freeCodeCamp/guide/english/vim/navigation/index.md

title
Navigation

Vim Navigation

Basic movement

There are many ways to move the cursor in Vim, but these basic movements will allow new users to get comfortable using normal mode for file navigation.

• In normal mode, the keys h, j, k , l correspond to moving the cursor one character left, down, up, and right, respectively.

• To navigate one word at a time, the keys w, and b will move the cursor to the beginning of the next word, or the beginning of the previous word. The e key will move the cursor to the end of the current word.

• To move to the beginning of the current line, type 0, and to move to the end of the current line, type $.

• Finally, to move to the first line in the file, type gg, and to move to the last line in the file, type G.

In summary:

h   moves one character left
j   moves one row down
k   moves one row up
l   moves one character right

w   moves to the beginning of the next word
b   moves to the beginning of the previous word
e   moves to the end of the current word

0   moves to the beginning of the current line
$   moves to the end of the current line
:n  moves to line n (ex. :23 moves to line 23) can also use nG
^   moves to the first non blank character of the line.

ZZ  moves to the center of the line you are on
H   moves to the top of the screen
M   moves to the middle of the screen
L   moves to the bottom of the screen

gg  moves to the first line in the file
G   moves to the last line in the file