VIM Graphical cheat sheet based tutorial

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Learning vi or vim is not easy. But it doesn't have to be that difficult, either. I came up with the idea of providing a graphical cheat sheet for those learning vi/vim, and I also found out it was a very good way to structure a tutorial. Here are the results for your learning enjoyment (or your colleagues').

Graphical cheat sheet

This is a single page describing the full vi/vim input model, the function of all keys, and all major features. You can see it as a compressed vi/vim manual. Click on the image below to access a high-resolution bitmap version, or download the vector-based, scalable SVG version (zip-compressed - and be sure to view & print the SVG with the open source application Inkscape or the Adobe plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox breaks the layout for some reason, apart of rendering it with no anti-alias!).

Graphical cheat sheet based tutorial

Lesson 1 (hi)	Lesson 2 (hi)	Lesson 3 (hi)	Lesson 4 (hi)
Lesson 5 (hi)	Lesson 6 (hi)	Lesson 7 (hi)	Zip with all GIFs Zip with all SVGs

The tutorial above is structured in 7 lessons that cover the major commands in vi/vim. They are structured so that you will learn the simplest and most useful first, and the more advanced ones afterwards. Actually, with only the commands shown in lesson 1, you can start editing in vi/vim with the common operations as on a regular editor. Lesson 2 introduces the very powerful, and vi/vim-exclusive operators, and the rest of the lessons advance from there. Each thumbnail links to a high-resolution bitmap version. You can also download the full tutorial in a single zip file with all the bitmaps or a single zip file with all the SVGs (see the note above about incorrect rendering on Firefox).

Notes

vim is an incredible editor by Bram Molenaar, based on the original vi by Bill Joy, and adding a ton of improvements over it. Nowadays, you should choose vim over vi every time you can.

The cheat sheet and tutorial cover most important functions of vi's input model, leaving out the more advanced regular expressions/ex command line material. This should be a very good beginning to become a vi/vim wizard.

With the single exception of the external filter feature ("!"), all functions shown are supported by ViEmu, my commercial add-in that provides advanced vi/vim emulation in Visual Studio.