vi (visual) is a display-oriented text editor based on an underlying line editor ex. Both vi and ex were developed by The University of California, Berkeley, California, Computer Science Division, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
To create a new file using vi (or editing an existing file) type:
To start inserting (or adding) characters to the document press the i (or a) key. To stop inserting (or adding) characters to the document press the ESC key. There are several other ways to add the characters to the document where some are mentioned here. If you need more detail commands, check the manual entry for vi. The following information is copied from the same manual entry.
COMMAND SUMMARY
In the descriptions, CR stands for carriage return and ESC stands for the
escape key.
Sample Commands
arrow keys move the cursor
h j k l same as arrow keys
i insert text
cw change word to new
x delete a character
dw delete a word
dd delete a line
3dd delete 3 lines
u undo previous change
ZZ exit vi, saving changes
:q! quit, discarding changes
/text search for text
ESC end insert or incomplete cmd
:w write back changes
:q quit
:q! quit, discard changes
[Ctrl]+G show current file and line
[Ctrl]+F forward screen
[Ctrl]+B backward screen
[Ctrl]+D scroll down half screen
[Ctrl]+U scroll up half screen
nG go to the beginning of the specified line
(end default), where n is a line number
( beginning of sentence
) end of sentence
{ beginning of paragraph
} end of paragraph
[Ctrl]+L clear and redraw window
[Ctrl]+R clear and redraw window if [Ctrl]+L is -> key
[Ctrl]+E scroll window down 1 line
[Ctrl]+Y scroll window up 1 line
H top line on screen
L last line on screen
M middle line on screen
+ next line, at first non-white
- previous line, at first non-white
[Enter] return, same as +
v or j next line, same column
^ or k previous line, same column
^ first non white-space character
0 beginning of line
$ end of line
w forward a word
b back a word
e end of word
) to next sentence
} to next paragraph
( back a sentence
{ back a paragraph
ESC ends insertion, back to command mode
a append after cursor
A append at end of line
i insert before cursor
I insert before first non-blank
o open line below
O open above
rx replace single char with x
Operators
Operators are followed by a cursor motion, and affect all text that would
have been moved over. For example, since w moves over a word, dw deletes
the word that would be moved over. Double the operator, for example, dd
to affect whole lines.
d delete
c change
y yank lines to buffer
C change rest of line (c$)
D delete rest of line (d$)
s substitute chars (cl)
S substitute lines (cc)
J join lines
x delete characters (dl)
X delete characters before cursor (dh)
Y yank lines (yy)
Yank and Put
Put inserts the text most recently deleted or yanked; however, if a
buffer is named (using the ASCII lower-case letters a-z), the text in
that buffer is put instead.
3yy yank 3 lines
3yl yank 3 characters
p put back text after cursor
P put back text before cursor
u undo last change
U restore current line
. repeat last change