Neovim Text Editor Cheatsheet

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Essential Commands (Most Frequently Used)

h/j/k/l - Left/Down/Up/Right
w - Jump to start of next word
b - Jump to start of previous word
0 - Jump to start of line
$ - Jump to end of line
gg - Go to first line of document
G - Go to last line of document
{number}G - Go to line number
ctrl+f - Page down
ctrl+b - Page up

Essential Editing

i - Insert mode before cursor
a - Insert mode after cursor
o - Insert new line below current line
O - Insert new line above current line
x - Delete character under cursor
dd - Delete current line
yy - Copy (yank) current line
p - Paste after cursor
P - Paste before cursor
u - Undo
ctrl+r - Redo

Save and Exit

:w - Save file
:q - Quit (fails if unsaved changes)
:q! - Force quit (discards changes)
:wq or ZZ - Save and quit
:wa - Save all buffers

Intermediate Commands

Text Objects and Motions

e - Jump to end of word
ge - Jump to end of previous word
} - Jump to next paragraph
{ - Jump to previous paragraph
% - Jump to matching bracket
* - Search forward for word under cursor
# - Search backward for word under cursor

Advanced Editing

cc or S - Delete line and enter insert mode
C - Delete from cursor to end of line and enter insert mode
cw - Delete word and enter insert mode
ciw - Change inner word
ci" - Change inside quotes
ci( - Change inside parentheses
dd - Delete line
D - Delete from cursor to end of line
yiw - Yank inner word
. - Repeat last command

Visual Mode

v - Enter character-wise visual mode
V - Enter line-wise visual mode
ctrl+v - Enter block-wise visual mode
gv - Reselect last visual selection
o - Move to other end of selection

Search and Replace

/pattern - Search forward for pattern
?pattern - Search backward for pattern
n - Repeat search in same direction
N - Repeat search in opposite direction
:%s/old/new/g - Replace all occurrences in file
:%s/old/new/gc - Replace all occurrences with confirmation

Advanced Features

Buffer Management

:ls - List all buffers
:bn - Next buffer
:bp - Previous buffer
:b {number} - Go to specific buffer
:bd - Delete current buffer

Window Management

:sp - Split horizontally
:vsp - Split vertically
ctrl+w h/j/k/l - Navigate between windows
ctrl+w = - Make all windows equal size
ctrl+w _ - Maximize current window height
ctrl+w | - Maximize current window width
:q - Close current window

Tab Management

:tabnew - Create new tab
:tabn or gt - Next tab
:tabp or gT - Previous tab
:tabclose - Close current tab

Marks

ma - Set mark 'a' at current position
'a - Jump to line of mark 'a'
`a - Jump to position of mark 'a'
:marks - List all marks

Registers

"ay - Yank into register 'a'
"ap - Paste from register 'a'
:reg - List registers
"+y - Copy to system clipboard
"+p - Paste from system clipboard

Macros

qa - Record macro 'a'
q - Stop recording macro
@a - Run macro 'a'
@@ - Repeat last macro

File Operations

:e filename - Edit a file
:r filename - Insert file content
:!command - Run shell command
:r !command - Insert command output

Code Folding

zf - Create fold
zo - Open fold
zc - Close fold
zR - Open all folds
zM - Close all folds

Terminal

:term - Open terminal
ctrl+\ ctrl+n - Exit terminal mode

Configuration

:set number - Show line numbers
:set relativenumber - Show relative line numbers
:set wrap - Enable line wrapping
:set expandtab - Use spaces instead of tabs
:set tabstop=4 - Set tab width
:help {topic} - Get help on topic