Vim Tutorial for Beginners

Vim is a highly configurable text editor that you can use for software development or any kind of text editing. In this course you will learn how to use and exit Vim.
✏️ Florian Dedov from NeuralNine developed this course. Check out his channel: / @neuralnine
🎉 Thanks to our Champion and Sponsor supporters:
👾 Raymond Odero
👾 Agustín Kussrow
👾 aldo ferretti
👾 Otis Morgan
👾 DeezMaster
--
Learn to code for free and get a developer job: www.freecodecamp.org
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[@quincylarsonmusic]

Man. Florian teaches Vim so seemingly effortlessly. It’s clear he has a lot of passion for Vim and has put many, many hours into practicing and customizing his setup.

[@NeuralNine]

Thank you for your kind words Quincy :)

[@abishekraju4521]

Hol' Up... There's flair on KZbin ??! Since when ?!!

[@astratow]

0:00:00 intro 0:01:19 why use vim? What can you do with it? 0:07:19 installation 0:09:00 basics 0:09:44 how to exit vim? 0:11:28 insert and normal modes 0:17:28 line numbers 0:20:00 relative line numbers 0:21:08 various options 0:22:11 .vimrc 0:24:30 key bindings 0:27:35 visual mode 0:28:25 deleting 0:28:34 yanking/copying/pasting 0:31:10 changing/replacing 0:33:35 navigating vim way

[@Extorc]

00:35:51 deletion of words

[@kevinren3753]

0:47:00 intermediate stuff 0:59:00 registers and macros

[@hayouhayou2239]

1:04:53 Neovim and plugins 1:11:28 Vim support 1:14:06 Outro

[@greenfrog8851]

you madlad!

[@astratow]

@@Extorc thank you

[@aldrinseanpereira140]

finally... I can exit Vim 😂

[@henrytan5707]

😄😄

[@mohamedhabib7917]

😂😂

[@saumyashah6622]

Hahahaha. Relatable af

[@j0Nt4Mbi]

😂 😂 😂 😂

[@RealArchitArya]

Esc + :wq

[@alijafarzadeh8267]

I am new at coding, and the way you explained was very convincing and inspired me to learn all this stuff faster. Thank you.

[@cebuanoninoy]

I'm using vim in the basic way like at up to the 24 minutes of this video. With this tutorial I'm gonna use vim more often than I should this time, GOD willing. Thanks Florian and FCC for this wonderful tutorial on vim.

[@phanikishanyt]

Thank you folks, vim is super handy and the more you excel the more it helps go through logs and understand the flow and debug the issues.

[@josiasbudaydeveloper5864]

This video is a public utility to our lives! I've watched just until 29 minutes, just for learning the basics. Thanks for this video!

[@Blogdorf]

Outstanding. The presentation is well-structured and smooth, not amateur. Listening is easy and captivating. I have to force myself to break away. I also go back to specific points in the presentation that I want to emphasize for myself.

[@nuwanhettiarachchi3023]

Loved Vim for 15+ years. Its a superb editor. Coupled with sed commands you can handdle large data sets for research easily. Many editors also provide vim flavor and that is a impressive. Thanks for making this video and hope many hardcore programmers will adopt vim seeing benefit. Disclaimer: Yes, its addictive. Its hard to get started as well.

[@valentinoerrandonea2045]

i've been using the stuff i learned here for 4 months and it has really improved my coding! thank you!

[@begriddled]

Really useful. I use vim quite a bit but only in the most basic way. I've been through this at double speed and need to go back over stuff (of course) - I'm sure I'm going to be using it more, and better, now because of this. Thanks.

[@armandoleon9901]

Vim was the coolest thing I learned last year. It has improved my productivity. Pairing it with tmux is super cool too, as well as fzf to fuzzy find and open files via the terminal. Getting use to the keys at first takes a while, but consistent practice or forcing yourself to code/write is what worked for me. There’s some cool tricks too. I think learning the basics is enough and you can pick up those tricks along the way by watching KZbin or looking online. Configuration is a hill to climb itself, but :h for the win. What helped me was looking at how others set up their configs via their repos.

[@sorvex9]

Just get lunar vim and you would have saved yourself for most of the trouble

[@hispantrapmusic301]

@@sorvex9what’s the difference?

[@distant6606]

@@hispantrapmusic301 hes referring to the difficulty of getting vim/nvim on par with an ide. stuff like lsp, file explorers, etc. If you re new to vim learning both the binds and how to configure vim is kinda hard, so a lot of people use vim distributions (think about it like linux distributions) which basically are preconfigured setups that include all the "goodies" out of the box. lunarvim is a famous distribution that is visually appearling, has lsp preconfigured, a nice file explorer, and nice keybinds to get started with.out of the box vim is not great.

[@ajaysinghrathore1940]

Never thought I would see a 1 hour tutorial of a code editor Edit: holy shit! Never knew I needed this tutorial! Gonna help me a lot. Thanks dude

[@JacobMoen]

The biggest reason for why you'd want to learn to use a text editing environment like Vim or Emacs is that using the keyboard allows you to get the commands into your muscle memory. It's like playing an instrument. After training, your fingers automatically perform complex motions without you thinking about it. That's something that you will never ever be able to using a mouse and menus. I am an Emacs user, but I am watching this to learn Vim (read Neovim) because that's the only thing that I can make run on my old and seriously weak Celeron based laptop.

[@user-hx7jc6go4x]

Very nice. Clean, precise, no waffle, and no irritating music or distracting animations. Why can't all youtube tuts be as good as this?

[@haraldurkarlsson1147]

I think most younger folks that grew up in the modern era may not realize that the early computers were all operated from the keyboard. The Apollo landing computer only had a 3 by 5 keyboard (0-9, +, -) and some seven other main keys (CLR, PRG, ENTER, RESET etc). Hence was natural to find short-cuts for typing in commands quickly - an art that vanished with the emergence of the mouse (a concept Xerox invented and Jobs adapted in his Mac computer).

[@deepdive429]

Finally I can save and exit from vim successfully. Thanks It's very useful now I can continue with vim for my daily editor.

[@RishabhJain-pk8ty]

Got everything I needed as a beginner from a single video. Big Thanks :)

[@e555t66]

Thank you very much. I discovered vim 2 days ago and I already love it.

[@tomate3908]

Omg, this is exactly what I needed, thanks a lot guys

[@tigana]

I started very briefly on Sublime Text as a teen and then used vscode ever since. Really excited to try this

[@scarthebadguy]

Yeaaa I love sublime. Using it currently, I dropped vscode for sublime

[@sujalsamai6459]

Absolute legend of a channel

[@clustersnake]

Now this is something I've been wishing for a long time!

[@tigermachine9229]

Thank you for this awesome guide, I love to learn new tools and this will be very handy for me in my learning process.

[@jareddunlop8411]

This is great! What I have been looking for about a few weeks now. I am an extremely slow navigator, mostly because I have a movement disorder. VIM helps me close the gap and probably widen it in my favor from Devs that are quick with their hands. I have been reading so many articles and tutorials. I have been combing VIM help system (Which has a lot of good stuff to get back to later) first I need to get up and running in VIM to use as a basic/lightweight IDE for HTML, CSS, JS and Rust, and once it is useable I can dive in and learn. VS Code is so bloated with stuff that gets in my way and it feels like a waste of time to learn when it seems clear VIM is way more versatile, especially when getting into embedded systems with Rust. I have been dipping my foot in Linux (mostly Ubuntu since v6, almost 20 years now) Just need some functionality that is not included in VIM with out some additional plugins, but I don't see anything geared to starting that even gets into that stuff, that people probably need to make the initial move.

[@badreddinehamid2377]

the first 8 min of this video motivated me so much to watch all the video in one day

[@AndresCordoba8]

Amazing video on teaching Vim, thank you very much!

[@willywallace]

Great video, thanks for sharing, I'll try to use Vim in my daily basis, I am an iOS Developer and XCode started to include Vim as editor so I want to begin using it.

[@sergmont]

this was useful. Thanks. Was hoping to learn a bit about how to add plugins or more complex vim configurations, but I'll look for that elsewhere. Thanks a lot for your time of making this video.

[@aer0449]

I was looking for this thank you so much guys ❤️

[@Zakaros1000]

I just buy the vim master class tutorial from udemy, after following some youtubers and developers talking sweet of vim after you get use to it. After watching several free tutorials in youtube I decided to buy the course and give it a try

[@noobgamersland8189]

Starting learning because of college course... Ended up loving VIM

[@RajeshKannanrk]

Thanks Florian and freecodecamp for such a wonderful session 🥳😍

[@salomoncancholaespinoza6392]

Thank you so much for this video, it really helped me to understand better the use of this text editor.

[@amiisomer9758]

Great. I have been looking for a vim tutorial.

[@fabrice9848]

You definitely convinced me to check out your channel. Good job!

[@amphibia95]

This was an excellent tutorial! I've learned a TON of stuff about Vim! Thank you so much Florian!

[@MrsSashkina]

Hi, I want to ask: Is it able on Windows/Subsystem for Windows (I haven't watched video btw)

[@amphibia95]

@@MrsSashkina Hey there. Yes, I believe it is possible. I've tried it on Debian WSL on Windows 11 and was able to follow the video without any issues.

[@MrsSashkina]

@@amphibia95 Thank you so much! I had very nice video on my native language, but some things didn't work on Subsystem (Ubuntu by the way), so I wasted a lot of time. Thank you so much!

[@Ahurac]

Thank you for the detailed tuto, helped me a lot!

[@SebasSBM]

How curious: during years I have been looking forward to make my own IDE mirroring Vim behaviour (or at least fantasying with the idea), then *I find out you already did so*. Impressive, most impressive.

[@khunemz]

Just watched NeuralNine's videos!! Great tutorials keep doing

[@wypimentel]

I've watched I think 3 vim tutorials, every time I learn something new, now I learned the ci", ci) ci} Very useful, thanks a lot!

[@CodLiv3rSid]

hey could u link me all those tutorials ?

[@yi-zhiwang6850]

Best Vim turorial ever!

[@wp-wisdom]

This is what I needed!!

[@Kevinschart]

as a person who works all day in excel and hates to use the mouse i appreciate the ability to menu dive and call features with the keys

[@adityaverma2496]

You are doing a great job free code camp Brilliantly awesome Keep it up ✌😊💕🤗🤗

[@conradozanutto1546]

Brilliant tutorial! Thank you and congratulations!

[@mrECMAScript]

After watching 40 minutes I'm like a magician :D Thanks!

[@jupitersky]

I'm gonna get SO addicted to this...

[@ilshatt]

I have no words, thanks you!

[@usaidulu]

Thanks for putting it together... 👍

[@rahulsaha2859]

FCC is a magician .. just today I was having difficulty exiting VIM Damn ... Here you are ... Now i will be an. Expert user 😁😁

[@DavidBerglund]

I've used vim for years but never bother to learn that many of it's features. Learned a few new tricks here! One thing I never new about was the register for yanked/cut strings, but even if I yank say 3 lines, only the latest shows up in the registry? Deleted (or cut) lines can pile up. I thought I could yank a bunch of lines and then use them later, which could be handy.

[@casparvolquardsen6761]

Thanks! Great overview

[@GetCTRLVideos]

Brilliant stuff! I am using Vim emulation for Visual Studio Code while I'm getting the hang of it. :D

[@edwinboon9574]

This is awsome. I want to learn vim because I'm tired of VS code being slow as ****. Great course so far and can't wait to get better at it and use it on a daily basis at work

[@testescripts]

Very nice ! Best vim course.

[@Khigha87]

What a Legend! Thank you for this vid. Just wrote my first program using VIM, feeling like a badass coder for real! It doesn't work though lol, busy debugging. Many thanks FCC and Florian, very well explained. I would be keen to watch a vid or read up more on the plugins you use in vim and why if you ever make such content, will keep an eye out on your channel and on here. I ❤FCC 4 EVA!!!

[@MrsSashkina]

Hi, I want to ask: Is it able on Windows/Subsystem for Windows (I haven't watched video btw)

[@SreenikethanI]

@@MrsSashkina yes, it works on WSL

[@landonlandon2251]

We need more outcomes based tutorials like this to on board more users into vim. Can you please update description or place syllabus and time stamps within comments?

[@mb_mobile49]

I agree, this video should have timestamps since watching the entire session in one sitting is not likely.

[@MaxAlonso]

I will also like to see timestamps, it will make easier to re-watch the beginner intro. Tambien me gustaria que agregaran timestamps, seria mas sencillo revisar las intrucciones para principiante.

[@e555t66]

The idea is to get wet and not drink from the firehose. Do it in chunks if you are new, over time this should be rewarding.

[@MaxAlonso]

@@e555t66 I'll give it a try

[@chemistryman6053]

very helpful for a beginner like me. Thankyou so much

[@limitless1692]

Thank You! You helped me alot to setup my first `.vimrc` configuration file for my VIM. I am so happy!!

[@vanshajrai6089]

Awesome tutorial!

[@gunthergumdrop9071]

Thanks so much dude, this was incredibly comprehensive and wasted none of my time.

[@MohitKhare]

Thank you folks for this video.

[@muhammadayman9168]

Thank you so much for the video!

[@Part-Time-Larry]

I only used vim because I'm in the terminal so much, but now I'm determined to make vim my primary editor for c programming.

[@ego_sum_liberi]

me too.

[@BoolFalse]

Thanks FreeCodeCamp !!!

[@piyushbhuva9975]

great video guys as always keep rocking..

[@realchoodle]

Timing is so great

[@mateosepulveda8221]

Thank you so much dude.... Helped me a lot

[@akashrajput4076]

thanks for this amazing video

[@monicabattacharya6416]

thanks for the advanced editor

[@__________________________6910]

Florian Dedov the God of vim. Most of the time he use vim.

[@Abdulrahman-wo6wn]

Such a great video for free is crazy !

[@gilmar69047]

Wonderful mastering

[@user-jo4gu9sx6q]

This video was helpful. Thankyou.

[@jfr213]

Everyone should try the undo tree feature, this is absolutely amazing.

[@eltonjon5336]

Great content! Thanks!

[@phoenix7740]

Very well done tutorial

[@skyyao4769]

This is exactly what I need, thanks

[@ganiti_314]

could you install it?

[@worldboy9684]

This is simply a tutorial of the HIGHEST QUALITY, cudos, will most likely watch it a third time or more

[@thepsychedaily7829]

Finally. I can actually use Vim now.

[@felipe2637]

Nice, now waiting for a vimscript course

[@Seasonednuts-iv5gd]

It is quite needed thanks

[@GenkiKuri]

Thank you so much!

[@jitendrapandey176]

Awesome 👏👏👏👏

[@linuxlizard]

Thanks Neuralnine.

[@maurpine]

Fantastic!!! Thx

[@mahalkumar7245]

Really love the content. Ever planning to do a Emacs tutorial with elisp.

[@brandon_wallace]

Wow! Nice video!

[@nassdj8493]

What a relief... i finally jailbreaked from VIM, stuck for a while so i have to use my phone to google an escape plan 😄

[@fabrice9848]

thank you for this tutorial

[@tinpham6413]

I have used vim for a year right now and I have to tell you it kinda 'No Pain No Gain", first time i used this it kinda shoot me into the face but right I don't even to touch the mouse anymore

[@chrisoffersen]

Nice!

[@followthewhiterabbit7559]

thanks man !

[@ilhamahmadzada8145]

simple and great

[@ARS-fi5dp]

Thank you man

[@joannetsai8124]

thank you so much!

[@One_piece1089]

thank you you are amazing😍

[@mahdimalekifard4038]

very useful thanks

[@jrgomez]

¡Gracias!