vim tips and tricks ep001

README.md

Using a macro to add double quotations over multiple lines in vim

1. Select the Lines of Interest:

   • Move the cursor to the start of the first line where you want to perform the operation.
   • Enter Visual Line mode by pressing Shift+V.
   • Use the up or down arrow keys to extend the selection to cover all lines of interest.

2. Start Recording the Macro:

   • Press q followed by a letter (like a) to start recording the macro into register a.

3. Append the Character to the Word:

   • Move to the end of the Word by pressing E. This takes the cursor to the end of the current Word.
   • Enter insert mode at the current cursor position by pressing a.
   • Type the character you want to append.
   • Press Esc to return to normal mode.
   • To ensure the cursor is positioned correctly for multiple runs, press B to go back to the beginning of the Word.

4. Move to the Next Line and Stop Recording:

   • Move to the next line with j.
   • Press q again to stop recording the macro.

5. Apply the Macro to the Selected Lines:

   • With the lines still selected in Visual Line mode, apply the macro by typing : which will bring up :'<,'>. Then type norm @a to apply the macro to each line in the selection. The full command will be :'<,'>norm @a.
   • To apply the macro to a range of lines, use :[range]norm @a, where [range] is the line range (e.g., 5,10 for lines 5 to 10).
   • To apply the macro to every line in the file, you can use :%norm @a.

6. Save Your Changes:

   • Once you have finished, save your changes with :w.