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Text Editors

Text Editors (Terminal) — Quick Reference

vim — The Essential One

You’ll encounter it on remote servers whether you like it or not. Knowing enough to edit and escape is survival-level knowledge.

Modes

Mode	How to enter	Purpose
Normal	`Esc`	Navigation, commands (default)
Insert	`i`, `a`, `o`	Type text
Visual	`v`, `V`, `Ctrl+V`	Select text
Command	`:`	Save, quit, search, replace

The Most Important Commands

i       insert before cursor
a       insert after cursor
o       insert new line below
O       insert new line above

Esc     return to Normal mode

:w      save
:q      quit
:wq     save and quit
:q!     quit without saving (force)
:wq!    force save and quit
ZZ      save and quit (shortcut for :wq)

h j k l     left, down, up, right
w           jump to next word
b           jump to previous word
0           start of line
$           end of line
gg          go to first line
G           go to last line
:42         go to line 42
Ctrl+D      page down
Ctrl+U      page up

Editing (Normal Mode)

x       delete character under cursor
dd      delete (cut) current line
yy      yank (copy) current line
p       paste after cursor
P       paste before cursor
u       undo
Ctrl+R  redo
.       repeat last action

dw      delete word
d$      delete to end of line
cw      change word (delete + insert)

Search & Replace

/pattern        search forward
?pattern        search backward
n               next match
N               previous match

:%s/old/new/g   replace all in file
:%s/old/new/gc  replace all, confirm each
:5,10s/old/new  replace in lines 5–10

Visual Mode (Select Text)

v           character-wise select
V           line-wise select
Ctrl+V      block/column select

After selecting:
y   copy
d   delete/cut
>   indent
<   unindent

Multiple Files & Splits

:e file.txt         open file
:vsplit file.txt    vertical split
:split file.txt     horizontal split
Ctrl+W + arrow      move between splits
:tabnew file.txt    open in new tab
gt / gT             next / previous tab

nano — Beginner-Friendly

Simpler than vim, controls shown at the bottom of the screen.

nano file.txt

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+O`	Save (Write Out)
`Ctrl+X`	Exit
`Ctrl+K`	Cut line
`Ctrl+U`	Paste line
`Ctrl+W`	Search
`Ctrl+\`	Search and replace
`Ctrl+G`	Help
`Alt+U`	Undo

Tips

Memorize :wq and :q! first — everything else is secondary.
vimtutor (run in terminal) is an interactive 30-minute lesson built into vim itself.
Use nano when you just need to make a quick edit and don’t want to think about modes.
On most servers, if vim isn’t available, vi (its predecessor) almost certainly is — the core commands are the same.