vimcheatsheet

Editing

Buffers, Windows, Tabs

1. A buffer in Vim is an open instance of a file, that may not necessarily be visible on the screen.
2. A window in Vim is a viewport onto a single buffer. When you open a new window with :split or :vsplit and include a filename, it opens that file in a new buffer and then opens a window onto that buffer.
3. A tab is a collection of one or more windows. Think of a tab as a layout for a specific group of windows. You could achieve the same thing using a terminal multiplexer like tmux, which would preserve your collection of windows and allow you to flick back and forth.

Buffers

Cmd	Description
:ls	show buffer list
:edit	open file in buffer to edit
:bn, :bp	open next/prev buffer in current window
:bfirst, :blast	open first/last buffer in current window
:sb	split window and edit buffer by num or name
**:bunload	unload the buffer

Edit file under cursor

• gf - edit the file under the cursor

Find file recursively to edit

• :e **/test/foo.js

See wildmode for tab completion with wildcards.

Movement

See also motion.txt.

Jumping around the screen

• H - jump to the top of the screen
• M - jump to the middle of the screen
• L - jump to the bottom of the screen
• G - jump to the end of the file
• gg - jump to the start of the file
• '' (singlequotes) - return to line before the jump
• `` (backticks) - return to the cursor position before the jump

Scrolling the screen

• zz - move current line to the middle of the screen
• zt - move current line to the top of the screen
• zb - move current line to the bottom of the screen

Cmd	Description
Ctrl-y	moves screen up one line
Ctrl-e	moves screen down one line
Ctrl-u	move screen up half a page
Ctrl-d	moves screen down half a page
Ctrl-b	moves screen up one page
Ctrl-f	moves screen down one page

File Explorer

• :Sex to split and open file explorer (horizontal split)
• :Sex! to split file explorer vertically
• o or O to open it in a new buffer (horizontal or vertical split)
• p to preview file (:pedit fname). use :pclose to close window.

Visual Mode

See also Visual Mode.

Visual Line Mode: Remove block of text

Use Visual Line Mode.

1. Press V (shift + v)
2. Move cursor to select block of text.
3. Press d

Visual Block Mode: Insert text

Use Blockwise Visual Mode.

Use Ctrl+V (while in normal mode) to activate visual block mode. After selecting the block, you can press Shift+i (capital I) to start inserting before every line of the block.