vimTips.txt

h - move left
j - move down
k - move up
l - move right
ctrl-b - page up
ctrl-f - page down
% - jump to matching brace
w - jump by start of words (punctuation considered words)
W - jump by words (spaces separate words)
e - jump to end of words (punctuation considered words)
E - jump to end of words (no punctuation)
b - jump backward by words (punctuation considered words)
B - jump backward by words (no punctuation)
0 - (zero) start of line
^ - first non-blank character of line
$ - end of line
gg - Go to first line
[N]G - Go To line N. No N: last line
Note: Prefix a cursor movement command with a number to repeat it. For example,
4j moves down 4 lines.
i - start insert mode at cursor
I - insert at the beginning of the line
a - append after the cursor
A - append at the end of the line
o - open (append) blank line below current line (no need to press return)
O - open blank line above current line
ea - append at end of word
Esc - exit insert mode
r - replace a single character (does not use insert mode)
J - join line below to the current one
cc - change (replace) an entire line
cw - change (replace) to the end of word
c$ - change (replace) to the end of line
s - delete character at cursor and subsitute text
S - delete line at cursor and substitute text (same as cc)
xp - transpose two letters (delete and paste, technically)
u - undo
ctrl-r - redo
. - repeat last command
~ - switch case
g~iw - switch case of current word
gUiw - make current word uppercase
guiw - make current word lowercase
>> - indent line one column to right
<< - indet line one column to left
== - auto-indent current line
dd - delete (cut) a line
dw - delete the current word
x - delete current character
X - delete previous character
D - delete from cursor to end of line
yy - yank (copy) a line
2yy - yank 2 lines
yw - yank word
y$ - yank to end of line
p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor/current line
P - put (paste) before cursor/current line
:set paste - avoid unexpected effects in pasting
v - start visual mode, mark lines, then do command (such as y-yank)
V - start Linewise visual mode
o - move to other end of marked area
U - upper case of marked area
ctrl+v - start visual block mode
O - move to Other corner of block
aw - mark a word
ab - a () block (with braces)
aB - a {} block (with brackets)
ib - inner () block
iB - inner {} block
Esc - exit visual mode
> - shift right
< - shift left
y - yank (copy) marked text
d - delete marked text
~ - switch case
:w - write (save) the file, but don't exit
:wq - write (save) and quit
:x - same as :wq
:q - quit (fails if anything has changed)
:q! - quit and throw away changes
/pattern - search for pattern
?pattern - search backward for pattern
n - repeat search in same direction
N - repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file
:%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations
:e filename - Edit a file in a new buffer
:tabe filename - Edit a file in a new tab (Vim7, gVim)
:bnext (or :bn) - go to next buffer
:bprev (or :bp) - go to previous buffer
:bd - delete a buffer (close a file)
:sp filename - Open a file in a new buffer and split window
ctrl-w s - Split windows
ctrl-w w - switch between windows
ctrl-w q - Quit a window
ctrl-w v - Split windows vertically
gt - Next tab
gT - Previous tab
:tabr - First tab
:tabl - Last tab
:tabm [N] - Move current tab after tab N. No N: last. N=0: first.
$vim -p file1 file2 fileN  - Open multiple files in different tabs (vim7) 
$vim -c "vim command" file - execute an editor command on startup
:setlocal fileformat=dos|unix
:setlocal fileencoding=utf-8