Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Foreword xiii
Read Me xv
Read the Forgotten Manual xvii
1 The Vim Way 1
Tip 1 Meet the Dot Command 1
Tip 2 Don't Repeat Yourself 4
Tip 3 Take One Step Back, Then Three Forward 6
Tip 4 Act, Repeat, Reverse 8
Tip 5 Find and Replace by Hand 9
Tip 6 Meet the Dot Formula 11
Part I Modes
2 Normal Mode 15
Tip 7 Pause with Your Brush Off the Page 15
Tip 8 Chunk Your Undos 16
Tip 9 Compose Repeatable Changes 17
Tip 10 Use Counts to Do Simple Arithmetic 20
Tip 11 Don't Count If You Can Repeat 22
Tip 12 Combine and Conquer 24
3 Insert Mode 27
Tip 13 Make Corrections Instantly from Insert Mode 27
Tip 14 Get Back to Normal Mode 28
Tip 15 Paste from a Register Without Leaving Insert Mode 29
Tip 16 Do Back-of-the-Envelope Calculations in Place 31
Tip 17 Insert Unusual Characters by Character Code 32
Tip 18 Insert Unusual Characters by Digraph 33
Tip 19 Overwrite Existing Text with Replace Mode 34
4 Visual Mode 37
Tip 20 Grok Visual Mode 37
Tip 21 Define a Visual Selection 39
Tip 22 Repeat Line-Wise Visual Commands 41
Tip 23 Prefer Operators to Visual Commands Where Possible 43
Tip 24 Edit Tabular Data with Visual-Block Mode 45
Tip 25 Change Columns of Text 47
Tip 26 Append After a Ragged Visual Block 48
5 Command-Line Mode 51
Tip 27 Meet Vim's Command Line 51
Tip 28 Execute a Command on One or More Consecutive Lines 54
Tip 29 Duplicate or Move Lines Using ':t' and ':m' Commands 59
Tip 30 Run Normal Mode Commands Across a Range 61
Tip 31 Repeat the Last Ex Command 63
Tip 32 Tab-Complete Your Ex Commands 65
Tip 33 Insert the Current Word at the Command Prompt 66
Tip 34 Recall Commands from History 68
Tip 35 Run Commands in the Shell 71
Part II Files
6 Manage Multiple Files 77
Tip 36 Track Open Files with the Buffer List 77
Tip 37 Group Buffers into a Collection with the Argument List 80
Tip 38 Manage Hidden Files 83
Tip 39 Divide Your Workspace into Split Windows 85
Tip 40 Organize Your Window Layouts with Tab: Pages 89
7 Open Files and Save Them to Disk 93
Tip 41 Open a File by Its Filepath Using': edit' 93
Tip 42 Open a File by Its Filename Using ':find' 96
Tip 43 Explore the File System with netrw 98
Tip 44 Save Files to Nonexistent Directories 101
Tip 45 Save a File as the Super User 102
Part III Getting Around Faster
8 Navigate Inside Files with Motions 107
Tip 46 Keep Your Fingers on the Home Row 108
Tip 47 Distinguish Between Real Lines and Display Lines 110
Tip 48 Move Word-Wise 112
Tip 49 Find by Character 114
Tip 50 Search to Navigate 118
Tip 51 Trace Your Selection with Precision Text Objects 120
Tip 52 Delete Around, or Change Inside 124
Tip 53 Mark Your Place and Snap Back to It 126
Tip 54 Jump Between Matching Parentheses 127
9 Navigate Between Files with Jumps 131
Tip 55 Traverse the Jump List 131
Tip 56 Traverse the Change List 133
Tip 57 Jump to the Filename Under the Cursor 134
Tip 58 Snap Between Files Using Global Marks 137
Part IV Registers
10 Copy and Paste 141
Tip 59 Delete, Yank, and Put with Vim's Unnamed Register 141
Tip 60 Grok Vim's Registers 144
Tip 61 Replace a Visual Selection with a Register 149
Tip 62 Paste from a Register 151
Tip 63 Interact with the System Clipboard 154
11 Macros 157
Tip 64 Record and Execute a Macro 158
Tip 65 Normalize, Strike, Abort 161
Tip 66 Play Back with a Count 163
Tip 67 Repeat a Change on Contiguous Lines 164
Tip 68 Append Commands to a Macro 168
Tip 69 Act Upon a Collection of Files 169
Tip 70 Evaluate an Iterator to Number Items in a List 174
Tip 71 Edit the Contents of a Macro 176
Part V Patterns
12 Matching Patterns and Literals 183
Tip 72 Tune the Case Sensitivity of Search Patterns 183
Tip 73 Use the \v Pattern Switch for Regex Searches 184
Tip 74 Use the \V Literal Switch for Verbatim Searches 187
Tip 75 Use Parentheses to Capture Submatches 189
Tip 76 Stake the Boundaries of a Word 190
Tip 77 Stake the Boundaries of a Match 192
Tip 78 Escape Problem Characters 193
13 Search 199
Tip 79 Meet the Search Command 199
Tip 80 Highlight Search Matches 201
Tip 81 Preview the First Match Before Execution 202
Tip 82 Count the Matches for the Current Pattern 204
Tip 83 Offset the Cursor to the End of a Search Match 204
Tip 84 Operate on a Complete Search Match 206
Tip 85 Create Complex Patterns by Iterating upon Search History 209
Tip 86 Search for the Current Visual Selection 212
14 Substitution 215
Tip 87 Meet the Substitute Command 216
Tip 88 Find and Replace Every Match in a File 217
Tip 89 Eyeball Each Substitution 216
Tip 90 Reuse the Last Search Pattern 220
Tip 91 Replace with the Contents of a Register 222
Tip 92 Repeat the Previous Substitute Command 224
Tip 93 Rearrange CSV Fields Using Submatches 228
Tip 94 Perform Arithmetic on the Replacement 229
Tip 95 Swap Two or More Words 230
Tip 96 Find and Replace Across Multiple Files 233
15 Global Commands 237
Tip 97 Meet the Global Command 237
Tip 98 Delete Lines Containing a Pattern 238
Tip 99 Collect TODO Items in a Register 240
Tip 100 Alphabetize the Properties of Each Rule in a CSS File 242
16 Index and Navigate Source Code with ctags 249
Tip 101 Meet ctags 249
Tip 102 Configure Vim to Work with ctags 252
Tip 103 Navigate Keyword Definitions with Vim's Tag Navigation Commands 254
17 Compile Code and Navigate Errors with the Quickfix List 259
Tip 104 Compile Code Without Leaving Vim 260
Tip 105 Browse the Quickfix List 262
Tip 106 Recall Results from a Previous Quickfix List 265
Tip 107 Customize the External Compiler 265
18 Search Project-Wide with grep, vimgrep, and Others 269
Tip 108 Call grep Without Leaving Vim 269
Tip 109 Customize the grep Program 271
Tip 110 Grep with Vim's Internal Search Engine 273
19 Dial X for Autocompletion 275
Tip 111 Meet Vim's Keyword Autocompletion 275
Tip 112 Work with the Autocomplete Pop-Up Menu 277
Tip 113 Understand the Source of Keywords 279
Tip 114 Autocomplete Words from the Dictionary 281
Tip 115 Autocomplete Entire Lines 282
Tip 116 Autocomplete Filenames 283
Tip 117 Autocomplete with Context Awareness 285
20 Find and Fix Typos with Vim's Spell Checker 287
Tip 118 Spell Check Your Work 287
Tip 119 Use Alternate Spelling Dictionaries 289
Tip 120 Add Words to the Spell File 290
Tip 121 Fix Spelling Errors from Insert Mode 291
21 Now What? 293
21.1 Keep Practicing! 293
21.2 Make Vim Your Own 293
21.3 Know the Saw, Then Sharpen It 294
A1 Customize Vim to Suit Your Preferences 295
A1.1 Change Vim's Settings on the Fly 295
A1.2 Save Your Configuration in a vimrc File 296
Al 3 Apply Customizations to Certain Types of Files 298
Index 299
