While it may make sense that you should be able to use the h j k l keys to traverse the editor in insert mode, but that is actually not the way Vim is intended to be used! There are many commands that Vim provides to make editing faster and easier. The right way is … Read more
Add set number to your .vimrc file in your home directory. If the .vimrc file is not in your home directory create one with vim .vimrc and add the commands you want at open. Here’s a site that explains the vimrc and how to use it.
Once you’ve got expandtab on as per the other answers, the extremely convenient way to convert existing files according to your new settings is: :retab It will work on the current buffer.
Shortest/simplest/fastest way would be: :qa To save work in all tabs and quit: :wqa
The command is called :saveas, but unfortunately it will not delete your old file, you’ll have to do that manually. see :help saveas for more info. EDIT: Most vim installations have an integrated file explorer, which you can use for such operations. Try :Explore in command mode (I would actually map that to a function … Read more
Replace All: :%s/foo/bar/g Find each occurrence of ‘foo’ (in all lines), and replace it with ‘bar’. For specific lines: :6,10s/foo/bar/g Change each ‘foo’ to ‘bar’ for all lines from line 6 to line 10 inclusive.
=, the indent command can take motions. So, gg to get the start of the file, = to indent, G to the end of the file, gg=G.
Use: :%y+ to yank all lines. Explanation: % to refer the next command to work on all the lines y to yank those lines + to copy to the system clipboard NB: In Windows, + and * are equivalent see this answer.
:g/^$/d :g will execute a command on lines which match a regex. The regex is ‘blank line’ and the command is :d (delete)
Might not be one that 99% of Vim users don’t know about, but it’s something I use daily and that any Linux+Vim poweruser must know. Basic command, yet extremely useful. :w !sudo tee % I often forget to sudo before editing a file I don’t have write permissions on. When I come to save that … Read more