VI EDITOR (SHORT-KEYS)

Moving Around in the file

Ctrl-b    Moves backwards a page.
Ctrl-d Scrolls down half a page
Ctrl-f Moves forward a page
Ctrl-l Refresh the screen
Ctrl-u Scrolls up half a page
b Moves the cursor back one word
e Advances the cursor to the end of the current word
G Moves the cursor to the end of file.
h,j,k,l Moves the cursor one space left,down,up,right
(#)G Moves the cursor to the line number (#)
0 Moves the cursor to the start of the current line.
w Next word
) Next sentence
( Previous sentence
^ Beginning of current line
$ End of currentl line
% Match brace or parenthesis
Text input commands
a Append
A Append to end of line
i Inserts before cursor
I Insert at the beginning of line
o Open empty line after current one
O Open empty line before current one
Editing commands
cc Changes line until ESC
cw Changes word until ESC, End of word is flagged by $.
dd Delete line
dw Delete word
d) Deletes rest of sentence
d} Deletes rest of paragraph
D or d$ Deletes to end of line
J Join next line to current line
r Replaces the char the cursor is on
R Writes over old text
s Substitute character with text and keep inserting until ESC
x Deletes a char
:r file Reads in a file from where cursor is
:r !command Reads in the results of command
:s/string1/string2 Substitutes string1 for string2 in current line
$s/string1/string2/g Substitute all string1 with string2 in the whole file.
Cut/Copy and paste commands
p Puts last text yanked or deleted after cursor.
P Paste yanked text before cursor.
yw Yank a copy of the word from cursor.
yy Yank a copy of a line.
y) Yank to end of the sentence.
y} Yank to end of paragraph.
y$ Yank to end of line.
y3w Yank next 3 words.
Search commands
n Continue searching in the same direction. Use with :s or / c......
N Search in the opposite direction
?(word) Search for (word) backwards in the text before the cursor.
/(word) Search for (word) afterwards in the text before the cursor.
Undo /repeat
u Undoes the last command
U Undoes all changes made to the current line
. Repeats the last editing or insert command
Write commands
:q Quits and leaves the editor
:q! Forces exit without saving changes.
:w writes and save the file.
:w (name) Writes to new file (name)
:wq Write and quite
:.,$w (name) Writes rest of current file to (name)
:x Same as :wq
ZZ Same as :wq