How do I cycle through my jump history in Vim?
<C-o> and <C-i>
Vim maintains a jump list of positions you have visited.
Search: :marks
142 results for ":marks"
How do I make Vim automatically jump to where I last edited when reopening a file?
autocmd BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$") | exe "normal! g`\"" | endif
Vim remembers the last cursor position for every file you edit (stored in the viminfo or shada file), but by default it opens files at line 1.
How do I programmatically create a blockwise register with setreg()?
:call setreg('a', "foo\nbar", 'b')
Most register examples focus on interactive yanks, but setreg() lets you construct registers programmatically, including their type.
How do I title-case every word in a buffer using one Vim substitution?
:%s/\v<(\w)(\w*)>/\u\1\L\2/g
When you need to normalize casing across headings, labels, or generated docs, editing words one by one is tedious.
How do I reindent the whole file without adding extra jump-list entries?
:keepjumps normal! gg=G
Bulk formatting commands are common in cleanup sessions, but they often leave side effects in your navigation history.
How do I restrict a search to a specific line-number window without selecting text first?
/\%>20l\%<40lTODO
Vim's search engine can constrain matches by line number, which is useful when you want to scan a known section without touching the rest of the buffer.
How do I execute a macro from bottom to top over a selected range?
:'>,'<normal @q
Running a macro over a range usually goes top to bottom, but that can break when the macro inserts or deletes lines.
macros #macros #ex-commands #visual-mode #normal-mode #refactoring
How do I quickly jump between function definitions or top-level blocks in a source file?
[[
The [[ and ]] commands navigate between top-level code blocks — specifically, lines where { appears in column 1.
How do I tune diffopt so diffs align moved code and produce cleaner hunks?
:set diffopt+=algorithm:patience,indent-heuristic,linematch:60
Default diff settings can produce noisy hunks when code is moved, re-indented, or lightly refactored.
How do I duplicate every line in a buffer so each line appears twice in place?
:g/^/t.
The command :g/^/t.
How do I visually display tabs, trailing spaces, and end-of-line characters in Vim?
:set list listchars=tab:>-,trail:~,eol:$
Enabling list mode makes Vim render normally invisible characters using configurable symbols defined in listchars.
How do I view my complete Vim command and search history?
:history
:history displays a numbered list of your recently entered Ex commands, giving you a full audit of what you have run in the current session (and across sessions
How do I trim trailing whitespace in a file without polluting jumplist or search history?
:keepjumps keeppatterns %s/\s\+$//e<CR>
Bulk whitespace cleanup is common, but a plain substitution can leave side effects: your last search pattern changes and jump navigation gets noisy.
How do I center or right-align a range of lines in Vim?
:[range]center / :[range]right / :[range]left
Vim has built-in Ex commands for text alignment: :center, :right, and :left.
How do I save just the visually selected lines to a new file?
:'<,'>w {filename}
After making a visual selection, you can write only those lines to a new file using :'w {filename}.
How do I enable diff mode in every open split at once?
:windo diffthis<CR>
If you already have several related files open in splits, enabling diff mode one window at a time is slow and error-prone.
buffers-windows #buffers-windows #diff #windows #ex-commands
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 diff two files that are already open in Vim splits?
:diffthis
You often have two files open side by side and want to compare them without leaving Vim or launching vimdiff.
How do I fix a misspelled word using Vim's spell checker while staying in insert mode?
<C-x>s
When spell checking is enabled (:set spell), s in insert mode opens a popup menu of suggested corrections for the most recently flagged misspelled word — with
How do I accept a flagged word as correct for the current session without permanently adding it to my spellfile?
zG
zG marks the word under the cursor as correctly spelled in Vim's internal word list, which exists only for the current session.