Moving around in Neovim

Basic movements

Moving around in Neovim is pretty easy so this will not be a long tutorial!

To move around in Neovim you need to be in the 'Normal mode' where you cannot type anything.

Move left - h
Move right - l
Move up - k
Move down - j

Moving around in Neovim is not that hard as you can see! It might feel weird now but the more you use Neovim the more you get used to it. Now lets move onto some of the more advanced movements.

- Tip: You can press a number and a movement key to go to where you want, for example, 4k to move four spaces up or 4j to move four spaces down. -

Spesific movements on words

These are movements on individual sentances.

Move to the start of the next word - w
Move to the start of the previous word - b
Move to the end of the current word - e

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Spesific movements

To go to spesific parts of the file is pretty easy.

Move to the top - gg
Move to the bottom - G
Move to spesific line - 2G
Move to the top of the screen - H
Move to the middle of the screen - M
Move to the bottom of the screen - L
Move to the start of the line - 0
Move to the end of the line - $

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That is all now you know how to move around in Neovim!

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Neovim modes

There are three main modes in Neovim that you really need to know about.

Normal mode

Normal mode is the default mode in Neovim; it is the mode you start off in, and it allows you to enter other modes. You can also execute commands in this mode. If you are in another mode, all you need to do to enter normal mode is press the ESC key.

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Insert mode

This is probably the second-most-used mode that every person who uses Neovim uses. In this mode, it allows you to type, and that is really it!

Switches into insert mode where you are - i
Switches into insert mode on a new line below the current line - o
Switches into insert mode on a new line above the current line - O
Switches into insert mode on the next charicter - a
Switches to insert mode at the start of the line - I
Switches to insert mode at the end of the line - A

- Remember to exit insert mode to normal mode press ESC -

Visual mode

In this mode, you are allowed to select text, kind of like how you can click and drag and select this text on your web browser; this mode allows you to copy, paste, and delete the selected text!

To enter press - v

That is all for modes. There are a few more modes, like replace mode, that just allows you to replace a character, but these modes are not really used, at least by me.

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How to exit Neovim!

The clasic meme, how do I exit Vim?

There are two ways to exit Neovim; both are easy to remember. The first way to leave Neovim is to leave without saving any of the changes, and the second way is to leave while saving the changes.

Leave without saving - ZQ
Leave with saving - ZZ

To people who have used Vim-based text editors, this might look strange to you because you are used to using :q and :q! And whilst those do still work, using ZZ and ZQ is way more dynamic and just smoother in the long run.

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Basic Commands

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There are over 100 commands in Neovim, and thankfully, you don't need to know all of them to use the text editor—just a few basic commands are enough.

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Copy and Paste in Neovim

Instead of using Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V, Neovim uses y and p for copying and pasting lines:

yy - Copies an entire line in normal mode
y3 - Copies 3 lines in normal mode
y - Copies selected text in visual mode

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Deleting Lines

dd - Deletes a single line in normal mode
d3 - Deletes 3 lines in normal mode
d - Deletes selected text in visual mode

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Undo and Redo

u - Undo the last change
Ctrl + r - Redo the undone change

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Saving and Quitting

:w - Save the current file
:wq or ZZ - Save and quit
:q - Quit (only if no unsaved changes)
:q! or ZQ - Quit without saving changes

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Searching

/Linux - Search for 'Linux' (case-sensitive)
n - Go to the next found 'Linux'
N - Go to the previous 'Linux'

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