Quick VI reference list

[Navigation] [Input Modes] [Files] [Cut, Copy, & Paste] [Repetition] [Search & Replace]

Cursor Positioning & Navigation

• j Down One Line
• k Up One Line
• h Left One Character
• l Right One Character
• 0 Beginning of Line
• $ End of Line
• w Forward One Word
• b Beginning of the Current Word
• e End of the Current Word
• H Top of Screen (think HIGH)
• L Bottom of Screen (think LOW)
• M Middle of Screen
• Ctrl-U Page Up
• Ctrl-D Page Down
• G Bottom of File (last line)
• 1G Top of File (first Line)

Text Input Modes - text input ends with an ESCAPE character

• i Insert to the Right of the Cursor
• a Append after the Cursor
• I Insert at the Beginning of the Current Line
• A Append after the End of the Current Line
• O Start Text on a New Line Above this one
• o Start Text on a New Line Below this one
• r Overstrike one character upon the Current Character
• R Overstrike
• cw Change Word
• C Change from Here to End of the Line
• ~ Change Case of a single character

File Commands

• :w Save the Current File
• :x Write to Current Filename and Quit
• :x filename Write to a New Filename and Quit
• :q! Quit without saving
• :e filename Edit a File without exiting VI
• :r filename Read in a File after the cursor

Cut, Copy, & Paste

• x Delete One Character
• dw Delete One Word
• dd Delete One Line
• d followed by any of the Navigation Tools will delete all the text between the current cursor position and the navigated place.
• y Copy the current line
• Moving a Block of Text
  1. Position the Cursor at the beginning of the block
  2. Mark the position by hitting mx
  3. Position the Cursor at the End of the block
  4. Delete the Block by typing d`x
  5. Copy the Block by typing y`x
• p PASTE!!!!!!

Repetition

• Period (.) will repeat the last command
• Most VI commands can be preceded by a number, to do them multimple times. Ex: 5dd deletes 5 lines!

Search and Replace

• /word Searches for a Word
• n Repeat Last Find
• N Repeat Last Find in the Opposite Direction
• :gs/word/newword/ Replace Word with New Word in the WHOLE File