VIM default keystrokes

Below you'll find list of keystrokes/commands built-in VIM by default which I'm using frequently. It is important to note that most (maybe even all) VIM commands related to text search/manipulation affect only first occurence by default.

General

Normal mode

• ~ - invert case (upper->lower; lower->upper) of current character
• xp - swap two characters around
• dj - cut current line and next line
• CTRL-a, CTRL-x - increment, decrement next number on same line as the cursor
• J - join the next line to the current line
• f( - moves the cursor to the first occurence of "("
• t( - moves the cursor right before the first occurence of "("
• di" - removes the contents that is being wrapped by double quotes on the same line
• ci" - removes the contents that is being wrapped by double quotes on the same line and switches to Insert mode
• da" - removes the double quotes with contents inside
• M - move cursor to the middle of the screen
• H - move cursor to the top of the screen
• 3H - move cursor to the 3rd line from top
• L - move cursor to the bottom of the screen
• 3L - move cursor to the 3rd line from bottom
• CTRL-u - scroll up by half
• CTRL-d - scroll down by half
• CTRL-b - scroll the whole screen up
• CTRL-f - scroll the whole screen down
• CTRL-e - scroll up by one line
• CTRL-y - scroll down by one line
• zz - move the screen so that current line would be in the middle
• zt - move the screen so that current line would be in the top
• 100zt - move the screen so that line number 100 would be in the top
• zb - move the screen so that current line would be in the bottom
• ' ' - move the cursor to previously visited line
• > > - indent current line
• 2 > > - indent current line and next line
• < < - remove one indent for current line
• = = - auto-indent current line
• = G - auto-indent everything from current line to the end of file
• zf5j - fold current line and 5 more lines below it
• za - toggle fold
• zo - expand fold
• zc - collapse fold
• zR - unfold all
• zM - fold all
• gq$ - break current line into multiple lines according to set formatoptions settings

Visual mode

• gq - Break selected line into multiple lines according to set formatoptions settings
• gu - lowercase line
• gU - uppercase line
• o - move the cursor the the opposite end of selection (very useful if you want to add/remove selection from opposite side)
• :!ls - pass selected content to the "ls" command and paste in the output

Command mode

• :verbose set SETTING - show trace for setting SETTING (replace with any desired, like gdefault, paste etc)
• :set paste - enables paste mode which disables all automatic formatting. Highly useful when pasting some preformatted piece of code
• :set nopaste - disables paste mode
• :set list - show tabs (displayed as "^I") and line endings (displayed as "$")
• :set ft=javascript - set the filetype of current file to "javascript"
• :!date - run date command in your shell and print the output
• :read !date - run date command in your shell and paste the output in editor
• :read !curl --silent http://example.com/file.txt - download a file via curl and paste it's content in editor
• :set scrollbind! or :set scb! - toggle synchronous scrolling. When enabled on 2+ splits, they will scroll simultaneously. Use Ctrl-e or Ctrl-y to scroll up and down by one line or use any other scrolling keystrokes
• :set gdefault - enable g flag by default. So for example if searching and replacing with this setting enabled, g flag will be used by default (enabling search and replace more than once per line)
• :%s/this/that/g - Replace every occurrence in file of this to that (note that if gdefault setting is turned on, then g flag should be avoided, or it will give an opposite effect)
• :g/this/d - delete all lines containing word this. Replace this with REGEX pattern and d with any other command (like :g/^this\s*$/p to print all lines that start with this and have spaces until the end of the line, or :g/^$/d to delete all empty lines)
• :g!/this/d - delete all lines the DO NOT contain word this

Insert mode

• CTRL-t, CTRL-d - add indentation, remove indentation for current line

Macros

Recording a macro

• Press q
• Press any letter or number to assign macro to
• Start typing commands to save in macro
• Finish recording by pressing q

Using an existing macro

• Press @
• Press letter or number that represents desired macro or @ to run last executed macro

Markers

Saving a marker

• Press m
• Press any letter or number to assign marker to

Move cursor to a saved marker

• Press '
• Press letter or number that represents desired marker

Buffers

• :ls - prints all buffers
• :bf - switch to the first buffer
• :bp - switch to previous buffer
• :bn - switch to next buffer
• :b# - switch to last visited buffer
• :b2 - switch to buffer number 2
• :bd - delete current buffer (in other words close the file)
• :bd2 - delete buffer number 2

Splits

• :sp file.txt - split current window horizontally and open file.txt
• :vs file.txt - split current window vertically and open file.txt
• :sb2 - split current window horizontally and open in it buffer number 2
• :vert sb2 - split current window vertically and open in it buffer number 2
• CTRL-w l - navigate to the closest window from the right
• CTRL-w h - navigate to the closest window from the left
• CTRL-w j - navigate to the closest window from the bottom
• CTRL-w k - navigate to the closest window from the top
• CTRL-w L - move current window to the most right
• CTRL-w H - move current window to the most left
• CTRL-w J - move current window to the most bottom
• CTRL-w K - move current window to the most top
• CTRL-w + - increase the height of current window by one line
• CTRL-w - - decrease the height of current window by one line
• CTRL-w > - increase the width of current window by one column
• CTRL-w < - decrease the width of current window by one column
• CTRL-w = - equally distribute the heights and the widths between visible windows
• CTRL-w T - moves current window to a new separate tab

Tabs

• :tabe file.txt - create a new tab and open in it file.txt
• gt - move to the next tab
• gT - move to the previous tab