ComboShelf

Vim commands and keyboard shortcuts

Vim is not a list of shortcuts so much as a small language: an operator, then a motion or a text object. Learn the four operators and the dozen motions in the first two groups and you can work out most of the rest yourself, including combinations nobody has written down.

105 shortcutsWindows and MacChecked 18 September 2026

Checked against Vim documentation — quick reference and Neovim documentation. Version: Vim 9 and Neovim, default bindings.

105 shortcuts

The top 20 are the Vim shortcuts this page marks as the ones to learn first, in the order they appear here. The drill asks the marked ones first too, shuffled. Or tick your own and print those.

The 20 to learn first: the shortcuts the Vim page marks as the ones to learn first, in the order they appear on it.

Your own sheet: the Vim shortcuts you ticked.

Getting into and out of a mode

Every confusing thing about Vim starts here. Esc always takes you back to normal mode.

Back to normal mode # Ctrl+[ does the same and is easier to reach.Esc
Insert before the cursor #i
Insert at the start of the line #I
Insert after the cursor #a
Insert at the end of the line #A
Open a line below and insert #o
Open a line above and insert #O
Replace a single character # Takes a count: 3rx turns the next three characters into x.r
Replace until you press Esc # Backspace in this mode puts the original characters back rather than deleting them.R
Visual mode, by character # Press o to move the cursor to the other end of the selection and grow it from there.v
Visual mode, by line #V
Visual mode, by block # In GVim on Windows with the Windows key mappings, and in some terminals, Ctrl+v pastes instead. Ctrl+q starts block mode there.Ctrl+v
Command line mode # Ctrl+f from the command line opens the command-line window, where your history can be edited like any other text.:

Moving

Every one of these can follow an operator, which is where the leverage is.

Left, down, up, right # Each takes a count: 5j moves down five lines.h j k l
Forward one word # Stops at punctuation, so a path like foo/bar is three words. W treats it as one.w
Back one word #b
To the end of the word # ge goes back to the end of the previous word.e
Forward one WORD, ignoring punctuation #W
To the start of the line # After a number, 0 is part of the count instead: 10j is ten lines down, not a trip to column zero.0
To the first non-blank character of the line #^
To the end of the line # Takes a count: 2$ goes to the end of the next line.$
To the first line of the file # With a count it goes to that line: 10gg is the same as 10G.gg
To the last line of the file #G
To line 42 # Or :42 and Enter.42G
To the next character x on this line # Only searches the current line. It never moves on to the next one.fx
To just before the next x #tx
Repeat it backwards #,
To the matching bracket # If the cursor is not on a bracket, Vim looks forward along the line for the first one and jumps from there.%
Down one paragraph # A paragraph ends at an empty line. A line holding only spaces does not count as empty.}
Up one paragraph #{
Half a screen down # A count changes how far it scrolls from then on, by setting the scroll option.Ctrl+d
Half a screen up #Ctrl+u
Put the cursor line in the middle of the screen #zz
Jump back to where you were # Only jumps are remembered: searches, G, %, marks. Ordinary moves such as j are not.Ctrl+o
Jump forward again # In most terminals Ctrl+i is the same key as Tab, so mapping Tab changes this too.Ctrl+i

Operators

An operator waits for a motion or a text object. d is delete, c is change, y is yank. Double the letter to act on the whole line.

Delete #d
Delete the line #dd
Delete to the end of the line # The same as d$.D
Delete a word # On the last word of a line it stops at the line end instead of joining the next line on.dw
Change #c
Change the line # Keeps the line's indent when autoindent is on.cc
Change to the end of the line #C
Yank, which is copy # The yank also goes to register 0, which a later delete does not overwrite, so "0p still pastes it.y
Yank the line #yy
Put after the cursor, which is paste # Pastes whatever was last yanked or deleted. After a delete, "0p gets the last yank back.p
Put before the cursor #P
Delete a character # The deleted character goes to the unnamed register, so xp swaps two characters.x
Indent # Needs a motion: >> indents the line, and > on a visual selection indents all of it. The width comes from shiftwidth.>
Outdent #<
Auto-indent # gg=G reindents the whole file, using the filetype's indent rules.=
Swap the case # Moves on one character. g~ followed by a motion swaps the case of a word or a line.~
Join this line with the next # Puts a space between the joined lines. gJ joins them without one.J

Text objects

The part of Vim worth the whole learning curve. i is inside, a is around. ci" changes what is between the quotes without touching the quotes.

Change what is inside the quotes # Works from anywhere on the line: before the first quote, Vim finds the next quoted string.ci"
Change what is inside the brackets # cib does the same.ci(
Change the word the cursor is in #ciw
Delete the word and the space after it # diw deletes only the word and leaves the space behind.daw
Delete what is inside the braces #di{
Delete the brackets and their contents #da(
Yank what is inside the tag # HTML and XML.yit
Select the paragraph #vip
Change what is inside the tag #cit

Undo and repeat

Undo # Undoes a whole insert in one step, however much you typed.u
Redo #Ctrl+r
Repeat the last change # The most valuable single key in Vim..
Repeat the last command line command #@:
Start recording a macro into register q # A stray q followed by a letter starts a recording, shown as recording @q at the bottom. Press q to stop it.qq
Stop recording #q
Play the macro back #@q
Play it back again #@@
Play it back on 10 lines # The macro stops early if one of its commands fails, such as a search that finds nothing.10@q

Files, windows and tabs

Save #:w
Save and quit # :x does the same but writes only if the file changed.:wq
Quit # Closes the current window. Vim itself exits only when it was the last one.:q
Quit without saving #:q!
Save every open file and quit #:wqa
Open a file #:e filename
Split horizontally #:sp
Split vertically # Opens the same file in both halves. :vs filename opens another file beside it.:vs
Move to the window left, down, up or right #Ctrl+w then h j k l
Close this window #Ctrl+w then q
Make the windows equal #Ctrl+w then =
New tab #:tabnew
Next tab #gt
Previous tab #gT
Switch to the file you were in before # Ctrl+6 does the same on keyboards where ^ needs Shift.Ctrl+^

Registers and marks

Yank into register a #"ayy
Put from register a #"ap
Put from the system clipboard # Needs a Vim built with clipboard support: :echo has('clipboard') prints 1 if yours has it. Neovim needs a clipboard tool, such as xclip or wl-clipboard on Linux."+p
Yank to the system clipboard #"+y
Show every register #:reg
Set mark a here # Lowercase marks belong to one file. Uppercase marks such as mA work across files.ma
Jump to mark a #`a
Jump to the line of mark a #'a
Jump to where you last edited # g; steps further back through the change list, one edit at a time.`.

Next

VS Code

VS Code has more shortcuts than anyone can hold in their head, so this page is ordered by how often you would actually reach for one.

82 shortcuts · Windows and Mac

Terminal

Almost everything here comes from readline, the line editor that bash and zsh both use.

73 shortcuts · Windows and Mac

Cursor

Cursor is built on VS Code, so the whole VS Code keymap comes with it and everything on that page still applies.

44 shortcuts · Windows and Mac

Vim commands and keyboard shortcuts — comboshelf.com. Checked 18 September 2026 against Vim documentation — quick reference.