I have known vim for almost six years. However, I never devoted that “one month” into using it, since sublime text is always standing there.

Yet occasionally I would have to use vim in remote access. Vim has left a “not so good” impression on me, because that machine cannot recognize backspace, which make deleting a character horribily complex. However recently I learned that there are some built-in shortcut to manage your typing in “insert” mode. I don’t customize vim, since others wouldn’t customize it for me.

So here I want to share those I found useful. I am not teaching Vim, just show the 1% shortcuts that you would use in 80% times and make vim less horrible to those who are trying to pick it up.

Delete a character: in insert mode. Actually, in almost any text input box on Mac, this works.

in insert mode:

• Start a new line from cursor:
• Delet from cursor to start:
• Indent line:
• : next key stroke will be treated as in normal mode. For example will delete to the end of the line.