Vem Cheat Sheet - Basic (QWERTY)

Basic Movements

h:

Left

j:

Down

k:

Up

l:

Right

Larger Movements

H:

Previous word

J:

Next paragraph (next blank line)

K:

Previous paragraph (previous blank line)

L:

Next word

Inserting after Moving

Ctrl-h:

Insert at the start of current line (first non-whitespace character)

Ctrl-j:

Insert in a new line below current one

Ctrl-k:

Insert in a new line above current one

Ctrl-l:

Insert at the end of current line

Line Movements

,:

Beginning of current line (first non-whitespace character)

.:

End of current line

Page Movements

U:

Page up

M:

Page down

Document Movements

a:

Top of the file

z:

Bottom of the file

:<number> jump to the given line number

Jump History

R:

Go to previous location in jump history

Undoing and Redoing

q:

Undo

Q:

Redo

Deleting

c:

Delete current line or selection

I:

Delete left character (backspace)

O:

Delete right character (delete)

Changing

f:

Change current word

F:

Change from cursor to the end of line

Ctrl-f:

Change the content between the closest surrounding matching pair ({[<"''">]})

Changing means deleting and starting insert mode

Replacing

r <char>:

Replace character under cursor, or all characters if there's an active selection, by <char>

Commenting

v:

Comment/Uncomment current line or selection (line comment markers)

Adding White-Space

Tab:

Indent line or selection

S-Tab:

Un-indent line or selection

y:

Add blank line above current one

n:

Add blank line below current one

(:

Add space before cursor

):

Add space after cursor

Enter:

Enter a newline (also in normal mode)

Formatting

Ctrl-u:

Toggle case of character under cursor or all characters in selection

Adding and Subtracting

A:

Add 1 to number under cursor

Z:

Subtract 1 number under cursor

Selections

G:

Start selection (repeated, it changes the selection mode: characterwise, blockwise, linewise)

Space:

Deselect

Space Space:

Reselect last active selection

Important: a horizontal movement after G sets a characterwise selection and a vertical movement, a linewise one.

Quick Selections

g:

Select word (if pressed twice, select all text between white-space)

Ctrl-g:

Select the content between the closest surrounding matching pair ({[<"''">]})

More Quick Selections

Space a:

Select all

Space p:

Select paragraph

Space P:

Select last pasted text

Space g:

Select camel case or underscore separated word

Space G:

Select inner line (not including leading and trailing white-space)

Copying, Cutting and Deleting

e:

Copy line or selection

d:

Cut line or selection

c:

Delete line or selection

Secondary Clipboard

E:

Copy line or selection into secondary clipboard

D:

Cut line or selection into secondary clipboard

Pasting

p:

Paste

P:

Paste secondary clipboard

Advanced Pasting I

Ctlr-p h:

Paste before cursor

Ctlr-p j:

Paste below current line

Ctlr-p k:

Paste above current line

Ctlr-p l:

Paste after cursor (same as p)

Advanced Pasting II

Ctlr-p ,:

Paste at line beginning

Ctlr-p .:

Paste at line end

Opening Files

W:

Open file

space w:

Fuzzy finder

Ctrl-t:

New file

Saving Files

s:

Save

space s:

Save all

Closing Files

x:

Close (and quit if last one)

space x:

Close all and quit

Switching between open files

w:

Switch between open files

t:

Next open file

T:

Previous open file

{:

Move current file to the left in tabline

}:

Move current file to the right in tabline

File Browser: Opening and Closing

W:

Open file browser

x:

Close file browser

File Browser: Basic Actions

h:

Go to parent directory

j:

Cursor down

k:

Cursor up

l or Enter:

Open file or enter directory

File Browser: Opening and Closing

Space w:

Open fuzzy finder

Ctrl-o:

Close fuzzy finder

Enter:

Open file

Fuzzy Finder: Movements

Ctrl-h:

Move cursor left

Ctrl-j:

Move up in the list of matching files

Ctrl-k:

Move down in the list of matching files

Ctrl-l:

Move cursor right

Fuzzy Finder: Options

Tab:

Autocomplete

Ctrl-f:

Toggle search by just filename

Ctrl-r:

Refresh list

Insert Mode: Movements

Ctrl-h:

Move cursor left

Ctrl-j:

Move cursor down

Ctrl-k:

Move cursor up

Ctrl-l:

Move cursor right

Insert Mode: Autocomplete

Tab:

Autocomplete

Shift-Tab:

Autocomplete (opposite direction)

Tab autocompletes after text and inserts a tab or spaces (depending on your configuration) at the beginning of the line or after white-space. Use Ctrl-] to insert tab or spaces independently of the context.

Insert Mode: Adding Text

Ctrl-d:

Insert Unicode character (digraph)

Ctrl-y:

Clone character above the cursor

Ctrl-n:

Clone character below the cursor

Ctrl-]:

Insert tab (for cases where Tab autocompletes)

Insert Mode: Paste Mode

Ctrl-^:

Toggle paste mode

You can also use Ctrl-6 instead of Ctrl-^ (which can be difficult to type in some keyboards).

Command Line: Movements

Ctrl-h:

Move cursor left

Ctrl-l:

Move cursor right

Ctrl-a:

Jump to beginning of command line

Ctrl-e:

Jump to end of command line

Command Line: History

Ctrl-j:

Next command in command-line history

Ctrl-k:

Previous command in command-line history.

When browsing the command line history, if you already typed the start of a command, it will try to find a match

Command Line: Pasting

Ctrl-p:

Paste clipboard contents

Command Line: Autocomplete

Tab:

Autocomplete

Shift-Tab:

Autocomplete (opposite direction)

Searching

/ or -:

Search forward (after cursor)

?:

Search backwards (before cursor)

u:

Find previous

m:

Find next

_:

Search word under cursor forward

Ctrl-_:

Search word under cursor backwards

Ctrl-r:

Reset search highlighting

Substituting

:%s/<pattern>/<text>/icg

Replace all occurrences of <pattern> with <text>

The last characters are optional flags:

i:

ignore case

c:

confirm every substitution interactively

g:

replace all occurrences in each line

<text> can contain \1, \2, ... to refer to the regex groups of pattern

Substitution Ranges

:%s/.../.../ Perform substitution across the whole file

:<n>,<m>s/.../.../ Perform substitution in the range from line number <n> to <m>

:'<,'>s/.../.../ Perform substitution in current selection. This prefix will be automatically pre-populated in the command line once you visually create the selection and then type :