"What at first seems simple is quite complex whenseen up close..."
Start your Vim experience with some time using the built in Vim Tutor.
From normal mode, enter a colon and "Tutor" like this:
:Tutor
To open a specific file: nvim filename
To edit a "a new buffer": nvim filename
"Buffers" are content being edited in Neovim.
"Files" are that same content when saved (written) to the filesystem.
Vertical splits cut the window into left and right panes with:
:vs or Ctrl+w v
Horizontal splits cut the window into upper and lower panes with:
:sp or Ctrl+w s
Navigate among the splits with Ctrl+w and h j k l .
Mouse clicks also work for moving among splits.
Normal mode is for selecting, moving, and manipulating text.
To exit normal mode and close nvim, enter :q
Navigate lines with 0 to go fully left and $ to go fully right.
Go to the top of the document with gg
Go to the bottom with G
Navigate to the middle of the screen with uppercase M
Jump a half page up with Ctrl+u and down with Ctrl+d
To save the buffer before exiting, make the command :wq
To save with a different filename, use :w filename.txt
Insert mode is for writing.
To edit a buffer, change to insert mode by using these keys:
i
0
Yes, an i or number key 0 changes the mode to insert mode.
To get out of insert and return to normal mode,
use the ESC key.
Searching for text:
From normal mode, enter :/ followed by the search string. If the string
has white space, terminate it with / . For example...
/Four score and seven years/
/Let me take you down/
/mode
Replacing text:
Search and replace all with the command:
%s/find this/replace with this/g
The % means "whole file" and the g means "every instance on every line."
Visual mode is for selecting, copying, and pasting text.
Copying is called yanking and pasting is called putting.
To highlight text in snippets:
1) Set the cursor to the start of the selection...
2) Enter a lower case v to begin highlighting / selecting text...
3) Move the cursor to the end of the selection...
To highlight whole lines, use an upper case V instead: Shift+V
4) Yank the text to the clipboard with a lower case y
5) Smile happily that you didn't need to use cryptic "*y to do it!
6) Old-style yanking to any chosen buffer is still available...
7) Put text into a place with p
Note: Skywave Linux uses a riced-up version of Neovim with many plugins,
making yanking and putting easy.
You can Ctrl+v or Ctrl+Shift+v to paste into other buffers or the terminal.
Note: Yanking and putting can be quite complex. This is the tip of a large
iceberg.
To cut text, highlight first, then enter a lower case c .
Try this in normal mode:
Copy a whole line with yy
Copy a whole file with :ggVGy or cut with :ggVGc
Neovim, in this distro, is enhanced by several plugins for code syntax
highlighting, autocompletion, error checking, automatic formatting,
and fuzzy searching.
Enter the command :PlugStatus to see the list of installed plugins.
Knowledge of Neovim and its plugin ecosystem is encyclopedic in nature, but it
is huge because it is a fabulous tool for efficiency of work flow. Start
writing and coding without delay if you want to become proficient with Vi
style editing. Use it to make your writing and coding easier.
For big dreams and big journeys, you need tools to give you big leverage.
© 2015 - 2024 Skywavelinux.com, All Rights Reserved.
Contact,
Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosure,
XML Sitemap.
This website is reader-supported. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.