Text states in gvim

If you're using Vim 7+, you can use g- and g+ to go between text states. For a more advanced usage see the :help earlier and :help later.

Some more info on this :

Using g+ and g- is very different than using u and ^r.

Try following:
* Create new file
* (in normal mode) Type iOne - Esc
* Type oTwo - Esc
* Type oThree - Esc
* Type oFour - Esc
* Type oFive - Esc
* Type 2u
* Type oSix - Esc
* Type oSeven - Esc

Now you have an undo tree with 2 branches. Typing u only goes up the last branch. Using g- goes up by time - branch doesn't matter here.

Have a look in :help usr_32.txt for good explanation of using the undo tree.

I got this tip from someone. Thanks to whomever contributed the tip!

The Power of Ctrl+R in gvim

The Control-R mechanism is very useful:-
:h i_CTRL-R

Usually used for inserting the contents of a register 0-9a-z
but can also insert the following special registers etc

'"' the unnamed register, containing the text of the last delete or
yank
'%' the current file name
'#' the alternate file name
'*' the clipboard contents (X11: primary selection)
'+' the clipboard contents
'/' the last search pattern
':' the last command-line
'.' the last inserted text
'-' the last small (less than a line) delete
=5*5 insert 25 into text (mini-calculator)

gvim : search history window

One of original great improvements of VIM over Classic Vi was the ability to reuse/edit/correct commands laboriously typed in, you had only simple line edit commands available to do this, normally perfectly sufficient of course. However you also open a command line window to gain full vim command line editing commands:-

Note these are normal-mode commands!
q:
Creates a small window of your most recent commands

q/
Creates a small window of your most recent searches

hitting "return" will execute whatever line you are editing

to close/leave the command window without executing the current line use :quit

gvim : replace options

:%s/old/new/g	Replace all occurences of “old” by “new” in file
:%s/old/new/gw	Replace all occurences with confirmation
:2,35s/old/new/g	Replace all occurences between lines 2 and 35
:5,$s/old/new/g	Replace all occurences from line 5 to EOF
:%s/^/hello/g	Replace the begining of each line by “hello”
:%s/$/Harry/g	Replace the end of each line by “Harry”
:%s/onward/forward/gi	Replace “onward” by “forward” , case unsensitive
:%s/ *$//g	Delete all white spaces
:g/string/d	Delete all lines containing “string”
:v/string/d	Delete all lines containing which didn’t contain “string”
:s/Bill/Steve/	Replace the first occurence of “Bill” by “Steve” in current line
:s/Bill/Steve/g	Replace “Bill” by “Steve” in current line
:%s/Bill/Steve/g	Replace “Bill” by “Steve” in all the file
:%s/\r//g	Delete DOS carriage returns (^M)
:%s/\r/\r/g	Transform DOS carriage returns in returns
:%s#<[^>]\+>##g	Delete HTML tags but keeps text
:%s/^\(.*\)\n\1$/\1/	Delete lines which appears twice
Ctrl+a	Increment number under the cursor
Ctrl+x	Decrement number under cursor
ggVGg?	Change text to Rot13

gvim : search options

/word	Search “word” from top to bottom
?word	Search “word” from bottom to top
/jo[ha]n	Search “john” or “joan”
/\<>	Search “the”, “theatre” or “then”
/the\>	Search “the” or “breathe”
/\<>	Search “the”
/\< ….\>	Search all words of 4 letters
/\/	Search “fred” but not “alfred” or “frederick”
/fred\|joe	Search “fred” or “joe”
/\<\d\d\d\d\>	Search exactly 4 digits
/^\n\{3}	Find 3 empty lines
:bufdo /searchstr/	Search in all open files

gvim : split commands

:e filename	Edit filename in current window
:split filename	Split the window and open filename
ctrl-w up arrow	Puts cursor in top window
ctrl-w ctrl-w	Puts cursor in next window
ctrl-w_	Maximise current window
ctrl-w=	Gives the same size to all windows
10 ctrl-w+	Add 10 lines to current window
:vsplit file	Split window vertically
:sview file	Same as :split in readonly mode
:hide	Close current window
:only	Close all windows, excepted current
:b 2	Open #2 in this window

gvim : tabs

:tabnew	Creates a new tab
gt	Show next tab
:tabfirst	Show first tab
:tablast	Show last tab
:tabm n(position)	Rearrange tabs
:tabdo %s/foo/bar/g	Execute a command in all tabs
:tab ball	Puts all open files in tabs

gvim : exploring commands

:e .	Open integrated file explorer
:Sex	Split window and open integrated file explorer
:browse e	Graphical file explorer
:ls	List buffers
:cd ..	Move to parent directory
:args	List files
:args *.php	Open file list
:grep expression *.sv	Returns a list of .sv files contening expression
gf	Open file name under cursor

gvim : record

I like some of the extra-ordinary features of the gvim.

Starting with the exciting feature : record

To record, at command type 'q' and 'a' ('a' is a record variable)
Then do all the actions and to end the recording press 'q' again.

Now, to recall the recording type @a ('a' is record variable)

This is one of the fantastic feature, used to add semicolon at the end, grep and adding particular word etc....