1*usr_02.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20 2 3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar 4 5 The first steps in Vim 6 7 8This chapter provides just enough information to edit a file with Vim. Not 9well or fast, but you can edit. Take some time to practice with these 10commands, they form the base for what follows. 11 12|02.1| Running Vim for the First Time 13|02.2| Inserting text 14|02.3| Moving around 15|02.4| Deleting characters 16|02.5| Undo and Redo 17|02.6| Other editing commands 18|02.7| Getting out 19|02.8| Finding help 20 21 Next chapter: |usr_03.txt| Moving around 22 Previous chapter: |usr_01.txt| About the manuals 23Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt| 24 25============================================================================== 26*02.1* Running Vim for the First Time 27 28To start Vim, enter this command: > 29 30 gvim file.txt 31 32In UNIX you can type this at any command prompt. If you are running Microsoft 33Windows, open an MS-DOS prompt window and enter the command. 34 In either case, Vim starts editing a file called file.txt. Because this 35is a new file, you get a blank window. This is what your screen will look 36like: 37 38 +---------------------------------------+ 39 |# | 40 |~ | 41 |~ | 42 |~ | 43 |~ | 44 |"file.txt" [New file] | 45 +---------------------------------------+ 46 ('#" is the cursor position.) 47 48The tilde (~) lines indicate lines not in the file. In other words, when Vim 49runs out of file to display, it displays tilde lines. At the bottom of the 50screen, a message line indicates the file is named file.txt and shows that you 51are creating a new file. The message information is temporary and other 52information overwrites it. 53 54 55THE VIM COMMAND 56 57The gvim command causes the editor to create a new window for editing. If you 58use this command: > 59 60 vim file.txt 61 62the editing occurs inside your command window. In other words, if you are 63running inside an xterm, the editor uses your xterm window. If you are using 64an MS-DOS command prompt window under Microsoft Windows, the editing occurs 65inside this window. The text in the window will look the same for both 66versions, but with gvim you have extra features, like a menu bar. More about 67that later. 68 69============================================================================== 70*02.2* Inserting text 71 72The Vim editor is a modal editor. That means that the editor behaves 73differently, depending on which mode you are in. The two basic modes are 74called Normal mode and Insert mode. In Normal mode the characters you type 75are commands. In Insert mode the characters are inserted as text. 76 Since you have just started Vim it will be in Normal mode. To start Insert 77mode you type the "i" command (i for Insert). Then you can enter 78the text. It will be inserted into the file. Do not worry if you make 79mistakes; you can correct them later. To enter the following programmer's 80limerick, this is what you type: > 81 82 iA very intelligent turtle 83 Found programming UNIX a hurdle 84 85After typing "turtle" you press the <Enter> key to start a new line. Finally 86you press the <Esc> key to stop Insert mode and go back to Normal mode. You 87now have two lines of text in your Vim window: 88 89 +---------------------------------------+ 90 |A very intelligent turtle | 91 |Found programming UNIX a hurdle | 92 |~ | 93 |~ | 94 | | 95 +---------------------------------------+ 96 97 98WHAT IS THE MODE? 99 100To be able to see what mode you are in, type this command: > 101 102 :set showmode 103 104You will notice that when typing the colon Vim moves the cursor to the last 105line of the window. That's where you type colon commands (commands that start 106with a colon). Finish this command by pressing the <Enter> key (all commands 107that start with a colon are finished this way). 108 Now, if you type the "i" command Vim will display --INSERT-- at the bottom 109of the window. This indicates you are in Insert mode. 110 111 +---------------------------------------+ 112 |A very intelligent turtle | 113 |Found programming UNIX a hurdle | 114 |~ | 115 |~ | 116 |-- INSERT -- | 117 +---------------------------------------+ 118 119If you press <Esc> to go back to Normal mode the last line will be made blank. 120 121 122GETTING OUT OF TROUBLE 123 124One of the problems for Vim novices is mode confusion, which is caused by 125forgetting which mode you are in or by accidentally typing a command that 126switches modes. To get back to Normal mode, no matter what mode you are in, 127press the <Esc> key. Sometimes you have to press it twice. If Vim beeps back 128at you, you already are in Normal mode. 129 130============================================================================== 131*02.3* Moving around 132 133After you return to Normal mode, you can move around by using these keys: 134 135 h left *hjkl* 136 j down 137 k up 138 l right 139 140At first, it may appear that these commands were chosen at random. After all, 141who ever heard of using l for right? But actually, there is a very good 142reason for these choices: Moving the cursor is the most common thing you do in 143an editor, and these keys are on the home row of your right hand. In other 144words, these commands are placed where you can type them the fastest 145(especially when you type with ten fingers). 146 147 Note: 148 You can also move the cursor by using the arrow keys. If you do, 149 however, you greatly slow down your editing because to press the arrow 150 keys, you must move your hand from the text keys to the arrow keys. 151 Considering that you might be doing it hundreds of times an hour, this 152 can take a significant amount of time. 153 Also, there are keyboards which do not have arrow keys, or which 154 locate them in unusual places; therefore, knowing the use of the hjkl 155 keys helps in those situations. 156 157One way to remember these commands is that h is on the left, l is on the 158right and j points down. In a picture: > 159 160 k 161 h l 162 j 163 164The best way to learn these commands is by using them. Use the "i" command to 165insert some more lines of text. Then use the hjkl keys to move around and 166insert a word somewhere. Don't forget to press <Esc> to go back to Normal 167mode. The |vimtutor| is also a nice way to learn by doing. 168 169For Japanese users, Hiroshi Iwatani suggested using this: 170 171 Komsomolsk 172 ^ 173 | 174 Huan Ho <--- ---> Los Angeles 175 (Yellow river) | 176 v 177 Java (the island, not the programming language) 178 179============================================================================== 180*02.4* Deleting characters 181 182To delete a character, move the cursor over it and type "x". (This is a 183throwback to the old days of the typewriter, when you deleted things by typing 184xxxx over them.) Move the cursor to the beginning of the first line, for 185example, and type xxxxxxx (seven x's) to delete "A very ". The result should 186look like this: 187 188 +---------------------------------------+ 189 |intelligent turtle | 190 |Found programming UNIX a hurdle | 191 |~ | 192 |~ | 193 | | 194 +---------------------------------------+ 195 196Now you can insert new text, for example by typing: > 197 198 iA young <Esc> 199 200This begins an insert (the i), inserts the words "A young", and then exits 201insert mode (the final <Esc>). The result: 202 203 +---------------------------------------+ 204 |A young intelligent turtle | 205 |Found programming UNIX a hurdle | 206 |~ | 207 |~ | 208 | | 209 +---------------------------------------+ 210 211 212DELETING A LINE 213 214To delete a whole line use the "dd" command. The following line will 215then move up to fill the gap: 216 217 +---------------------------------------+ 218 |Found programming UNIX a hurdle | 219 |~ | 220 |~ | 221 |~ | 222 | | 223 +---------------------------------------+ 224 225 226DELETING A LINE BREAK 227 228In Vim you can join two lines together, which means that the line break 229between them is deleted. The "J" command does this. 230 Take these two lines: 231 232 A young intelligent ~ 233 turtle ~ 234 235Move the cursor to the first line and press "J": 236 237 A young intelligent turtle ~ 238 239============================================================================== 240*02.5* Undo and Redo 241 242Suppose you delete too much. Well, you can type it in again, but an easier 243way exists. The "u" command undoes the last edit. Take a look at this in 244action: After using "dd" to delete the first line, "u" brings it back. 245 Another one: Move the cursor to the A in the first line: 246 247 A young intelligent turtle ~ 248 249Now type xxxxxxx to delete "A young". The result is as follows: 250 251 intelligent turtle ~ 252 253Type "u" to undo the last delete. That delete removed the g, so the undo 254restores the character. 255 256 g intelligent turtle ~ 257 258The next u command restores the next-to-last character deleted: 259 260 ng intelligent turtle ~ 261 262The next u command gives you the u, and so on: 263 264 ung intelligent turtle ~ 265 oung intelligent turtle ~ 266 young intelligent turtle ~ 267 young intelligent turtle ~ 268 A young intelligent turtle ~ 269 270 Note: 271 If you type "u" twice, and the result is that you get the same text 272 back, you have Vim configured to work Vi compatible. Look here to fix 273 this: |not-compatible|. 274 This text assumes you work "The Vim Way". You might prefer to use 275 the good old Vi way, but you will have to watch out for small 276 differences in the text then. 277 278 279REDO 280 281If you undo too many times, you can press CTRL-R (redo) to reverse the 282preceding command. In other words, it undoes the undo. To see this in 283action, press CTRL-R twice. The character A and the space after it disappear: 284 285 young intelligent turtle ~ 286 287There's a special version of the undo command, the "U" (undo line) command. 288The undo line command undoes all the changes made on the last line that was 289edited. Typing this command twice cancels the preceding "U". 290 291 A very intelligent turtle ~ 292 xxxx Delete very 293 294 A intelligent turtle ~ 295 xxxxxx Delete turtle 296 297 A intelligent ~ 298 Restore line with "U" 299 A very intelligent turtle ~ 300 Undo "U" with "u" 301 A intelligent ~ 302 303The "U" command is a change by itself, which the "u" command undoes and CTRL-R 304redoes. This might be a bit confusing. Don't worry, with "u" and CTRL-R you 305can go to any of the situations you had. More about that in section |32.2|. 306 307============================================================================== 308*02.6* Other editing commands 309 310Vim has a large number of commands to change the text. See |Q_in| and below. 311Here are a few often used ones. 312 313 314APPENDING 315 316The "i" command inserts a character before the character under the cursor. 317That works fine; but what happens if you want to add stuff to the end of the 318line? For that you need to insert text after the cursor. This is done with 319the "a" (append) command. 320 For example, to change the line 321 322 and that's not saying much for the turtle. ~ 323to 324 and that's not saying much for the turtle!!! ~ 325 326move the cursor over to the dot at the end of the line. Then type "x" to 327delete the period. The cursor is now positioned at the end of the line on the 328e in turtle. Now type > 329 330 a!!!<Esc> 331 332to append three exclamation points after the e in turtle: 333 334 and that's not saying much for the turtle!!! ~ 335 336 337OPENING UP A NEW LINE 338 339The "o" command creates a new, empty line below the cursor and puts Vim in 340Insert mode. Then you can type the text for the new line. 341 Suppose the cursor is somewhere in the first of these two lines: 342 343 A very intelligent turtle ~ 344 Found programming UNIX a hurdle ~ 345 346If you now use the "o" command and type new text: > 347 348 oThat liked using Vim<Esc> 349 350The result is: 351 352 A very intelligent turtle ~ 353 That liked using Vim ~ 354 Found programming UNIX a hurdle ~ 355 356The "O" command (uppercase) opens a line above the cursor. 357 358 359USING A COUNT 360 361Suppose you want to move up nine lines. You can type "kkkkkkkkk" or you can 362enter the command "9k". In fact, you can precede many commands with a number. 363Earlier in this chapter, for instance, you added three exclamation points to 364the end of a line by typing "a!!!<Esc>". Another way to do this is to use the 365command "3a!<Esc>". The count of 3 tells the command that follows to triple 366its effect. Similarly, to delete three characters, use the command "3x". The 367count always comes before the command it applies to. 368 369============================================================================== 370*02.7* Getting out 371 372To exit, use the "ZZ" command. This command writes the file and exits. 373 374 Note: 375 Unlike many other editors, Vim does not automatically make a backup 376 file. If you type "ZZ", your changes are committed and there's no 377 turning back. You can configure the Vim editor to produce backup 378 files, see |07.4|. 379 380 381DISCARDING CHANGES 382 383Sometimes you will make a sequence of changes and suddenly realize you were 384better off before you started. Not to worry; Vim has a 385quit-and-throw-things-away command. It is: > 386 387 :q! 388 389Don't forget to press <Enter> to finish the command. 390 391For those of you interested in the details, the three parts of this command 392are the colon (:), which enters Command-line mode; the q command, which tells 393the editor to quit; and the override command modifier (!). 394 The override command modifier is needed because Vim is reluctant to throw 395away changes. If you were to just type ":q", Vim would display an error 396message and refuse to exit: 397 398 E37: No write since last change (use ! to override) ~ 399 400By specifying the override, you are in effect telling Vim, "I know that what 401I'm doing looks stupid, but I'm a big boy and really want to do this." 402 403If you want to continue editing with Vim: The ":e!" command reloads the 404original version of the file. 405 406============================================================================== 407*02.8* Finding help 408 409Everything you always wanted to know can be found in the Vim help files. 410Don't be afraid to ask! 411 To get generic help use this command: > 412 413 :help 414 415You could also use the first function key <F1>. If your keyboard has a <Help> 416key it might work as well. 417 If you don't supply a subject, ":help" displays the general help window. 418The creators of Vim did something very clever (or very lazy) with the help 419system: They made the help window a normal editing window. You can use all 420the normal Vim commands to move through the help information. Therefore h, j, 421k, and l move left, down, up and right. 422 To get out of the help window, use the same command you use to get out of 423the editor: "ZZ". This will only close the help window, not exit Vim. 424 425As you read the help text, you will notice some text enclosed in vertical bars 426(for example, |help|). This indicates a hyperlink. If you position the 427cursor anywhere between the bars and press CTRL-] (jump to tag), the help 428system takes you to the indicated subject. (For reasons not discussed here, 429the Vim terminology for a hyperlink is tag. So CTRL-] jumps to the location 430of the tag given by the word under the cursor.) 431 After a few jumps, you might want to go back. CTRL-T (pop tag) takes you 432back to the preceding position. CTRL-O (jump to older position) also works 433nicely here. 434 At the top of the help screen, there is the notation *help.txt*. This name 435between "*" characters is used by the help system to define a tag (hyperlink 436destination). 437 See |29.1| for details about using tags. 438 439To get help on a given subject, use the following command: > 440 441 :help {subject} 442 443To get help on the "x" command, for example, enter the following: > 444 445 :help x 446 447To find out how to delete text, use this command: > 448 449 :help deleting 450 451To get a complete index of all Vim commands, use the following command: > 452 453 :help index 454 455When you need to get help for a control character command (for example, 456CTRL-A), you need to spell it with the prefix "CTRL-". > 457 458 :help CTRL-A 459 460The Vim editor has many different modes. By default, the help system displays 461the normal-mode commands. For example, the following command displays help 462for the normal-mode CTRL-H command: > 463 464 :help CTRL-H 465 466To identify other modes, use a mode prefix. If you want the help for the 467insert-mode version of a command, use "i_". For CTRL-H this gives you the 468following command: > 469 470 :help i_CTRL-H 471 472When you start the Vim editor, you can use several command-line arguments. 473These all begin with a dash (-). To find what the -t argument does, for 474example, use the command: > 475 476 :help -t 477 478The Vim editor has a number of options that enable you to configure and 479customize the editor. If you want help for an option, you need to enclose it 480in single quotation marks. To find out what the 'number' option does, for 481example, use the following command: > 482 483 :help 'number' 484 485The table with all mode prefixes can be found here: |help-context|. 486 487Special keys are enclosed in angle brackets. To find help on the up-arrow key 488in Insert mode, for instance, use this command: > 489 490 :help i_<Up> 491 492If you see an error message that you don't understand, for example: 493 494 E37: No write since last change (use ! to override) ~ 495 496You can use the error ID at the start to find help about it: > 497 498 :help E37 499 500 501Summary: *help-summary* > 502 :help 503< Gives you very general help. Scroll down to see a list of all 504 helpfiles, including those added locally (i.e. not distributed 505 with Vim). > 506 :help user-toc.txt 507< Table of contents of the User Manual. > 508 :help :subject 509< Ex-command "subject", for instance the following: > 510 :help :help 511< Help on getting help. > 512 :help abc 513< normal-mode command "abc". > 514 :help CTRL-B 515< Control key <C-B> in Normal mode. > 516 :help i_abc 517 :help i_CTRL-B 518< The same in Insert mode. > 519 :help v_abc 520 :help v_CTRL-B 521< The same in Visual mode. > 522 :help c_abc 523 :help c_CTRL-B 524< The same in Command-line mode. > 525 :help 'subject' 526< Option 'subject'. > 527 :help subject() 528< Function "subject". > 529 :help -subject 530< Command-line option "-subject". > 531 :help +subject 532< Compile-time feature "+subject". > 533 :help EventName 534< Autocommand event "EventName". > 535 :help digraphs.txt 536< The top of the helpfile "digraph.txt". 537 Similarly for any other helpfile. > 538 :help pattern<Tab> 539< Find a help tag starting with "pattern". Repeat <Tab> for 540 others. > 541 :help pattern<Ctrl-D> 542< See all possible help tag matches "pattern" at once. > 543 :helpgrep pattern 544< Search the whole text of all help files for pattern "pattern". 545 Jumps to the first match. Jump to other matches with: > 546 :cn 547< next match > 548 :cprev 549 :cN 550< previous match > 551 :cfirst 552 :clast 553< first or last match > 554 :copen 555 :cclose 556< open/close the quickfix window; press <Enter> to jump 557 to the item under the cursor 558 559 560============================================================================== 561 562Next chapter: |usr_03.txt| Moving around 563 564Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 565