Vim Keyboard Shortcut Cheatsheet

Navigation

• h: Move left
• j: Move down
• k: Move up
• l: Move right

Basic Editing

• i: Insert mode before the cursor
• a: Insert mode after the cursor
• o: Open a new line below the current line
• O: Open a new line above the current line
• x: Delete the character under the cursor
• dd: Delete the current line
• yy: Yank (copy) the current line
• p: Paste the yanked or deleted text after the cursor
• u: Undo
• Ctrl + r: Redo

Saving and Exiting

• :w: Save (write) the file
• :q: Quit (close) Vim
• :wq or ZZ: Save and quit

Search and Replace

• /pattern: Search for a pattern
• n: Move to the next search result
• N: Move to the previous search result
• :s/old/new/g: Replace all occurrences of ‘old’ with ‘new’ in the entire file

Visual Mode

• v: Enter visual mode
• V: Enter visual line mode
• Ctrl + v: Enter visual block mode

Advanced Navigation

• w: Move forward by a word
• b: Move backward by a word
• e: Move to the end of a word
• %: Jump to matching parenthesis, bracket, or brace
• t<char>: Move to the next occurrence of <char>

Window Management

• :split: Split the window horizontally
• :vsplit: Split the window vertically
• Ctrl + w, w: Switch between windows
• Ctrl + w, h/j/k/l: Navigate between windows

Miscellaneous

• :help keyword: Open help for a keyword
• :q!: Quit without saving changes
• :set number: Show line numbers
• :set nonumber: Hide line numbers
• :set ignorecase: Ignore case when searching
• :set smartcase: Case-sensitive if search pattern contains an uppercase letter