This may seem a bit silly, but there are many games on Unix systems that can help you learn to use vi. These help particularly with the basics. Although I don't know of any games that help with every vi command, I do know of a few that will help you learn to use hjkl to move the cursor around. NetHack, a rouge-like game, is particularly good for this, as it is a large game and can be entertaining for quite some time. Not to make the other games sound worse, but some other ones are: rouge, moria, omega, worm, and snake.

Often sited as one of the main problems with vi, and equally often sited as being one of its best strengths, vi differentiates between a "Command mode" and an "Insert mode." Understanding this difference is VITAL to learning vi. When one starts vi it starts in command mode. In this mode, one can move around the file, and issue commands to change certain areas of the text, cut, copy and paste sections of the text and do much more. Insert mode is where one can actually insert text. In other words, command mode is used to move around the document, and insert mode is used to type text into the document.

Commands such as: a, i, c, C, O, o and others will switch one from command mode to insert mode.

<Esc> or ^C will take one out of insert mode and return one to command mode.

Get used to this distinction. It is one of the things that makes vi different from most other editors. It also allows one to do a lot of things without taking one's hands from the standard keyboard position.

Try hitting ^[ instead. If your keyboard has a <Meta> key, try that. If neither of these work, try ^3.

They're just there to let you know where the bottom of your file is, they are not actually in your document, and you do not need to worry about them.

First, if your terminal is set properly, you should be able to use the arrow keys. However, if you think that you will be using vi a lot, then it makes sense to learn hjkl, as they are faster to type.

:q! will do it. If vi appears to have frozen, make sure that you haven't hit ^S by mistake. In order to undo a ^S, hit ^Q.

:r <filename>

For example, to insert the file /etc/motd, type: :r /etc/motd

This will insert the file at the current location in the file you are working on. If you specify a number before the r, it will insert it at that location in the file.

/<text> will search forward. ?<text> will search backwards. ?? or // will repeat the last search. It is worth noting that these are pretty much standard in Unix. In addition, in vi, n will find the next occurrence. N will repeat the last search, reversing the direction. Regular Expressions may be used within searches.

/^V^<seq>

^V will tell vi to take the next character literally, and not to take it as a command.

If your computer has the program fmt on it, all you need to do is type !}fmt from insert mode. This will rejustify the text from the current location until the end of the paragraph. If your machine does not have fmt, you need to find a similar program. (I gather there are many such programs available from the public domain, but I do not know much about them.)

Okay, this might be a bit complicated. Take from this section what you can, and reread it a few times. Also, experiment.

"<letter>yy will copy one line of text into register <letter>. (A register is vi-lingo for a place to store data that was cut or copied.) <letter> must be between a and z. "<letter>dd will delete one line and place it in register <letter>. You may use a number before the yy or dd to specify the number of lines. Using an uppercase <letter> will append the text into the register leaving what was there before.

"<letter>p will put the text after the cursor. "<letter>P will put it before the cursor. If the register contains the beginning or end of a line, the line will be placed on another line as appropriate. Y may be used as a short cut for yy. In addition, y$, yH, yM, etc. are valid, as are the equivalent d commands. For quick cuts and pastes, no register need be specified. In this case, no appending is allowed, and the register will be removed if another delete command is given. (Including x).

For example, to move the previous paragraph, one would go to the top of the paragraph, type "a13dd, move to the position in which one wishes to put the paragraph, and then type "ap to put it below the current line.

Now, presumably you want to be able to cut and paste into areas that are not just the end of the line. In order to do this, use m to mark an area. This letter may be the same as a cut/copy register, they are stored in different area of memory. Then, type "<register>`<letter>[yy or dd]. Where <register> is the register to put the text into, <letter> is the letter used to make, and yy or dd as appropriate.

u will undo the last command. U will undo changes to the current line. (Granted, a one line dissertation would not be much.) :e! will reload the current document without saving any changes. In addition, deleted text gets stored in the registers numbered from 1 to 9. "<n>p will put the last nth deletion. You can quickly search the registers by trying one, hitting u, and trying the next. (In order to expedite this, vi uses . slightly differently than normal. Instead of repeating the last command, it will try the next register, so all you need to do is: "1p u . u ., etc. until you undo the delete you want to undo.)

:[m],[n]w <filename> will save between lines m and n to <filename>. This line numbering method works for almost every : command. If you use :[m],[n]w >> <filename> it will append it to the file.

The commands that follow a : are commands from the ex editor. These allow a lot of flexibility and power. For example, there are many different ways to search and replace, all of with have some similarities (in fact, they are in some ways the same...)