Modes in Vim

Vim, unlike many other text editors, operates in various modes for efficient text editing and a wide range of functionality. Understanding these modes is key to mastering Vim.

Normal Mode

• Description: The default mode when you open Vim. It's used for navigating within a file and executing commands.
• How to Enter: Press Esc in any other mode.
• Key Activities: Moving around, deleting text, copying/pasting, and more.

Some useful actions in normal mode:

Key	Description
Arrow Keys or h, j, k, l	File Navigation
dd	Delete the current cursor line
yy	Copy (yank) the current cursor line
p	Paste after the cursor

Insert Mode

• Description: Used for inserting text.
• How to Enter: Press i (insert before cursor), I (insert at the beginning of the line), a (append, move the cursor after the current character), or A (append, move the cursor at the end of the line) in Normal mode.
• Key Activities: Typing and editing text.

Visual Mode

• Description: Used for selecting blocks of text.
• How to Enter: Press v (character-wise visual mode), V (line-wise visual mode), or Ctrl + v (block-wise visual mode) in Normal mode.
• Key Activities: Select text to copy, cut, or format.

Command-Line Mode

• Description: Used for entering editor commands.
• How to Enter: Press : in Normal mode.
• Key Activities: Saving files, searching, replacing, setting preferences.

Some useful commands:

Command	Description
:w	Save the current file
:q	Quit Vim