Practical Vim, 2nd Edition

Tip 14

Get Back to Normal Mode

Insert mode is specialized for one task—entering text—whereas Normal mode is where we spend most of our time (as the name suggests). So it’s important to be able to switch quickly between them. This tip demonstrates a couple of tricks that reduce the friction of mode switching.

The classic way of getting back to Normal mode is with the <Esc> key, but on many keyboards that can seem like a long reach. Alternatively, we can press <C-[>, which has exactly the same effect (see i_CTRL-[ⓘ).

Keystrokes	Effect
<Esc>	Switch to Normal mode
<C-[>	Switch to Normal mode
<C-o>	Switch to Insert Normal mode

Vim novices frequently become fatigued by the constant need to switch modes, but with practice it starts to feel more natural. ...