Simple Vim commands you wish you'd known earlier [closed]

Question

I really wish I'd known that you can use Ctrl+C instead of Esc to switch out of insert mode. That's been a real productivity boost for me.

The most recent "wow" trick that I learnt is a method of doing complicated search-and-replace. Quite often in the past, I've had a really complicated regexp to do substitutions on and it's not worked. There is a better way:

:set incsearch             " I have this in .vimrc
/my complicated regexp     " Highlighted as you enter characters
:%s//replace with this/    " You don't have to type it again

The "trick" here (for want of a better word) is the way that you can use the search to create the regexp (and 'incsearch' highlights it as you enter characters) and then use an empty pattern in the substitution: the empty pattern defaults to the last search pattern.

Example:

/blue\(\d\+\)
:%s//red\1/

Equivalent to:

:%s/blue\(\d\+\)/red\1/

See:

:help 'incsearch'
:help :substitute

I created this reference of my most used command for a friend of mine:

select                                   v
select row(s)                            SHIFT + v
select blocks (columns)                  CTRL  + v
indent selected text                     >
unindent selected text                   <
list buffers                             :ls
open buffer                              :bN (N = buffer number)
print                                    :hardcopy
open a file                              :e /path/to/file.txt
                                         :e C:\Path\To\File.txt
sort selected rows                       :sort
search for word under cursor             *
open file under cursor                   gf
  (absolute path or relative)
format selected code                     =
select contents of entire file           ggVG
convert selected text to uppercase       U
convert selected text to lowercase       u
invert case of selected text             ~
convert tabs to spaces                   :retab
start recording a macro                  qX (X = key to assign macro to)
stop recording a macro                   q
playback macro                           @X (X = key macro was assigned to)
replay previously played macro *         @@
auto-complete a word you are typing **   CTRL + n
bookmark current place in file           mX (X = key to assign bookmark to)
jump to bookmark                         `X (X = key bookmark was assigned to
                                             ` = back tick/tilde key)
show all bookmarks                       :marks
delete a bookmark                        :delm X (X = key bookmark to delete)
delete all bookmarks                     :delm!
split screen horizontally                :split
split screen vertically                  :vsplit
navigating split screens                 CTRL + w + j = move down a screen
                                         CTRL + w + k = move up a screen
                                         CTRL + w + h = move left a screen
                                         CTRL + w + l = move right a screen
close all other split screens            :only

*  - As with other commands in vi, you can playback a macro any number of times.
     The following command would playback the macro assigned to the key `w' 100
     times: 100@w

** - Vim uses words that exist in your current buffer and any other buffer you may have open for auto-complete suggestions.

gi switches to insertion mode, placing the cursor at the same location it was previously.