Appendix 2: Essential Vim Shortcuts for Text Editing

Movement Commands

  • h j k l - Move left, down, up, right
  • w - Jump to next word
  • b - Jump to previous word
  • 0 - Go to beginning of line
  • $ - Go to end of line

Editing Commands

  • dd - Delete entire line
  • dw - Delete word
  • p - Paste after cursor
  • P - Paste before cursor
  • u - Undo
  • Ctrl+r - Redo

Clipboard Integration

  • :%y+ - Copy entire buffer to system clipboard
  • :%w !pbcopy - Write buffer to clipboard (macOS)
  • :r !pbpaste - Read from clipboard into buffer