Vim multiline editing like in sublimetext

Question

I started to use gvim  and I can t quite understand how the multiline edit works in gvim   For example   Original text   asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd    ctrl q  jjjjjj     everything is selected  then i press I to do a multiline insert   My intention is to insert quotes like in the first line  and then to press Esc   asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd    What happened  I expected a behavior similar to sublimetext s one     If you don t know how that works  it just repeats the actions for every line  How can achieve that  And what is vim doing here

User · Answer

Those are some good out-of-the box solutions given above, but we can also try some plugins which provide multiple cursors like Sublime.

I think this one looks promising:

https://github.com/terryma/vim-multiple-cursors

It seemed abandoned for a while, but has had some contributions in 2014.

It is quite powerful, although it took me a little while to get used to the flow (which is quite Sublime-like but still modal like Vim).

In my experience if you have a lot of other plugins installed, you may meet some conflicts!

There are some others attempts at this feature:

https://github.com/osyo-manga/vim-over (search-replace only, but with live preview)
https://github.com/paradigm/vim-multicursor
https://github.com/felixr/vim-multiedit
https://github.com/hlissner/vim-multiedit (based on the previous)
https://github.com/adinapoli/vim-markmultiple
https://github.com/AndrewRadev/multichange.vim

Please feel free to edit if you notice any of these undergoing improvement.

User · Answer

I m not sure what vim is doing  but it is an interesting effect  The way you re describing what you want sounds more like how macros work   help macro   Something like this would do what you want with macros  starting in normal-mode     qa  Record macro to a register  0w  0 goto start of line  w jump one word  i  lt Esc gt   Enter insert-mode  insert a   and return to normal-mode  2e  Jump to end of second word  a  lt Esc gt   Append a    jq Move to next line and end macro recording    Taken together   qa0wi  lt Esc gt 2ea  lt Esc gt   Now you can execute the macro with  a  repeat last macro with     To apply to the rest of the file  do something like 99 a which assumes you do not have more than 99 lines  macro execution will end when it reaches end of file   Here is how to achieve what you want with visual-block-mode  starting in normal mode     Navigate to where you want the first quote to be  Enter visual-block-mode  select the lines you want to affect  G to go to the bottom of the file  Hit I  lt Esc gt   Move to the next spot you want to insert a    You want to repeat what you just did so a simple   will suffice

User · Answer

Do yourself a favor by dropping the Windows compatibility layer   The normal shortcut for entering Visual-Block mode is  lt C-v gt    Others have dealt with recording macros  here are a few other ideas   Using only visual-block mode    Put the cursor on the second word   asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd   Hit  lt C-v gt  to enter visual-block mode and expand your selection toward the bottom   asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd  a sd asd asd asd   Hit I  lt Esc gt  to obtain   asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd   Put the cursor on the last char of the third word   asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd  asd  asd asd asd asd   Hit  lt C-v gt  to enter visual-block mode and expand your selection toward the bottom   asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd as d  asd asd  asd  asd as d  asd asd   Hit A  lt Esc gt  to obtain   asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd     With visual-block mode and Surround vim    Put the cursor on the second word   asd  a sd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd  asd asd asd asd asd   Hit  lt C-v gt  to enter visual-block mode and expand your selection toward the bottom and the right   asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd   Hit S  to surround your selection with     asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd     With visual-line mode and  normal    Hit V to select the whole line and expand it toward the bottom    asd asd asd asd asd    asd asd asd asd asd    asd asd asd asd asd    asd asd asd asd asd    asd asd asd asd asd    asd asd asd asd asd    asd asd asd asd asd    Execute this command     lt    gt norm  wi  lt C-v gt  lt Esc gt eea  lt CR gt  to obtain   asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd  asd  asd asd  asd asd      norm al  allows you to execute normal mode commands on a range of lines  the   lt    gt  part is added automatically by Vim and means  act on the selected area     puts the cursor on the first char of the line w moves to the next word i  inserts a   before the cursor  lt C-v gt  lt Esc gt  is Vim s way to input a control character in this context  here it s  lt Esc gt  used to exit insert mode ee moves to the end of the next word a  appends a   after the cursor  lt CR gt  executes the command   Using Surround vim  the command above becomes     lt    gt norm  wvees  lt CR gt

User · Answer

My solution is to use these 2 mappings   map  lt leader gt n  lt Esc gt  lt Esc gt 0qq map  lt leader gt m q   lt    gt -1normal  q lt CR gt  lt Down gt      How to use them    Select your lines  If I want to select the next 12 lines I just press V12j Press  lt leader gt n Make your changes to the line Make sure you re in normal mode and then press  lt leader gt m    To make another edit you don t need to make the selection again  Just press  lt leader gt n  make your edit and press  lt leader gt m to apply     How this works     lt Esc gt  lt Esc gt 0qq Exit the visual selection  go to the beginning of the line and start recording a macro  q Stop recording the macro     lt    gt -1normal  q lt CR gt  From the start of the visual selection to the line before the end  play the macro on each line   lt Down gt  Go back down to the last line      You can also just map the same key but for different modes   vmap  lt leader gt m  lt Esc gt  lt Esc gt 0qq nmap  lt leader gt m q   lt    gt -1normal  q lt CR gt  lt Down gt    Although this messes up your ability to make another edit  You ll have to re-select your lines

User · Answer

Ctrl-v                  start visual block selection 6j                      go down 6 lines I                       inserts   at the beginning  lt Esc gt  lt Esc gt               finishes start 2fdl                    second  d  l  goes right     repeats insertion

User · Answer

There are several ways to accomplish that in Vim  I don t know which are most similar to Sublime Text s though     The first one would be via multiline insert mode  Put your cursor to the second  a  in the first line  press Ctrl-V  select all lines  then press I  and put in a doublequote  Pressing  lt esc gt  will repeat the operation on every line     The second one is via macros  Put the cursor on the first character  and start recording a macro with qa   Go the your right with llll  enter insert mode with a  put down a doublequote  exit insert mode  and go back to the beginning of your row with  lt home gt   or equivalent   Press j to move down one row  Stop recording with q  And then replay the macro with  a  Several times     Does any of the above approaches work for you

User · Answer

if you use the  global  command  you can repeat what you can do on one online an any number of lines    g  lt search gt    lt your ex command gt    example    g foo  s bar baz g   The above command finds all lines that have foo  and replace all occurrences of bar on that line with baz    g       will do on every line

[vim] Vim multiline editing like in sublimetext?

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