The Vim & Neovim reference for programmers — companion to the book.

Get the VimFu book History, internals, mental models & worked examples for every concept.

This is the online reference half of VimFu. Quick to scan, deep-linkable, packed with embedded videos. Every topic in the book has a page here so you can look something up without flipping pages.

The site is the cheat sheet; the book is the why. The book has hundreds of QR codes throughout, linking to videos and to examples you can practice yourself.

▶ Open the simulator 🎬 All videos An in-browser Neovim + tmux for practicing anything you read here.

Contents

Getting Started 🎬 videos

• Open, Save, Quit — Start here: choose an editor, open a file, make a change, save it, and get out
• Insert and Back Again — i to type, Esc to come home
• Move with hjkl — h left, j down, k up, l right — without leaving home row
• Undo and Redo — u to undo. Ctrl-R to redo. Experiment without fear.

Foundations 🎬 videos

• Modal Editing — Why every key on the keyboard is a command
• The Modes — A small finite state machine you carry in your head
• The Universal Grammar — An optional count and register, an operator, an optional count, then a motion or text object
• You Don't Need Vim — Vim keybindings work in almost every editor and IDE
• vi → Vim → Neovim — Fifty years of an editing language

Basic Editing 🎬 videos

• More Ways into Insert — Five doors into insert mode — pick the one that lands the cursor where you want.
• Word Motions — Move a word at a time. The grammar's first real noun.
• Line Motions — 0 / ^ / $ — the three places that matter on a line.
• File Motions — gg, G, {n}G — jump anywhere in the file.
• Delete — d is the verb. Pair it with any motion.
• Change — c is delete-then-insert, atomically.
• Yank and Put — Yank is copy. Put is paste. The register knows whether it's a line or a span.
• Replace a Character — r{c} — overwrite one character without entering insert mode.
• Replace Mode — R — overwrite as you type. r{c} — overwrite one character.

Search and Find 🎬 videos

• Pattern Search — Jump to any text in the buffer, then keep going with one keystroke.
• Word Search — * / # — search for the word under the cursor without typing it.
• Find on Line — Single-line jumps that never disturb your row.

Counts and Visual Basics 🎬 videos

• Counts — Type a number before any motion or operator. It multiplies.
• Percentage and Column Jumps — {n}% jumps to a percentage of the file. {n}| jumps to a column.
• Visual Mode as a Learning Tool — Use v to see motions, select familiar ranges, and build confidence.

Dot Repeat 🎬 videos

• Repeat Last Change — . — replay the last change. The single most useful key.
• Dot with Counts — Dot lets you change your mind about the count.
• Dot Patterns — Search + change + dot. The two main refactor idioms.

Text Objects 🎬 videos

• Inner Word vs Around Word — Name a chunk of text directly instead of motioning to its ends.
• Quote Text Objects — i" / a" / i' / a' — operate on a quoted string without finding its boundaries.
• Bracket Text Objects — i( i{ i[ i< — operate on the contents of any bracket pair.
• Sentence and Paragraph — is / as / ip / ap — for prose.
• HTML/XML Tag Objects — it / at — operate inside an HTML or XML tag pair.
• The Vim Grammar — [count] [register] operator [count] {motion | text-object}
• Operator-Pending Mode — The fourth mode you didn't know about.
• Surround — ds, cs, ys — operate on surroundings as a first-class concept.

Wider Motions 🎬 videos

• Sentence and Paragraph Motions — ( ) — sentences. { } — paragraphs.
• Match Bracket — % — jump to the matching paren, brace, or bracket.
• Screen Position Jumps — H, M, L — High, Middle, Low on the visible screen.
• Line-Start Motions — +, -, Enter — jump to first non-blank of next/previous line.
• WORD Motions — W, B, E, gE — like w/b/e/ge but bigger words.

Scrolling the Screen 🎬 videos

• Half- and Full-Page Scrolling — Ctrl-D / Ctrl-U / Ctrl-F / Ctrl-B — scroll without losing place.
• Centering the Cursor — zz, zt, zb — move the viewport, not the cursor.
• Scroll and Land on First Non-Blank — z. / z+ / z- — Scroll and re-home the cursor in one keystroke.
• Set Window Height — z{n}Enter — An obscure but occasionally perfect resize trick.
• Line-by-Line Scroll — Peek at what's just off-screen without moving the cursor.
• Horizontal Scroll — zs, ze, zh, zl — scroll left/right when wrap is off.

Marks and Jumps 🎬 videos

• Setting and Jumping to Marks — m{a-z} sets a mark. '{a-z} jumps to its line. `{a-z} jumps to its exact spot.
• Special Marks — Marks Vim sets for you automatically.
• Tick vs Backtick — Two ways to land on the same mark — line, or exact spot.
• The Jump List — Ctrl-O / Ctrl-I — walk back and forward through your big jumps.
• The Change List — g; / g, — walk through the places you've been editing.

Transform 🎬 videos

• Indent and Auto-Indent — >> indents. << dedents. ={motion} re-indents using the language indenter.
• Case Changing — ~ flips one character. gU/gu/g~ are operators.
• Joining Lines — J joins the next line to the current. gJ joins without a space.

Registers 🎬 videos

• Registers — A dictionary of named clipboards built from one primitive
• The Unnamed Register — "" — where every yank and delete lands by default.
• Named Registers — "a–"z — your 26 personal slots. Capitals append.
• Numbered Registers — The yank-and-delete backlog you didn't know you were keeping.
• The Small Delete Register — "- — for charwise deletes that wouldn't be worth a numbered slot.
• System Clipboard Registers — "+ and "* — bridge to the OS clipboard.
• Special Registers — "/ ": ". "% "# "= "_ — the read-only and weird ones.
• Macros Are Just Register Contents — "ap → edit → "ay$ — the macro lifecycle as text editing.

Macros 🎬 videos

• Recording and Playing Macros — qa records into register a. q stops. @a plays.
• Counted Macros — 100@a — run a macro a hundred times. Or until it errors out.
• Editing a Macro — Paste it, fix it, yank it back. Macros are text.

Windows, Buffers and Tabs 🎬 videos

• Creating Splits — Open more than one viewport onto the same workspace.
• Navigating Windows — Ctrl-Wh/j/k/l — move between splits. Ctrl-Wc — close. Ctrl-Wo — only.
• Move and Resize Windows — Ctrl-WH/J/K/L moves the window. Ctrl-W+/-/</> resizes.
• Buffers — Files in memory, navigated with :ls and :b.
• Tabs — :tabnew, gt, gT — tabs are layouts of windows, not files.
• Buffer vs Window vs Tab — Three concepts most editors collapse into one. Vim keeps them separate.

Insert Mode Power 🎬 videos

• Exiting Insert Mode — Three ways out, and why people remap.
• One-Shot Normal Mode — Ctrl-O runs one normal mode command without leaving insert mode.
• Editing Inside Insert Mode — Ctrl-W, Ctrl-U, Ctrl-H — readline survivors.
• Indent in Insert Mode — Ctrl-T and Ctrl-D, plus 0Ctrl-D and ^Ctrl-D.
• Inserting from a Register — Ctrl-R is paste — but with a twist.
• Copy Adjacent Lines — Ctrl-Y and Ctrl-E pull from above and below.
• Word Completion (Ctrl-N / Ctrl-P) — Type a few letters; let Vim finish the word.
• The Ctrl-X Sub-Completions — Specialized completion: filenames, lines, dictionary, omni.
• Literal Insert and Digraphs — Ctrl-V for literals, Ctrl-K for digraphs — type the un-typeable.

Ex Commands 🎬 videos

• File Operations — :w, :e, :q, :wq, :x — and the bangs that mean force.
• Substitute (:s) — The most powerful single command in Vim.
• Ex Ranges — Every Ex command takes a range. Learn to speak it fluently.
• Global (:g) and Vglobal (:v) — "Run a command on every line that matches."
• Normal (:norm) — Run normal mode keystrokes from Ex.
• Shell Commands (:!) — Bang sends to the shell. Use as a filter or a one-shot.
• Setting Options (:set) — How options work, and the conventions you'll see in every vimrc.
• Quickfix and Location Lists — A typed list of file:line:message — the spine of grep, make, and lint workflows.
• Sort and Reorder Lines — :sort with flags handles unique, numeric, reverse, and key-based sorting.

Visual Mode in Depth 🎬 videos

• Line and Block Visual — Two more shapes for the same select-then-act idea.
• Visual-Mode Tricks — Block O for diagonal corners. gv to re-select.
• The Three Visual Modes — v, V, Ctrl-V — character, line, block.
• Block Insert and Append — I and A in block mode = insert/append on every selected line.
• Swap and Adjust Endpoints — o jumps to the other end. O switches corners in block mode.
• Operators on Visual Selections — Any operator works on a Visual range. Plus a few visual-only ones.
• Visual + Ex Range — Pressing : from Visual auto-fills the range.
• Re-Select — gv — Bring back the exact selection you just dismissed.

Command Line Power 🎬 videos

• Command-Line History — ↑/↓ for prefix-match, q: for the full window.
• Repeat Last Ex (@:) — @: replays your last :command. Then @@ repeats again.
• Editing the Command Line — Ctrl-B, Ctrl-E, Ctrl-W, Ctrl-U — readline-flavored.
• Paste from Buffer (Ctrl-R) — Same Ctrl-R as insert mode — inject any register.
• Command-Line Completion — Tab to complete; Ctrl-D to list.
• The Wildmenu — wildmenu, wildmode, wildoptions — making Tab at the : prompt actually pleasant.

Patterns and Recipes 🎬 videos

• Swap and Duplicate Lines — ddp swaps two lines. yyp duplicates one.
• The Replace Loop — *, cw, then . . . — Search a word, change one, repeat with dot.
• Change-Next-Match Loop — cgn — Like *cw, but . jumps and changes in one step.
• Block Comment with Ctrl-V + I — Add a comment marker to {n} consecutive lines.
• Increment and Decrement (Ctrl-A / Ctrl-X) — Find the next number, add or subtract — with counts.
• Walking the Numbered Registers — "1p, then u and . to walk the cut-history backwards.
• Diff Mode — vimdiff and :diffthis — visualize and edit changes side-by-side.
• External Filter Tricks — !{motion}cmd — let any Unix tool transform your text.

Advanced 🎬 videos

• Undo as a Tree — g- and g+ walk by time. :undolist shows the branches.
• Special Registers Deep Dive — %, #, :, ., /, =, _ — the read-only and computed ones.
• Terminal Inside Vim — :terminal opens a real shell — usable with Vim navigation.
• Character Info (ga, g8, g Ctrl-G) — What is this character? Where am I?
• gx and g< — Open URLs and recall command output.
• Folding — Hide regions of text — manual, syntax, indent, marker.
• Vim Configuration — vimrc, runtime, plugins — where settings live.
• Spell Checking — Built-in spell checker with per-language dictionaries.
• Tag Navigation — Jump to definitions across files using a tags index.
• Mappings — :map, :noremap, and Friends — How to bind a keystroke to a command in every mode, and what the modifiers actually do.

Prefix Families 🎬 videos

• The g Family — 30+ commands hide behind the g prefix.
• The z Family — Folding, scrolling, spell. The most thematically scattered prefix.
• The [ and ] Family — [ goes back, ] goes forward. The semantic siblings of search.
• The Ctrl-W Family — 30+ window commands hide behind the Ctrl-W prefix.

Bonus: tmux 🎬 videos

• What Is tmux? — A terminal multiplexer — one screen, many sessions
• The Prefix Key — Every tmux command starts with Ctrl-B (or whatever you remap it to)
• Panes — Split, Navigate, Resize — One window, many shells, all visible at once
• Windows — Like virtual desktops, scoped to one tmux session
• Sessions, Detach, Reattach — The feature that survives SSH drops and laptop reboots
• Copy Mode — Vim Motions in Your Scrollback — Read the buffer, select text, yank it, paste it

Appendices

• Keyboard Walk — Every normal-mode key, organized by physical key location.
• Synonyms and Shortcuts — Equivalent commands you'll see in different vimrcs.
• The Grammar Matrix — Every operator × every text object = the table that makes Vim click.
• A Suggested Learning Path — What to learn first, second, third — and what to ignore until later.
• Motion Classification — Char-wise vs line-wise vs block, inclusive vs exclusive.
• Vim in Other Editors — VS Code, JetBrains, browsers — you can take it with you.
• Complete Key Reference — Every normal mode key, in one place.
• Complete Options Reference — All 412 options across Vim and Neovim