Visual Mode in Vim: Usage, Starting, and Stopping

*visual.txt* Nvim VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar Visual mode *Visual* *Visual-mode* *visual-mode* Visual mode is a flexible and easy way to select a piece of text for an operator. It is the only way to select a block of text. This is introduced in section |04.4| of the user manual. Type |gO| to see the table of contents. ============================================================================== 1. Using Visual mode *visual-use* Using Visual mode consists of three parts: 1. Mark the start of the text with "v", "V" or CTRL-V. The character under the cursor will be used as the start. 2. Move to the end of the text. The text from the start of the Visual mode up to and including the character under the cursor is highlighted. 3. Type an operator command. The highlighted characters will be operated upon. The |hl-Visual| group determines the highlighting of the visual selection. The 'virtualedit' option can be used to allow positioning the cursor to positions where there is no actual character. The highlighted text normally includes the character under the cursor. However, when the 'selection' option is set to "exclusive" and the cursor is after the Visual area, the character under the cursor is not included. With "v" the text before the start position and after the end position will not be highlighted. However, all uppercase and non-alpha operators, except "~" and "U", will work on whole lines anyway. See the list of operators below. *visual-block* With CTRL-V (blockwise Visual mode) the highlighted text will be a rectangle between start position and the cursor. However, some operators work on whole lines anyway (see the list below). The change and substitute operators will delete the highlighted text and then start insertion at the top left position. ============================================================================== 2. Starting and stopping Visual mode *visual-start* *v* *charwise-visual* [count]v Start Visual mode per character. With [count] select the same number of characters or lines as used for the last Visual operation, but at the current cursor position, multiplied by [count]. When the previous Visual operation was on a block both the width and height of the block are multiplied by [count]. When there was no previous Visual operation [count] characters are selected. This is like moving the cursor right N * [count] characters. One less when 'selection' is not "exclusive". *V* *linewise-visual* [count]V Start Visual mode linewise. With [count] select the same number of lines as used for the last Visual operation, but at the current cursor position, multiplied by [count]. When there was no previous Visual operation [count] lines are selected. *CTRL-V* *blockwise-visual* [count]CTRL-V Start Visual mode blockwise. If you use <Esc>, click the left mouse button or use any command that does a jump to another buffer while in Visual mode, the highlighting stops and no text is affected. Also when you hit "v" in charwise Visual mode, "CTRL-V" in blockwise Visual mode or "V" in linewise Visual mode. If you hit CTRL-Z the highlighting stops and the editor is suspended or a new shell is started |CTRL-Z|. new mode after typing: *v_v* *v_CTRL-V* *v_V* old mode "v" "CTRL-V" "V" ~ Normal Visual blockwise Visual linewise Visual Visual Normal blockwise Visual linewise Visual blockwise Visual Visual Normal linewise Visual linewise Visual Visual blockwise Visual Normal *gv* *v_gv* *reselect-Visual* gv Start Visual mode with the same area as the previous area and the same mode. In Visual mode the current and the previous Visual area are exchanged. After using "p" or "P" in Visual mode the text that was put will be selected. *gn* *v_gn* gn Search forward for the

This section of the Vim reference manual explains Visual mode, a feature that allows users to select a block of text for an operator. It details the three parts of using Visual mode: marking the start of the text, moving to the end, and applying an operator. The section also describes how to start and stop Visual mode using 'v', 'V', and 'CTRL-V' for character-wise, line-wise, and block-wise selection, respectively. It further explains how to reselect the previous area using 'gv' and search forward using 'gn'.