Vim Mode

Vim is a keyboard-centric text editor. “Vim mode” refers to another editor implementing the ability to perform a subset of vim motions. This will allow you to write, select, edit, copy, paste, navigate, etc, efficiently by using keyboard commands.

Vim is modal. Three such modes have been implemented in novelWriter:

• Normal mode is the default mode used to navigate text.

• Insert mode is where you can write text like in a ‘normal’ text editor.

• Visual mode is for selecting text, with:

  • Visual mode for per character selection.

  • V-Line mode for per-line selection.

The vim mode setting is found in the Features section of the Preferences.

Note

Vim mode is an advanced feature. When you enable it, the text editor will behave very differently than a standard text editor. A label in the footer of the editor will show which of the vim modes it is in.

Mode Switching

To switch between the various vim modes, these keystrokes implemented:

From Mode	To Mode	Keystrokes
Normal	Insert	i, I, a, A, o, O
Insert	Normal	Esc
Normal	Visual	v, V

You can exit visual mode back to normal mode by pressing Esc, but all visual mode commands that logically “terminate” the visual mode usage will return you to normal mode.

For instance, press V to enter V-Line mode, select next word with w. press y to yank (copy), you are now automatically put back in normal mode as you have completed selecting your text.

Implemented Keystrokes (Vim Motions)

The table below shows the vim motions currently implemented in novelWriter.

Motion	Mode(s)	Description
i	Normal → Insert	Enter insert mode
I	Normal → Insert	Jump to first non-blank of line and enter insert
v	Normal → Visual	Enter character-wise visual mode
V	Normal → V-Line	Enter line-wise visual mode
dd	Normal	Delete (cut) current line
x	Normal	Delete character under cursor
w	Normal / Visual	Move to next word start
b	Normal / Visual	Move to previous word start
e	Normal / Visual	Move to next word end
dw	Normal	Delete from cursor to next word start
de	Normal	Delete from cursor to next word end
db	Normal	Delete from cursor to previous word start
d$	Normal	Delete from cursor to end of line
yw	Normal	Yank (copy) from cursor to next word start
gg	Normal / Visual	Jump to first line
G	Normal / Visual	Jump to last line
yy	Normal	Yank current line
p	Normal	Paste after current line
P	Normal	Paste before current line
o	Normal → Insert	Open new line below and enter insert
O	Normal → Insert	Open new line above and enter insert
$	Normal / Visual	Move to end of line
a	Normal → Insert	Enter insert after cursor
A	Normal → Insert	Enter insert at end of line
u	Normal	Undo last change
zz	Normal	Centre cursor vertically
h	Normal / Visual	Move left
j	Normal / Visual	Move down
k	Normal / Visual	Move up
l	Normal / Visual	Move right
d	Visual / V-Line	Delete selection
x	Visual / V-Line	Delete selection
y	Visual / V-Line	Yank selection
0	Visual	Move to start of line (extend selection)

Known Issues

• Currently, dd on an empty line will not delete, but using x will.

• vypyy will have ypyy in command memory and thus not register yy. Expected behavior would be visual mode, yank, paste, yank line.

• Differing behavior from vim: the e command behaves a bit differently with regards to the last character of a word. The behavior is inconsistent with vim but functional and still logical to use. The cursor is placed at the end of the word after the last character rather than on the last character.

  test
     ^ Cursor placed here in vim
  test
      ^ Cursor placed here in novelWriter vim mode
  

  You will only really ever notice this behavior if you try to combine the e command with another. For instance, de will not delete the last character but delete forward as it starts one character after the word boundary.