:put =toupper(@")
Registers in Vim are not only for raw replay; you can treat them as string data and transform them at paste time.
registers #registers #expression-register #editing #vimscript
:%s/[“”]/"/ge<CR>:%s/[‘’]/'/ge<CR>
When text comes from docs, email, or CMS exports, it often contains typographic quotes (“”‘’) that break code snippets, Markdown tooling, or shell comma
vipJ
When text is hard-wrapped for readability in git diffs or markdown source, you sometimes need the paragraph as a single line for refactoring, search, or export.
:set whichwrap+=<,>,h,l
By default, h and l stop at line boundaries.
:'<,'>normal! I//
Visual Block insert (I.
:%s/\n\{3,}/\r\r/g
When files pass through formatters, generators, or repeated edits, they often accumulate noisy vertical gaps.
<C-r><C-o>a
When you paste multiline snippets from a register while in Insert mode, default insertion can trigger indentation and formatting side effects line by line.
registers #registers #insert-mode #formatting #indentation #editing
:g/^\s*$/,/./-1join
When text is hard-wrapped (for example from email, logs, or copied docs), joining entire paragraphs manually is slow and error-prone.
editing #editing #formatting #ex-commands #text-manipulation
:let @q .= 'j'
Re-recording a long macro just to add one extra keystroke is wasteful and error-prone.
:%s/\v^([^,]+),([^,]+),/\2,\1,/<CR>
When CSV-like data has two columns in the wrong order, manually fixing each line is slow and error-prone.
:lockmarks normal! >>
When you run editing commands from the command line, Vim usually updates special marks like '[ and '] to the changed text.
vitU
When editing markup-heavy files, you often need to transform only the tag contents while preserving the surrounding structure.
*Ndgn
When you are reviewing repetitive text, you often need to remove one specific match without running a broad substitute.
:set nrformats-=octal\<CR>
If you work with IDs, ticket numbers, or zero-padded counters, Vim's default octal behavior can be surprising.
:g/./t.\<CR>
The :global command can apply an Ex action to every line that matches a pattern.
:%s/\v<(\w)(\w*)>/\u\1\L\2/g
When you need to normalize casing across headings, labels, or generated docs, editing words one by one is tedious.
:lockmarks keepjumps keeppatterns %s/\s\+$//e
Bulk cleanup commands are easy to automate, but many implementations quietly damage editor state by moving marks, polluting the jumplist, or replacing your last
<C-r><C-r>"
In Insert mode, plain {register} inserts register content but may reindent or auto-format depending on context.
registers #registers #insert-mode #editing #indentation #text
:e archive.tar::path/to/file
Vim's built-in tar.
I{text}<Esc>
When you need to add the same prefix to many adjacent lines, Visual Block insert is faster and safer than repeating macros or substitutions.
