Search
/word 	Search .word. from top to bottom
?word 	Search .word. from bottom to top
/jo[ha]n 	Search .john. or .joan.
/\< the 	Search .the., .theatre. or .then.
/the\> 	Search .the. or .breathe.
/\< the\> 	Search .the.
/\< ..\> 	Search all words of 4 letters
/\/ 	Search .fred. but not .alfred. or .frederick.
/fred\|joe 	Search .fred. or .joe.
/\<\d\d\d\d\> 	Search exactly 4 digits
/^\n\{3} 	Find 3 empty lines
:bufdo /searchstr/ 	Search in all open files
Replace
:%s/old/new/g 	Replace all occurences of .old. by .new. in file
:%s/old/new/gw 	Replace all occurences with confirmation
:2,35s/old/new/g 	Replace all occurences between lines 2 and 35
:5,$s/old/new/g 	Replace all occurences from line 5 to EOF
:%s/^/hello/g 	Replace the begining of each line by .hello.
:%s/$/Harry/g 	Replace the end of each line by .Harry.
:%s/onward/forward/gi 	Replace .onward. by .forward. , case unsensitive
:%s/ *$//g 	Delete all white spaces
:g/string/d 	Delete all lines containing .string.
:v/string/d 	Delete all lines containing which didn.t contain .string.
:s/Bill/Steve/ 	Replace the first occurence of .Bill. by .Steve. in current line
:s/Bill/Steve/g 	Replace .Bill. by .Steve. in current line
:%s/Bill/Steve/g 	Replace .Bill. by .Steve. in all the file
:%s/\r//g 	Delete DOS carriage returns (^M)
:%s/\r/\r/g 	Transform DOS carriage returns in returns
:%s#<[^>]\+>##g 	Delete HTML tags but keeps text
:%s/^\(.*\)\n\1$/\1/ 	Delete lines which appears twice
Ctrl+a 	Increment number under the cursor
Ctrl+x 	Decrement number under cursor
ggVGg? 	Change text to Rot13
Case
Vu 	Lowercase line
VU 	Uppercase line
g~~ 	Invert case
vEU 	Switch word to uppercase
vE~ 	Modify word case
ggguG 	Set all text to lowercase
:set ignorecase 	Ignore case in searches
:set smartcase 	Ignore case in searches excepted if an uppercase letter is used
:%s/\<./\u&/g 	Sets first letter of each word to uppercase
:%s/\<./\l&/g 	Sets first letter of each word to lowercase
:%s/.*/\u& 	Sets first letter of each line to uppercase
:%s/.*/\l& 	Sets first letter of each line to lowercase
Read/Write files
:1,10 w outfile 	Saves lines 1 to 10 in outfile
:1,10 w >> outfile 	Appends lines 1 to 10 to outfile
:r infile 	Insert the content of infile
:23r infile 	Insert the content of infile under line 23
File explorer
:e . 	Open integrated file explorer
:Sex 	Split window and open integrated file explorer
:browse e 	Graphical file explorer
:ls 	List buffers
:cd .. 	Move to parent directory
:args 	List files
:args *.php 	Open file list
:grep expression *.php 	Returns a list of .php files contening expression
gf 	Open file name under cursor
Interact with Unix
:!pwd 	Execute the .pwd. unix command, then returns to Vi
!!pwd 	Execute the .pwd. unix command and insert output in file
:sh 	Temporary returns to Unix
$exit 	Retourns to Vi
Alignment
:%!fmt 	Align all lines
!}fmt 	Align all lines at the current position
5!!fmt 	Align the next 5 lines
Tabs
:tabnew 	Creates a new tab
gt 	Show next tab
:tabfirst 	Show first tab
:tablast 	Show last tab
:tabm n(position) 	Rearrange tabs
:tabdo %s/foo/bar/g 	Execute a command in all tabs
:tab ball 	Puts all open files in tabs
Window spliting
:e filename 	Edit filename in current window
:split filename 	Split the window and open filename
ctrl-w up arrow 	Puts cursor in top window
ctrl-w ctrl-w 	Puts cursor in next window
ctrl-w_ 	Maximise current window
ctrl-w= 	Gives the same size to all windows
10 ctrl-w+ 	Add 10 lines to current window
:vsplit file 	Split window vertically
:sview file 	Same as :split in readonly mode
:hide 	Close current window
:only 	Close all windows, excepted current
:b 2 	Open #2 in this window
Auto-completion
Ctrl+n Ctrl+p (in insert mode) 	Complete word
Ctrl+x Ctrl+l 	Complete line
:set dictionary=dict 	Define dict as a dictionnary
Ctrl+x Ctrl+k 	Complete with dictionnary
Marks
mk 	Marks current position as k
.k 	Moves cursor to mark k
d.k 	Delete all until mark k
Abbreviations
:ab mail mail@provider.org 	Define mail as abbreviation of mail@provider.org
Text indent
:set autoindent 	Turn on auto-indent
:set smartindent 	Turn on intelligent auto-indent
:set shiftwidth=4 	Defines 4 spaces as indent size
ctrl-t, ctrl-d 	Indent/un-indent in insert mode
>> 	Indent
<< 	Un-indent
Syntax highlighting
:syntax on 	Turn on syntax highlighting
:syntax off 	Turn off syntax highlighting
:set syntax=perl 	Force syntax highlighting