Vim (Advanced Insert) - Finer Text Insertion

Learn how to control where you want to insert text.

• August 31, 2024
• vim
• insertion
• tutorial

Introduction #

In the last tutorial, you learned how to begin using Vim. You learned that Vim is a modal editor. Vim begins in Normal mode, but to edit text, you need to enter Insert mode.

The last tutorial detailed how to enter Insert mode with the i key in Normal mode. There are many ways to enter Insert mode and insert text in Vim. This tutorial will detail more ways you can insert text in Vim.

Requirements #

• A terminal application (e.g. Alacritty)
• Vim

Getting Started #

Open Vim. This can be done in a terminal if your system lets you run the vim command. Otherwise, you should look for gvim.

$ vim

The screen should look similar to this:

If you haven't specified a file name, enter the following command:

:write insert.txt

This command saves the current buffer to a file named insert.txt (as covered in the previous tutorial).

Standard Insert #

The simplest way to enter insert mode is to press i. Enter the following:

i

This places the cursor directly before the character that the cursor currently highlights. For example, in this setup, pressing i will enter Insert mode and let you insert characters between the k and d in markdown:

In an empty file, this will let you insert text into the current buffer. Enter the following text in the current buffer:

this is text

Press <Esc> to leave Insert mode and go back to Normal mode. The cursor should highlight the last letter in the line, like this:

Move the cursor to the space between is and text as shown:

Enter Insert mode with i. Insert the word "only" after "is" as shown:

Press <Esc> to return to Normal mode. The cursor should highlight the last letter of "only" as shown:

Insert at Beginning #

To insert a character directly before the first non-whitespace character of a line, type I (<Shift-i>).

Enter insert mode and move the cursor to directly before the first non-whitespace character in the line by typing I (<Shift-i>). The cursor should be placed on the "t" in "this" as shown:

Type "I think" followed by a space. The line should look like the following:

Press <Esc> to switch to Normal mode. The line should look like this:

Append #

To append text in Vim, use a or A (<Shift-a>). Both commands are different and place the cursor at different positions.

End of Line #

To add text to the end of the line, press A. The line should look like this:

Add a period (.) to the end of the sentence by typing .. The line should look like this:

Press <Esc> to return to Normal mode. The line should look like this:

After Any Character #

To add text after any character, highlight the character with the cursor in Normal mode then press a.

You will add don't after I in the beginning of the sentence. The line should look like this:

To move the cursor to the first letter of the line, press 0. The line should look like this:

Press a to go into insert mode with the cursor placed directly after the first "I" in the sentence. The line should look like this:

Type a space followed by don't. The line should look like this:

Press <Esc> to switch to Normal mode. The line should look like this:

Open Line #

To open a line below or above an existing line, use o and O (<Shift-o>). Both commands are different and open a line in different places.

You will add two sentences on separate lines. The line should look like this:

Open Line Below #

Press o to enter Insert mode and add a line directly below the current line. The line should look like this:

Type This is a text file followed by a period (.). The lines should look like the following:

Press <Esc> to return to Normal mode. The lines should look like this:

Open Line Above #

Press O to enter Insert mode and add a line directly above the current line. The line should look like this:

Type This is much more than text followed by a period (.). The lines should look like this:

Press <Esc> to return to Normal mode. The lines should look like this:

Conclusion #

In this tutorial, you learned how to enter insert mode in Vim. You learned how to place your cursor before or after a highlighted character, at the beginning or end of a line, and in a new line directly above or below. With this knowledge, you can control where you want to insert text into a text file, which will enable you to spend fewer keystrokes inserting text.

Vim empowers you to improve your edit workflow. Edits require fewer keystrokes and complexity. Combined with Vim's language-like keybinding design, Vim accelerates and eases your edit workflow.

In future tutorials, you'll learn how to leverage Vim for even more advanced insertion and many more.

License #

This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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