Alphabetical List of Keys in Command Mode

For brevity, control characters are marked by ^.

Command

Action

a

Append text after cursor.

A

Append text at end-of-line.

^A

Search for next occurrence of word under cursor. Increment number in vim when cursor is on a number.

b

Back up to beginning of word in current line.

B

Back up one word, treating punctuation marks as words.

^B

Scroll backward one window.

c

Change text up to target of next movement command.

C

Change to end of current line.

^C

End insert mode; interrupts a long operation.

d

Delete up to target of next movement command.

D

Delete to end of current line.

^D

Scroll down half-window; in insert mode, unindent to shiftwidth if autoindent is set (or when using vim).

e

Move to end of word.

E

Move to end of word, treating punctuation as part of word.

^E

Show one more line at bottom of window.

f

Find next character typed forward on current line.

F

Find next character typed backward on current line.

^F

Scroll forward one window.

g

Unused in vi. Begins many multiple-character commands in vim.

G

Go to specified line or end of file.

^G

Print information about file on status line.

h

Left arrow cursor key.

H

Move cursor to home position.

^H

Left arrow cursor key; backspace key in insert mode.

i

Insert text before cursor.

I

Insert text before first nonblank character on line.

^I

Unused in command mode; in insert mode, same as Tab key.

j

Down arrow cursor key.

J

Join previous line ...

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