Vim Cheat Sheet

Tired of news that feels like noise?

Every day, 4.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news fix. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture — all in a brief 5-minute email. No spin. No slant. Just clarity.

Join for free today!

At some point, every engineer or researcher needs to edit files directly from the terminal.

Vim is a fast text editor designed for efficient keyboard-driven workflows. Learning Vim improves speed, focus, and productivity, especially when working on remote servers, configuring systems, writing code, or handling quick edits without leaving the command line.

Below is a concise and practical Vim cheat sheet covering the most useful commands for navigation, editing, searching, file management, and efficient terminal-based development.

Vim is a modal text editor with distinct modes for different tasks.

Understanding these modes is key to using Vim effectively:

Normal (default): For navigation, editing commands, and text manipulation.
Insert: For typing and inserting text.
Visual: For selecting text blocks.
Command-line: For executing commands.

❝

💡 Vim is powerful, but I use it only for quick editing. If you are starting your career, it is wiser to focus on deeper skills than perfecting Vim/Neovim.

Life is wonderful! Go outside, enjoy it, and be happier.

Start with Vim Tutor

For anyone completely new to Vim, the best place to start is Vim Tutor. It’s designed to be completed in about 30 minutes. By the time you're done, you'll know how to navigate, insert, delete, and save text.

To launch the tutor, just type this command in your terminal:

vimtutor

Vim basic operations

A few essential commands to get you started.

Open a file in Vim

vim <filename>

Basic operations

:h   Open the help documentation
:w   Save changes
:wq  Save and quit
:q!  Quit without saving changes

Vim modes and movement

Insert mode

These commands are used from Normal mode to enter Insert mode.

i   Insert text before the cursor
I   Insert text at the beginning of the line
a   Append text after the cursor
A   Append text at the end of the line
o   Open a new line below the current one and insert
O   Open a new line above the current one and insert

Basic motions

Navigate your text quickly and efficiently.

h   Move left
j   Move down
k   Up
l   Right
0   Move to the start of the line
$   Move to the end of the line
^   Move to the first non-blank character of the line
gg  Go to the first line of the file
G   Go to the last line of the file
5G  Go to line 5

Word motions

Move between words and characters.

w   Move to the beginning of the next word
b   Move to the beginning of the previous word
e   Move to the end of the current or next word
ge  Move to the end of the previous word
%   Jump between matching parentheses, braces, and brackets

Vim editing and deleting

Deleting

Delete text with these powerful commands.

x   Delete the character under the cursor
dd  Delete the current line
dw  Delete from the cursor to the end of the word
D   Delete from the cursor to the end of the line

Changing

Change commands delete and then put you into Insert mode.

r   Replace a single character
cw  Change the current word
C   Change to the end of the line
cc  Change the entire line

Undo, redo, and repeating

Manage your edits with these essential commands.

u      Undo the last change
Ctrl+r Redo the last undo
.      Repeat the last change or command

Copy, cut, and paste

These operations are often referred to as yanking (copying), deleting (cutting), and pasting.

yy   Yank (copy) the current line
yw   Yank (copy) the current word
p    Paste after the cursor
P    Paste before the cursor

Vim visual mode

Use visual mode for selecting and operating on a block of text.

v      Start character-wise visual selection
V      Start line-wise visual selection
Ctrl+v Start block-wise visual selection
y      Yank (copy) the selected text
d      Delete the selected text

Vim searching and replacing

Find and replace text with power.

/word Search forward for 'word'
?word Search backward for 'word'

n   Go to the next match
N   Go to the previous match
*   Search for the word under the cursor
#   Search backwards for the word under the cursor

:%s/old/new/g  Find and replace all 'old' with 'new'
:%s/old/new/gc Find and replace all with confirmation

Vim has a built-in file explorer called Netrw to navigate your project without leaving the editor.

Open the file explorer

:Explore    Open in the current window
:Lexplore   Open in a new horizontal split (left)
:Vexplore   Open in a new vertical split

Navigate with these keys

Enter   Open a directory or file
-       Go up to the parent directory
u       Go back to the previous directory in history
mb      Bookmark the current directory
gb      Jump to a bookmarked directory

Vim window management

Split your screen to work on multiple files or sections of the same file.

:split   Horizontally split the window
:vsplit  Vertically split the window

Ctrl-w h   Move to the window to the left
Ctrl-w j   Move to the window below
Ctrl-w k   Move to the window above
Ctrl-w l   Move to the window to the right
Ctrl-w q   Close the current split