useful-commands.md

Useful vim commands

Here is a list of vim commands that I regularly use. Many of them are customised.

Basic commands

• { move to previous paragraph
• } move to next paragraph
• # search for previous occurrence of the word under cursor
• $ go to the end of the line
• % move to matching character (default supported pairs: '()', '{}', '[]' - use :h matchpairs in vim for more info)
• ( move to previous sentence
• ) move to next sentence
• * search for next occurrence of the word under cursor
• . repeat last change
• /pattern/e+1 move to 1 space after the end of the word
• /pattern search for pattern
• 0 go to beginning of the line
• :!<COMMAND> run a terminal command
• :%s/old/new/gc replace all old with new throughout file with confirmation
• :colors change colour scheme
• :e . open file browser
• :e edit file (then enter file address)
• :h help
• :noh disable search highlighting
• :q! quit without saving
• :q quit
• :qa quit all windows at once
• :tabmove 0 move tab to the beginning
• :tabmove 1 move current tab to become the 2nd tab
• :tabmove move tab to the end
• :w save file
• ; repeat last command
• <Ctrl><Tab> go to next buffer (custom)
• <Ctrl>a yank all text (custom)
• <Ctrl>b page up
• <Ctrl>c copy text (custom)
• <Ctrl>e move view pane down
• <Ctrl>f page down
• <Ctrl>h move to the left in insert or command mode (h,j,k,l,w,e,b movements are mapped -- custom)
• <Ctrl>n autocomplete (insert mode)
• <Ctrl>n select text for multicursors editing (normal mode)
• <Ctrl>r redo
• <Ctrl>s save files (custom)
• <Ctrl>v paste text (custom)
• <Ctrl>y move view pane up
• <F3> toggle paste mode (custom)
• <F5> refresh current tab (custom)
• <F6> remove white trailing space (custom)
• <F7> open new terminal (custom)
• <Leader>1 go to buffer #1 (custom, up to 9)
• <Leader>F open FZF (custom)
• <Leader>L toggle limelight
• <Leader>as toggle AutoSave (custom)
• <Leader>ea open easy-align (custom)
• <Leader>fXX move to the next two XX characters you type (custom)
• <Leader>go toggle Goyo (custom). Suggestion: Type <Ctrl>w20< when opening Markdown files
• <Leader>n disable search highlighting (custom)
• <Leader>nf toggle NERDTreeFind (custom)
• <Leader>nt toggle NERDTree (custom)
• <Leader>rn toggle relative line numbers (custom)
• <Leader>sa sort lines alphabetically, remove duplicates (:'<,'>sort u) (custom)
• <Leader>sn sort numbers (custom)
• <Leader>sr sort in reverse (custom)
• <Leader>t open vertical terminal REPL (custom)
• <Leader>w navigate to word (custom)
• <Leader>x close buffer (:bd) (custom)
• ?pattern search backward for pattern
• A append at end of line ($a)
• C delete to the end of the line and open insert mode (c$)
• D delete to the end of the line (d$)
• Esc normal mode
• FX find the previous X character
• G go to last line
• H go to the top of the screen
• I insert mode in the beginning of the line (0i)
• K move selected lines up in visual mode (custom)
• J move selected lines down in visual mode (custom)
• J join line below to the current one with one space in between
• L go to the bottom of the screen
• M go to the middle of the screen
• N search backwards
• O open new line above and take to insert mode
• P paste before cursor
• R replace mode
• SELECTEDTEXT S' add ' or any other symbol surrounding a text element. From tpope's great surround plugin. It can be combined with targets.vim, too. Ex: to add inverted commas to [surround plugin] above, just type vi[S". To change " to ', type cs"'; to delete the surrounding ", type ds"
• S delete line and move to the beginning
• TX puts the cursor just before the character X
• XXgg go to the XX line, just type the number
• Y yank to the end of the line (custom)
• `" go to last cursor position
• cMOTION change to end of word (e) or any other motion you want to use
• fX jump to the next character X
• gJ join line below to the current one without space in between
• gcMOTION comment a text selection. It can be a paragraph (gcip) or any other selection
• gcc comment a line
• gg go to the first line
• gj go to following displayed line
• gk go to previous displayed line
• h j k l move cursor ( h: ← j: ↓ k: ↑ l: → )
• i writing mode
• n repeat search
• o open new line below and take to insert mode
• p paste after cursor
• r replace a single character
• set COMMAND! unset a command
• tX place the cursor in the character that comes before X
• u undo
• v visual mode (use to select text)
• x delete character under cursor
• y yank (copy)
• yy yank line
• yyp duplicate line
• zR unfold the whole document
• za open/close fold
• zb moves the current line to the bottom of the screen
• zt moves the current line to the top of the screen
• zx refresh folds
• zz moves the current line to the middle of the screen
• ~ switch case
• ˆ jump to the first non-blank character of the line

Coc-Nvim

• <Leader>cc open :CocCommand (custom)
• <Leader>cl open coc-lists (custom)
• <Leader>cm open coc-marketplace (custom)

Floaterm

• <Leader>t open new terminal (custom)
• <F7> open new terminal (custom)
• <F8> open new R terminal (custom)
• <F9> open new python terminal (custom)
• <F10> go to next terminal (custom)
• <F11> toggle terminal (custom)
• <F12> close terminal (custom)
• <Leader>l send code to terminal (custom)

Gist

• <Leader>gi create private gist with description (custom)
• <Leader>gI create public gist with description
• <Leader>ge edit gist with description (custom)
• <Leader>gx delete gist

Git

• <Leader>ga git add (custom)
• <Leader>gb shows git blame output (custom)
• <Leader>gbr git branch (custom)
• <Leader>gc git commit. Write a comment and close the tab to push (custom)
• <Leader>gca git amend (custom)
• <Leader>gcam git amend --no-edit (custom)
• <Leader>gco git checkout (custom)
• <Leader>gd git remove (custom)
• <Leader>gf git fetch (custom)
• <Leader>gl git log (custom)
• <Leader>gm git merge (custom)
• <Leader>gpb git pull --rebase (custom)
• <Leader>gpl git pull (custom)
• <Leader>gps git push (custom)
• <Leader>gr git read (custom)
• <Leader>gs git status (custom)
• <Leader>gv git diff, vertical split (custom)

GitHub Copilot

• <Ctrl-]> dismiss the current suggestion
• <fn-option-]> cycle to the next suggestion, if one is available
• <fn-option-[> cycle to the previous suggestion
• <fn-option-\> explicitly request a suggestion, even if Copilot is disabled

LaTeX

• <Leader>ll build a pdf with latexmk
• <Leader>lv view pdf
• <Leader>lc clean auxiliary files
• <Leader>lt open table of contents

Marks

• mX toggle mark X (0-9, a-z) to text
• dmX delete mark X
• m, toggle next available mark
• m- delete all marks from current line
• m<Space> delete all marks
• 'X jump to mark X
• ]' jump to next line containing a mark
• [' jump to previous line containing a mark
• ]` jump to next mark
• [` jump to previous mark
• m/ show all marks

Markdown

• ]] go to next header
• [[ go to previous header
• ][ go to next sibling header
• [] go to previous sibling header
• ]c go to current header
• ]u go to parent header

Pandoc

• :Pandoc --ascii display diacritics in html output

R

• == indent line
• = indent selection
• gg=G indent whole buffer
• <Leader>ae send file
• <Leader>ca send chunk
• <Leader>d run a line and goes down
• <Leader>fa run a function and go down
• <Leader>gn go to next R chunk
• <Leader>gN go to previous R chunk
• <Leader>kh builds html
• <Leader>kl builds beamer pdf
• <Leader>kp build pdf with Knitr
• <Leader>kr renders markdown file
• <Leader>pa run a paragraph and go down
• <Leader>rf opens a new R session
• <Leader>rh help
• <Leader>rl list space
• <Leader>rm remove objects and clear console
• <Leader>rn names
• <Leader>ro object browser
• <Leader>rp print
• <Leader>rq quit R session
• <Leader>rr clear console
• <Leader>rs summary
• <Leader>rt structure
• <Leader>rv show data in a new tab
• <Leader>sa run a selection and go down
• <Leader>se runs a selection and show output
• <Leader>xx toggle comment

Windows

• <Ctrl>wXX< increase width (replace XX by any number you prefer)
• <Ctrl>wXX> decrease width (replace XX by any number you prefer)
• <Ctrl>w<Ctrl>R switch windows
• <Ctrl>wT send current window to a new tab
• <Ctrl>wl move focus to the right window (use h to move to the right window, j below, k above)
• <Ctrl>wL move window ( H: ← J: ↓ K: ↑ L: → )
• <Ctrl>wc close window
• <Ctrl>wS horizontal splitting
• :sp horizontal splitting
• <Ctrl>wv vertical splitting
• :vs vertical splitting
• <Ctrl>wQ close window

Writing prose

• z= in normal mode (click over the word first)
• zG add new word to dictionary
• ]s next wrong word
• [s previous wrong word
• <Ctrl>ns disable spell check (custom)
• <Leader>z automatically chooses the first suggested word
• <Leader>cs open Thesaurus
• <Leader>wg toggle write-good (custom)
• <Leader>T translate word (custom)
• <Leader>wc toggle vim-grammarous (custom)
• <Leader>wr reset vim-grammarous (custom)
• <Leader>mm toggle vim-table-mode (custom). Use | to delimit the first line, then type || (without leaving insert mode) to write a properly formatted horizontal line. Add as many lines as you want (remember to delimit the columns with |), then return to the first line and type ||.