- You can use
$
,0
, and^
to move to line endpoints and then usew
andb
. Also, adding a numeric argument tow
andb
can accelerate the process, so using6w
instead of justw
can put you about to where ou need to be. - Using
f
andt
to move to individual characters will help also. (I use this typically with punctuation. If, for example, I have four sentences on one long line2f.
will go to the end of the second sentence) - Using the
(
and)
keys are an alternative way to navigate entire sentences. - Splitting out long lines into multiple lines (manually, or with
set tw=72
[or 80]) can make editing them simpler. You can always join them later withJ
. - Something I just discovered, you can move up and down one displayed line by using
gj
andgk
. That way, you can treat your one wrapped line as multiple lines.
If you comment on the type of data you’re editing, it might make it easier for us to make suggestions.