10 Vim Tips to Ease the Learning Curve

Vim has a steep learning curve.

I remember thinking “This is the weirdest editor ever! How am I supposed to memorize all these shortcuts?” — after trying it out the first time. This is partly due to the fact customizing Vim is not very intuitive for beginners:

• Everything is text based. There are no sliders to slide or checkboxes to check.
• Even when you know to open your vimrc, not everything inside makes sense. What’s the *#@$ is inoremap or nnoremap anyway? Is that a typo? Did you mean ignoremap? …

While everything will start to make sense as you use Vim more often, it can be a little overwhelming at first. Here are some tips and tricks I’ve been picking up in the last 4 years that might enhance your experience during this stage.

Let’s dive in!

Note: this post assumes you’re already using Vim for some time. You know how to edit a document and where your vimrc is.

1. Use HJKL

If you play video games, you know the pros go with W,A,S,D and the noobs stay with arrow key… Well, not my best analogy, but in a way, most long-time vimmers…