Introduction

I think any developer who wants to be faster at editing files should try Vim, even if it’s just the motions in your prefered text editor. I’m not as fast as some people (enjoy that video lol), but I love using these motions.

Using vim almost turns writing code into a game for me - I’m always thinking of the fastest way I can change the text on the screen. This is an organized list of commands pulled from various places that I use everyday!

Note: Vim and Neovim will be used synonymously in this article

How do I exit Vim?

Mode: COMAND (more on what this means soon)

Motion	Description
:wq	Write and Quit (save and quit)
:q	Quit but fails if unsaved changes exist
:q!	Quit without saving
:wqa	Write and Quit on all open files

Now, if you’re a chad, you exit Vim like this:

Mode: Normal

Motion	Description
ZZ	Write and Quit
ZQ	Quit without saving

How do I save changes without quitting?

Mode: COMAND

Motion	Description
:w	Write file without quitting
:wa	Write all open files without quitting

Changing Vim Modes

“Modes” are what make Vim special and allow you to hit sick combo moves to edit your text.

Command	Description
i	Enter INSERT mode
a	Enter INSERT mode after the cursor (think: append)
A	Enter INSERT mode at the end of the line (think: Append)
o	Open new line below the cursor and enter INSERT mode
O	Open new line above the cursor and enter INSERT mode
v	Enter VISUAL mode
Shift-v	Enter VISUAL-LINE mode
Ctrl-v	Enter VISUAL-BLOCK mode
:	Enter COMMAND mode
R	Enter REPLACE mode
ESC	Go back to NORMAL mode from other modes

NORMAL mode is Vim’s default mode and is where the magic happens!

How do I move?

Mode: NORMAL

Command	Description
h	Move cursor left (left most)
j	Move cursor down (looks like down arrow)
k	Move cursor up
l	Move cursor right (right most)

Useful tip for noobs, you will likely want to use the arrow keys when you first start. To stop yourself from doing that you can add this line to your config, which quickly helped me get better.

local keymap = vim.keymap

-- TIP: Disable arrow keys in normal mode
keymap.set("n", "<left>", '<cmd>echo "Use h to move!!"<CR>')
keymap.set("n", "<right>", '<cmd>echo "Use l to move!!"<CR>')
keymap.set("n", "<up>", '<cmd>echo "Use k to move!!"<CR>')
keymap.set("n", "<down>", '<cmd>echo "Use j to move!!"<CR>')

Movements Within A Line

Mode: NORMAL

Command	Description
$	Move cursor to the end of the line
0	Move cursor to the beginning of the line
^	Move cursor to first non-blank character in line
fx	Find next occurrence of character ‘x’
Fx	Find previous occurrence of character ‘x’
tx	Go towards next occurrence of character ‘x’ (stops right before it)
Tx	Go towards previous occurence of character ‘x’ (stops right before it)
;	Repeat previous f, F, t, or T movement forwards
,	Repeat previous f, F, t, or T movement backwards

Word Movements

A word is basically just a sequence of letters, digits and underscores OR sequence of other symbols, separated by whitespace.

Mode: Normal

Command	Description
w	Move cursor forwards to start of word (sequence of letters, digits, underscores OR sequence of other symbols)
W	Move cursor forwards to start of WORD (any sequence of non-blank characters)
b	Move cursor backwards to start of word (sequence of letters, digits, underscores OR sequence of other symbols)
B	Move cursor backwards to start of WORD (any sequence of non-blank characters)
e	Move cursor forwards to end of word (sequence of letters, digits, underscores OR sequence of other symbols)
E	Move cursor forwards to end of WORD (any sequence of non-blank characters)
ge	Move cursor backwards to end of word (sequence of letters, digits, underscores OR sequence of other symbols)
gE	Move cursor backwards to end of WORD (any sequence of non-blank characters)

Sentence Movements

A sentence ends with a ”.”, ”!” or ”?” followed by the end of the line, a space or tab.

Mode: Normal

Command	Description
)	Move cursor to next sentence
(	Move cursor to previous sentence

Paragraph Movements

Paragraphs are blocks of consecutive non-empty lines. NOTE: Line with white space is not empty.

Mode: Normal

Command	Description
}	Move cursor to next paragraph (block of consecutive non-empty lines)
{	Move cursor to previous paragraph (block of consecutive non-empty lines)

Moving To Specific Lines

Mode: Normal

Note: Replace # with an actual number.

Command	Description
gg	Move cursor to first line of document
G	Move cursor to last line of document
#G	Move cursor to line #
#j	Go # lines down
#k	Go # lines up
H	Move cursor to line at the top of the window
M	Move cursor to the line at the middle of the window
L	Move cursor to the line at the bottom of the window

Thanks for reading!

Sources:

Vim Cheatsheet, Josean Martinez's Blogpost