Getting Started with Vim - Quick Tutorial

Why would you want to use Vim?

When you ssh into a server, you will need a text editor that works in the terminal to change for example, server configurations. Nano is a text editor that works on terminal. But it is hard to navigate fast with Nano. Improve your Vim skill for the speed!

How to use Vim?

To open a file:

• In the terminal, type in:  vi /tmp/1.txt

To navigate:

• Your cursor keys just work
• Press 'control' + 'D' for pageDown
• Press 'control' + 'U' for pageUp

To get to the bottom of the doc:

• Press 'shift' + 'G'

To get to the top of the doc:

• Type in ':0' then 'enter'

To get to the start of the line:

• Press 'shift' + '^'

To get to the end of the line:

• Press 'shift' + '$'

To get to the 50th line of the doc:

• Type in ':50' then 'enter'

To delete the current line:

• Type in 'dd'

To delete the next 20 lines:

• Type in '20dd'

To delete the all lines:

• Type in '100000dd'

• Repeat until there's no line left

To save file and exit:

• Type in ':wq!' then 'enter'

To exit without saving:

• Type in ':q!' then 'enter'

To edit:

• Press the 'i' key to enter editing mode

• Your 'delete' key and 'backspace' key just work

To exit editing mode:

• Press the 'esc' key

To undo a change:

• Press the 'esc' key to exit the edit mode

• Press the 'u' key to undo

To get to a word:

• Press the '/' key to search forward

• Example: '/hello' will search forward the next hello that appears in the text

• Press the 'n' key to get to the next 'hello'

To get to a word from the bottom of the doc:

• Press 'shift' + 'G' to get to the bottom

• Press 'shift' + '?' key to search backward

• Example: '?hello' will search last hello that appears in the text

• Press the 'n' key to get to the next 'hello'

To delete a word:

• Use the above method to get to the word

• Press 'dw' to delete the word

To delete one character:

• Use the above method to get to the word

• Press 'x' to delete a character

To copy text: 

• Your cursor just works in selecting text
• Your Windows command just works: 'ctrl' + 'c'
• 'cmd' + 'c' for OSX

To paste text:

• Press the 'i' key to enter editing mode
• Your Windows command just works: 'ctrl' + 'v'
• 'cmd' + 'v' for OSX

 If your terminal does not support text selection with copy & paste, try:

To copy 1 line:

• Press 'yy' to copy the current line

To paste 1 line:

• Press 'p' to paste a copied a line

Great. You know how to use vim.