7 Relatively Unknown But Very Powerful Vim Features

By Daniel Miessler on January 14th, 2007: Tagged as Linux | Programming | Vim

I’m a bit obsessed with mastering vim. I kind of feel like I’m killing kittens every time I do something inefficiently. I know plenty of commands, but you don’t truly know a command (like in the Biblical sense) until you find yourself using it without thinking. I am on a continuous mission to raise the number of commands that I know in this way. This post is my latest attempt to lock in some good ones.

I compiled this list from a wide range of other collections online, including my own tutorial, contributions from friends, and this article, which is currently my favorite stand-alone introduction to vim.

  1. View/edit two files at once.

    :vsplit foo.txt

    You can then switch between the windows with ctrl-ww.

  2. Run an external command and capture the output.:r ! date
  3. Repeat your last command by typing “.” (a period).

    So elegant.

  4. Auto-complete text using ctrl-n.

    If the text is elsewhere in your document, vim will know and try and complete it for you.

  5. Hide blocks of text by “folding”.

    Highlight the area you want to fold (using v or V) and press zf. Think “f” for fold. To “open” it, press zo.

  6. Quickly switch between Unix and Windows file formats.

    Type :set filetype=Unix or :set filteype=dos respectively.

  7. More easily edit code by enabling syntax highlighting.

    Create a file called ~/.vimrc and put syntax on in it.

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Viewing 1 Comment

    • ^
    • v
    better text for #7 here:

    if has("syntax)
    syntax on
    endif

    Keeps you from getting a warning if your copy of vim doesn't have syntax highlighting turned on.

    I also like to set my tabstop/shiftwidth to 4 (because 8 gets *really* messy when you nest enough if statements). Also, if you set one and not the other, I've found that some freaky stuff happens:

    set tabstop=4
    set shiftwidth=4
 

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    This site is an avatar for my own self-assigned life purpose--an attempt to model the world in the most accurate way possible, and to do so without bias or fear of unpleasant truth. I desire to develop, articulate, and perpetually improve models of how things work, and then to use that understanding to increase happiness and reduce suffering. I seek those on similar paths and thrive on sharing an appreciation of the interesting and beautiful with others.



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