute exactly one normal mode command, then immediately return to in
How do I run commands without disturbing my marks?
:lockmarks
Many Ex commands silently adjust or delete marks as a side effect of modifying buffer content.
How do I jump to the enclosing curly brace or parenthesis in code?
[{ / ]}
When editing code inside a deeply nested block, [{ jumps backward to the unmatched { that encloses the current position, and ]} jumps forward to its matching }.
How do I find which syntax highlighting rules are slowing down Vim?
:syntime on
When Vim feels sluggish while editing files with complex syntax highlighting, :syntime lets you profile exactly which syntax rules are consuming the most time.
How do I reflow and hard-wrap a paragraph or selected lines to a fixed width in Vim?
gq (visual mode)
Pressing gq on a visual selection reformats the selected lines to hard-wrap at textwidth columns.
How do I move to the opposite corner of a visual block selection?
O in visual block mode
In visual block mode (), pressing O (uppercase) moves the cursor to the diagonally opposite corner of the rectangular selection.
How do I jump between paragraphs in Vim?
{ and }
The { and } commands move the cursor by paragraph — jumping to the previous or next blank line.
How do I customize Vim's statusline to show useful file information?
:set statusline=%f\ %y\ [%l/%L]
Vim's statusline option lets you build a custom status bar from format items.
How do I indent or unindent the current line while staying in Insert mode?
<C-t> / <C-d>
While in Insert mode, you can adjust indentation without switching back to Normal mode.
How do I apply a macro across multiple files at once?
:argdo normal @q | update
The :argdo command runs a command in every file in the argument list.
macros #macros #batch-editing #multi-file #ex-commands #workflow
How do I create text shortcuts that auto-expand while typing in Vim?
iabbrev
:iabbrev defines insert-mode abbreviations that expand automatically when you type a non-keyword character (space, punctuation, ) after the abbreviation.
How do I search across all of Vim's help documentation for a keyword or phrase?
:helpgrep {pattern}
:helpgrep searches the full text of every Vim help file for a pattern and loads all matches into the quickfix list.
How do I search across files and populate the quickfix list without jumping to the first match?
:vimgrep /pattern/j **/*
By default, :vimgrep jumps your cursor to the first match it finds, which can be disorienting when you just want to collect results and browse them on your own
How do I recover the last small deletion without disrupting my numbered registers?
"-
Vim silently stores every deletion of less than one line in the special "- register (the "small delete" register).
How do I move the cursor to the top of the visible screen?
H
The H command moves the cursor to the first line of the currently visible screen (the "High" position).
How do I open the file whose name is under the cursor in a new tab?
<C-w>gf
gf reads the filename under the cursor and opens it in a new tab page, keeping your current buffer untouched.
How do I open the file path under my cursor in a new split window?
<C-w>f
How it works You may already know that gf opens the file path under the cursor in the current window.
How do I insert register contents into the command line?
:<C-r>a
How it works While typing an Ex command on the command line (after pressing :), you can insert the contents of any register by pressing Ctrl-R followed by the r
How do I run a substitution only within the exact characters of my visual selection?
:%s/\%Vpattern/replacement/g
The \%V atom restricts a regex match to the last visual selection — more precisely than :'s/.