Quick Vim Reference

Kurt Schmidt

April 2022

1
Contents
Foreword 4
Crutches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1 Modes 5
1.1 Getting Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 Startup 6
2.1 Some Handy Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Options Beginners Might Consider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 .vimrc – Vim Config File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3 Getting Help 9
3.1 Signalling Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4 Administrative Commands (Normal Mode) 10

4.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2 Redrawing the Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5 Motion 11
5.1 Line Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.2 Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6 Insert Mode 13
6.1 Inserting Literal Character i_ctrl-v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6.2 Unicode Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

7 Edit Operations 14
7.1 Undo / Redo / Repeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.2 Deleting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.3 Pasting Text (Put) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7.4 Copying Text (Yank) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.5 Changing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.6 Registers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

8 Formatting 17
8.1 Indent/Exdent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.2 Joining 2 lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.3 Re-formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

9 Vim Text Objects 18

9.1 Source Code Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

10 Marks, Visual Mode 19

10.1 Visual Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

11 Splitting the Window 20

11.1 Managing Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
11.2 Moving Between Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
11.3 Command History Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

12 Buffers 21
12.1 Buffers v Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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 12.2 Using Multiple Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
12.3 Working With Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

13 Command Mode 22
13.1 Some Really Helpful Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
13.2 Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
13.3 External Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

14 Folds 25

15 Odds and Ends 26

Epilogue 27

3
Foreword
This document is a quick reference, for things you’ve learned, and a quick survey of some features you
might wish to learn.
You must go through the Vim tutorial first
$ vimtutor
, and keep practising. Get comfortable, and add new skills you find useful.

Crutches
While learning Vim I really discourage the use of the mouse, and of the arrow keys. Navigation,
selection, will take a little bit of practice, but, this effort is well worth it. There is much more available
than the four simple motions, but you’ll never get there if you stop at the arrow keys.
The mouse is great for editing photos, playing solitaire, but moving the cursor, selecting text, we have
many fine tools. Similarly, the mouse will slow you down.

4
1 Modes
Vim typically starts in Normal Mode. You can navigate around your document, save it, go into insert
mode, etc. Usually the <ESC> key will bring you back to Normal Mode.
Some of the other modes:
Insert Mode Where you do all your typing. See Insert Mode Section
Visual Mode Use motions to visually select text. See Visual Mode Section
Replace Mode Really just an overstrike mode, as best I can tell.
Use <ESC> to get back to Normal Mode, same as Insert
Command Mode For things that start with a :, /, or ?. Shows up at the bottom of the window.
See also the Command History Window

1.1 Getting Lost

<ESC> will very often cancel the current command, Normal Mode key sequence, etc., or, return you to
Normal Mode.
If you find yourself in ex (line editor) mode, try :vim .

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2 Startup
Some useful features can be invoked at startup, either through a command-line option, or installed
alias:
view Starts vim in read-only mode. Same as vi -R
vimdiff Starts you in a diff mode, documents are side-by-side. Make your terminal wide. vim -d
gvim gview The GUI version (if installed). vim -g

2.1 Some Handy Settings

The set command is used to see or change many vim settings. There are three types:
• number
• string
• toggle
To see summary settings:
:set
To see all:
:set all
To view a particular setting:
:set filetype?

2.1.1 Setting Number/String Options

:set ft=python
:set tabstop=3
:set verbosefile=

2.1.2 Setting a Toggle Option

Turn it off by prepending the option with “no”.
:set hlsearch
:set nohlsearch
:set number
:set nonumber

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2.2 Options Beginners Might Consider
Note, you often needn’t spell out the entire option. I’ll include common shortcuts that I remember.
Examples will show settings I recommend.
[no]compatible cp Don’t behave as the original VI editor
set nocompatible
hidden hid Allows you to switch to another buffer w/out saving current one
set hidden
background bg By default, color schemes assume a light background. If you use a dark terminal, then:
set bg=dark
showcmd sc Toggle. Show partial commands (what you’re typing in Normal Mode) at bottom
ruler ru Toggle. Shows row and column in lower right corner
hlsearch hls Toggle. Highlights matches from a search. (Use :set nohl to turn it off, or see below
for a binding I use)
incsearch is Toggle. Show matches as regex is being typed
wildmenu Toggle. Better command-line completion (try the <Tab> key)
showmode smd Toggle. Displays the vim mode, bottom left (I think)
showmatch sm Toggle. Shows partner when cursor is placed on a bracket (parenthesis, etc.).
textwidth tw Number. Width of buffer. Where VIM will insert characters (on whitespace), as you
type (format cmd, etc.)
tabstop ts Number. The number of columns a tab displays. (Does not affect the buffer, only the
appearance.)
set tabstop=3
shiftwidth sw Number. Number of spaces to use for indent, shift (<<, >>, etc.). Set to 0 to use
tabstop value
set shiftwidth=3
• Set to 0 to use value of tabstop
set shiftwidth=0
expandtab et Toggle. Typed tabs will be converted to tabstop spaces in buffer
• Doesn’t affect existing tabs
• See :retab
number nu Toggle. Turns on line numbers.
I find I don’t really use this. I have the ruler, and <n>G will take me to a particular line.
relativenumber ru Toggle. Give it a try. I don’t use it, but, some might find it handy, especially
when nu is also set
wrap Toggle. Display only. Long lines are wrapped, rather than disappearing off to the right. Doesn’t
modify the buffer.
showbreak sb String. Prefix for wrapped lines.

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2.3 .vimrc – Vim Config File
You can put your customisations in a config file. Vim will read ~/.vimrc upon startup. (GVim will
instead read ~/.gvimrc, if present.)
I have created a simple starter .vimrc file for newbies to use. Users on the department machines should
copy it from my Public directory. Or, you can look at it here.
Note, the double-quote, ", introduces a line comment in this file
Other than the options discussed above, here are some other settings you might find helpful:
syntax on Turns on syntax highlighting, autoindenting, etc. (as appropriate)
map Y y$ Behave like y$, rather than yy
D and C work in this way. The original Vi was inconsistent, here.
nnoremap <C-L> :nohl<CR><C-L> Ctrl-L now turns off search highlighting, then redraws the screen
map <F1> <Esc>
imap <F1> <Esc> I got tired of hitting the <F1> (help) key, when reaching for the <ESC> key
[Older Lenovos had <ESC> above the <F1> key.]
set pastetoggle=<F2> Use <F2> to toggle between paste and nopaste. Helpful if pasting into a
buffer from the terminal or desktop clipboard
map <F3> :set invlist<CR> Use <F3> to toggle between list, which shows you newlines, tabs, and
other characters, and nolist
map <Leader>m :wall<CR>q:?ˆmake<CR><CR> Type \m to save any dirty buffers, then re-execute the
most recent make command

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3 Getting Help
From normal mode:
:help
It takes an optional argument. Wildcards and tab-completion (or CTRL-D) might help you.
:help k
To exit help:
:helpclose
, or, if it’s the current frame:
:q
Jump to specific topics by putting cursor on highlighted tag, hit ctrl-]. Use ctrl-o or ctrl-t to
jump back.
To review help navigation:
:help :help

3.1 Signalling Context

Strings, commands, topics, might appear in several contexts. E.g., if you enter :help list you’ll get
information on the list container in Vi Script, rather than, e.g., a discussion of the list option which
shows tab characters.

Prefix Example Context

none :h r Normal mode
v_ :h v_r Visual mode
i_ :h i_CTRL-W Insert mode
‘: :h :r Command-line command
c_ :h c_ctrl-r Command-line editing
- :h -r Vim command argument (starting Vim)
' :h 'ro' Option
/ :h /\r Regular expression

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4 Administrative Commands (Normal Mode)

<ESC> Cancels current command, or, returns you to Normal Mode

:e fn Edit fn in a new buffer
:q Close current window (if no changes)
:q! Close current window, dammit! (Lose changes)
:w [fn] Write buffer to fn, if provided; otherwise, use current buffer name
:w! [fn] Write buffer, possibly overwriting target
:wq Write and quit
ZZ Write and quit
:x Write (only if dirty) and quit

4.1 Background
If you use a terminal with a dark background:
:set bg=dark

4.2 Redrawing the Window

ctrl-L Redraw (refresh) the screen

z<CR> Redraw, current line to top of window
z.<CR> Redraw, current line to center of window
z-<CR> Redraw, current line to bottom of window

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5 Motion
You can move the cursor around with the following keystrokes while in Command Mode. Most (all?) of
the following can be preceded by a count. Default is 1.
Simple motions

h Left
j Down
k Up
l Right
0 Beginning of line
$ End of line
H Top of window
M Middle line of window
L Bottom of window
gg 1st line of file
nG n th (last) line of file
ctrl-f Forward a screenful
ctrl-b Backward a screenful

Please don’t use the arrow keys. They’re slower than the 4 basic motions, right on the home row. Get
good at the basic motions, then add other motions. Don’t just dead-end at arrow keys. That’s Notepad.
Motions over objects

w , W Beginning of next (big) word

e , E End of next (big) word
b , B Back. Beginning of previous (big) word
( , ) Beginning (end) of this or previous (next) sentence
{ , } Beginning (end) of this or previous (next) paragraph

5.1 Line Numbers

• To see your line, column and apparent column in lower right:
:set ruler
• To go to a particular line number nn:
nnG
• If you really want to see line numbers:
:set number
To turn it off:
:set nonumber
Also, try this:
:set relativenumber
:set nornu

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5.2 Searching

/re Forward incremental regex search

?re Backward incremental regex search
n N Go to next (previous) match, same direction
# Match previous string under cursor
* Match next string under cursor
fchar Advance cursor to next char on current line
Fchar Move cursor left to previous char on current line
tchar Advance cursor to 1 column before next char on current line
Tchar Move cursor left to 1 column after previous char on current line
; Repeat the previous f, F, t, or T command
'' Return cursor to previous line

Note, / and ? are Command-line Mode commands; the cursor will jump to the bottom of the window.

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6 Insert Mode
There are various ways to get into Insert Mode from Comand Mode:

i Insert at (prior to) cursor

I Insert at first (non-white) character in the line
a Append at next column after cursor
A Append at end of current line
o Open new line below cursor
O Open new line above cursor

Each of these can be preceded by a count. You type some text. When you hit <ESC>, the edit is
repeated.

6.1 Inserting Literal Character i_ctrl-v

Use ctrl-v in Insert Mode (i_ctrl-v), or Command Mode, to quote a literal character, like, e.g.,
Backspace.
Handy if you want the replacement string in a substitute command to have a Newline in it:
%s/, /^M/g
You can’t type ˆM as 2 characters; instead, you hit ctrl-v while typing, then the Enter key.

6.2 Unicode Characters

6.2.1 Enter a Unicode
From Insert Mode, hit ctrl-v + u + code. E.g., use u2713 to insert a check mark.

6.2.2 Digraphs
Vim maps a great many 2-character (and 3-character) sequences to special characters.
While typing in Insert Mode, use ctrl-k, then the 2-key combo.
To see a list of digraphs, with descriptions:
:help digraphs-default
. May be useful to search (/re) for a character.
To see a complete, more compact table:
:digraph

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7 Edit Operations
7.1 Undo / Redo / Repeat

u Undo
ctrl-r Redo
. Repeat the last edit

Unlike in the original Vi, we have an undo (and a redo) stack, so, you can undo all the way back to the
loaded buffer. (See variable undolevels.)

7.2 Deleting Text

These commands are available in Normal Mode, and can be preceded by a count:

x Delete character under the cursor

dmotion Delete text from cursor to point of motion
dd Delete current (and following, if count > 1) lines
D Delete from cursor to end of line

7.3 Pasting Text (Put)

To paste deleted or yanked text into a document from Normal Mode

P Paste (before cursor)

p Paste (after cursor)

xp is a quick, handy way to transpose two characters

7.3.1 Pasting from Outside Vim

Note about pasting from an external clipboard: Things like autoindent, etc., may cause problems
if you paste already formatted text or code into a document. Vim supplies a paste setting, which turns
off much of the autoformatting:
:set paste
Remember to cancel this setting for regular editing when done:
:set nopaste
With this setting in my .vimrc I just hit the key to toggle on and off:
" Use <F2> to toggle between 'paste' and 'nopaste'
set pastetoggle=<F2>

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7.3.2 Read a File, or Command Output, into Buffer
I often find it handy to skip the clipboard, to simply read contents from a file <fn> right into the buffer.
From Normal Mode:
:r <file>
, will insert contents starting at line beneath the cursor.
To place output from a command into buffer, e.g.:
:r! grep Waldo *.tex
:r! date -R
:r! head -n12 <file>

7.3.3 Open Source in New Buffer

Or, open the file in a new buffer, use Vim to yank text from there to another buffer.

7.4 Copying Text (Yank)

ymotion Yank (copy) word, sentence, paragraph, etc.

cntyy Yank (copy) cnt line(s)
Y Yank (copy) cnt lines
y$ Yank (copy) to end of line

7.5 Changing Text

r Replace single character under the cursor with another. Leaves you in Normal Mode
R Puts you in Replace Mode
c Change. Used much like d, above, but leaves you in input mode
s Substitute Delete char under cursor, leaves you in Insert Mode
~ Changes case of character under cursor. Can be used w/a count, or highlighed text

7.5.1 Changing Case

Each of these is followed by a motion or text object

gU Change text to upper-case

gu Change text to lower-case
g? Performs Rot13 encoding (decoding)

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7.6 Registers
Any of the lower-case letters can be used to store deleted or yanked (copied) text, when preceded by a
" . Simply precede any delete, yank, or put operation with a register specifier:
"f2yy # copy current line and line below into register f
# move elsewhere
"fp # paste the 2 lines after the cursor
"fP # paste the 2 lines before the cursor
You can use Visual Mode when yanking or deleting text.
The numbered registers contain a history of your yanks. Vim maintains other registers, too.
:reg Will show you all the registers and their contents
Vim uses the numbered registers, 0-9, and a few others, to automatically store yanked/deleted text and
other things.
"%p # paste filename of current buffer into the buffer

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8 Formatting
8.1 Indent/Exdent

>> indent line

<< exdent line

• As with many commands, can be preceded by a count

• Or, use Visual Mode, then a single < or > to move whole section
• Or, < followed by a motion or a text object

8.2 Joining 2 lines

Use J to join the current line with the line below.

8.3 Re-formatting
You can ask Vim to reformat, e.g., a paragraph, or a function
• Use Visual Mode, then gp
• Or, gp<motion>
– gp} – reformat to end of paragraph
• Inner-objects
– gpip – reformats entire paragraph cursor is on
– (See Text Objects, below)

8.3.1 Re-do Tabs

Changing a tab setting (ts, expandtabs, etc) doesn’t affect tabs already in the buffer.
:retab
will help you here. Takes an optional range:
:5,$retab
to retab lines 5-end.

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9 Vim Text Objects
These Normal Mode keystrokes are sorta like motions, but, they don’t generally use the location of the
cursor as a mark. E.g., if the cursor is anywhere in a word, we can delete the word, or the sentence, or
reformat the paragraph.
Each object can be selected with (a) or without (i) surrounding whitespace (sorta).

aw A word
iw An inner word
aW iW A (inner) big word
as is A (inner) sentence
ap ip A (inner) paragraph

9.1 Source Code Objects

I don’t know that the behavior is dependent on filetype, I’ve not played, but, these objects make more
sense in the context of code, some of them language-dependent.

9.1.1 Strings

a" i" A (inner) double-quoted string

a' i' A (inner) single-quoted string
a` i` A (inner) back-quoted string

9.1.2 Other Bracketed Expressions

a) i) A (inner) parenthesized block

a] i] A (inner) bracketed block
a} i} A (inner) brace block
at it A (inner) XML-like markup tag block
ai ii A (inner) indented block

9.1.3 Examples

dis Delete sentence cursor is on

>ip Indent current paragraph
gqip Reformat (re-wrap) current paragraph
gUiw Make current word all uppercase
guit Make current (XML) markup tag block all lowercase

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10 Marks, Visual Mode
Marks can be used for navigation, and for commands that take ranges. 2 marks can delimit a selection
of text, for a variety of actions, including deleting/yanking, reformatting, write (:w), substitute (:s)
and filter (:!) commands.
• To set a mark: mc , where c is any lower-case letter
• To go to that line: 'c , where c is the mark

10.1 Visual Mode

Visual Mode allows you to graphically select text, sets two marks for you: `< and `>. While in Visual
Mode, Normal Mode commands (indent, delete, yank, etc.) will act on this text, and Command Mode
commands (:w,:s, etc.) will appear w/the range marks already supplied.
To highligh text, go to one end, then hit:

v visual
V visual, line mode
ctrl-v visual, block mode

, the use motion keys (or a search) to get to the other border.
<ESC> will cancel the current Visual Mode, return you to Normal Mode.
Example:
• Use Visual Mode to highlight several lines of text
• Type
:
– Note the bottom line of your screen. The special marks are already filled in
• Continue to type
w ~/tmp/blah.sav
– Note, you’ve save the highlighted text to a new file
– Remember to delete the file
• Or, hit <ESC> to cancel the command

19
11 Splitting the Window
[I don’t quite have the jargon correct, so, don’t get too formal.]
When you call for :help, e.g., the window splits into 2 panes.
Other ways to split the window / open a new one (from Normal Mode) :

:spl Splits window horizontally

:spl <fn> Opens new window horizontally, opens file
:vspl Splits window vertically
:vspl <fn> Opens new window vertically, opens file
ctrl-w n Opens new window horizontally
ctrl-w v Splits window vertically
:term Opens new window above, starts a shell instance
q: Opens the Command History Window

11.1 Managing Windows

Again, many of these can be preceded by a count, which often determines window’s size (height or
width)

:q[!] Quit current window [dammit!]

ctrl-w c Close current window
ctrl-w o Make current window only (close others)
ctrl-w +/- Increase/Decrease height of window
ctrl-w >/< Increase/Decrease width of window
ctrl-w H/L Move window left/right
ctrl-w J/K Move window down/up

11.2 Moving Between Windows

ctrl-w h Go n windows left

ctrl-w l Go n windows right
ctrl-w j Go n windows down
ctrl-w k Go n windows up

11.3 Command History Window

This lets you search back through your command history, perhaps edit, and re-execute commands. q:
will open a small (7-line) window, which you can navigate in the normal way.
Hit [ENTER] to execute the command the cursor is on.
:q or ctrl-C [ENTER] to cancel.

20
12 Buffers
12.1 Buffers v Tabs
In short, Vim “tabs” should be called “layouts”. Think of Vim’s buffers as you might regard tabs in a
different program.
This is a discussion of “Tab Madness”.

12.2 Using Multiple Buffers

While editing a file you can use :e <fn> to open another file into a new buffer.

12.3 Working With Buffers

:ls List (and index) buffers

:b <n> Switch to buffer -
:bd Delete (close) current buffer (if no changes)
ctrl-6 Switch between 2 most recent buffers

I have this handy binding in my .vimrc, so I hit gb, the buffers are listed, then I just type the new
buffer number:
nnoremap gb :ls<CR>:b<Space>
Careful, :q will try to quit all the buffers.

21
13 Command Mode
Largely, everything can be done here. The original Vi was built on an older line-editor, Ex. You
couldn’t move the cursor around the document, so, everything was done from this command line. It is
here you save the buffer, open new ones, quit, change settings, delete or replace text, delete lines, insert
or append, run the buffer against an external filter, etc.
You already know some:

:w[!]
:q[!]
:wq
:x
:r
:set

13.1 Some Really Helpful Commands

13.1.1 Delete
Without a range, deletes the current line:
:d

13.1.2 Substitute
Does a REGEX search and replace on first occurrence of current line:
:s/white chocolate/not chocolate/
To replace every occurrence on the line:
:s/this/that/g

13.1.3 Global
Allows us to apply an Ex command only to lines that match some regular expression.
To delete empty lines:
:g/^$/d
To delete blank lines (maybe contain whitespace):
:g/^\s*$/d

22
13.2 Ranges
Many of these commands which act on the buffer can be preceded by a range (the default is simply the
current line).
Ranges can be delimited by:
• Line numbers
– . is the current line
– $ can be used for the last line
– % is a range, the entire file (short for 1,$)
• Marks
• Regular Expressions
– REs are delimited by /
Some examples:
• To delete lines 1-12:
:1,12 d
• To swap first occurrence of Merry for Pippin on each line, from current line to end:
:.,$s/Merry/Pippin/
• To swap every occurrence of Merry for Pippin on each line, from current line to end:
:.,$s/Merry/Pippin/g
• To save the HTML header section to another file:
:/<head>/,/<\/head>/ w ~/public_html/general_header.html
• Note, had to escape that inner /
• Make a fold out of the highlighted code (Visual Mode):
:`<,`>fo
• Given 2 marks a and b, a precedes b, comment out all lines in range (inclusive)
:`a,`bs/^/# /
We can mix range element types.
• Delete lines from beginning of file until the string <body> is found (inclusive):
:1,/<body>/! d

13.2.1 Offsets
We can add or subtract lines from range indicators. E.g., to delete starting 2 lines after the cursor up
to (and including) the line before the next occurrence of “Waldo”:
:.+2,/Waldo/-1 d

23
13.3 External Filters
You can apply any external program which reads stdin and writes to stdout (filter) to the buffer.
To sort all lines of the file:
:%! sort
Use awk to put line numbers in the file:
:%! awk '{printf( "\%3s \%s\n", NR, $0 )}'
• We had to escape the % from Vim
– Vim will replace % with the filename of the curent buffer

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14 Folds
The easiest way to create a fold is to use visual mode. Highlight section, then:
:fo
• or:
zf
Of course, text objects work:
zfip
Then, we can open, close, toggle, and delete folds:

zd Delete one fold at the cursor

zD Delete folds recursively at the cursor
zo Open one fold under cursor
zO Open all folds under cursor recursively
zc Close one fold under cursor
zC Close all folds under cursor recursively
za Alternate (open closed fold, close open fold)

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15 Odds and Ends
Here are commands and options which I use often enough, but which don’t yet appear elsewhere in
this document
:[range]retab :ret Command. Reformats strings of whitespace containing tabs
• Handy if you’ve changed 'tabstop', or set 'expandtab'
:visual :vi Leave Ex Mode. Get back to normal VIM editing
• Happens to me all the time (I inadvertently hit Q in Normal Mode)
• Ex is an old line editor that the original Vi was built on
• It is the source of all the : commands

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Epilogue
I didn’t touch a good deal of what Vim has to offer. This document is intended for those fairly new
to Vim. It contains some information immediately useful, and some that might provide anchors for
further investigation, a preview of things yet to learn.
Become proficient w/the basics, then add a feature to your reportoire, take it for a test drive. If it
improves your workflow, great. If not, that’s fine. Either way, pick the next feature that looks appealing,
take it for a spin. There’s some effort involved here, but, on balance, the effort spent will work for you,
make you more productive.
Again, there’s much to Vim. If you feel as though the editor should do something, it likely does. Or,
perhaps, you can record macros or even write a function to do it.

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