Today I dove deeper into Vim, the legendary text editor that everyone says is impossible to quit (literally and figuratively). At first it felt alien: different modes, strange keybindings, commands that look like hieroglyphs. But once a few pieces clicked, it started to feel like magic.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Modes: The Core of Vim

Vim is built around three main modes:

Normal mode – where you run commands (navigation, cut, copy, paste, etc.). This is Vim’s default mode.
Insert mode – where you actually type text. You get here with i, a, o and a few other keys.
Visual mode – where you select text, similar to dragging with a mouse, and then apply commands to it.

The current mode is always visible at the bottom of the screen, so you never have to guess.

Operators + Motions

The “Vim way” of editing is to combine operators (actions) with motions (ranges).

Examples:

d$ → delete from the cursor to the end of the line
y0 → yank (copy) from the cursor to the beginning of the line
cw → change a word (delete it and drop straight into Insert mode)

This is what makes Vim feel powerful: almost every action follows the same pattern.

Cut, Copy, Paste

x → cut (delete) a character
dd → cut the current line
yy → copy the current line
p → paste after the cursor
P → paste before the cursor

A fun discovery: you can prefix these commands with a number, like 5yy to copy five lines.

Undo and Redo

Vim has its own Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Shift-Z equivalents:

u → undo
Ctrl-r → redo

Even better, Vim supports undo branches, meaning you can explore multiple paths of edits instead of being locked to one linear undo history.

Search and Replace

Searching is straightforward:

/pattern → search forward
?pattern → search backward
n / N → jump through results

Replacement uses the :s command:

:s/foo/bar/ → replace first match on the current line
:s/foo/bar/g → replace all matches on the line
:%s/foo/bar/g → replace all matches in the file
:%s/foo/bar/gc → confirm each replacement one by one (y = yes, n = no, a = all, q = quit)

Multi-File Power: vimgrep + cfdo

One of the coolest features I learned is that Vim can search across files, not just inside one.

:vimgrep /world/ *.txt → search for “world” across all .txt files and put matches into the quickfix list.
:copen → view all matches.
:cfdo %s/world/universe/gc | update → run a replacement across all those files, confirming each change, and save them automatically.

That’s when Vim stopped being “just an editor” and started looking like a real productivity engine:

Aha Moments

The biggest realizations for me so far:

Delete is cut → because the text goes into a register and you can paste it back.
Change = delete + insert → it’s a shortcut to replace text quickly.
Uppercase shortcuts exist: D = d$, C = c$, Y = yy.
Vim’s design feels weird at first, but everything is consistent once you see the patterns.

Final Thoughts

I started out fighting Vim. Why do I have to press i to type? Why does dw sometimes only delete part of a word? Why can’t I just Ctrl-C/V like in other editors?

But after some practice, I can see why people love it. Vim isn’t about making text editing “easy” — it’s about making it efficient. The more I learn, the more I feel like I’m driving a race car instead of pedaling a bike.

This is just the beginning of my Vim journey. Next, I want to dive deeper into registers, macros, and plugins — but for now, I’m just happy I can quit Vim without panic.

Takeaway for me as a learner

Vim rewards practice and patience, which is exactly the mindset I want to bring into cybersecurity and technical work. If I keep building these skills, I’ll not only be more productive in my own coding but also demonstrate to employers that I’m serious about mastering the tools of the trade.

My First Steps with Vim: From Confusion to Magic