Vim keyboard shortcuts
Moving, editing, searching, and window commands in the Vim text editor.
81 shortcuts Linux and Mac checked September 14, 2026
Print all 81 shortcuts One sheet with every shortcut in this app, ready for the printer or a PDF.
10 actions and 10 key variants match.
- Vim Documented
| Action | Keys | Row actions |
|---|---|---|
| Write changes and close the window Normal mode | Mac ShiftZShiftZ | Source |
| Close the window without writing Normal mode | Mac ShiftZShiftQ | Source |
| Go to the next tab page Normal mode | Mac GT | Source |
| Go to the previous tab page Normal mode | Mac GShiftT | Source |
| Close the current window Normal mode | Mac CtrlWC | Source |
| Make every window the same size Normal mode | Mac CtrlW= | Source |
| Make the window taller Normal mode | Mac CtrlW | Source |
| Make the window shorter Normal mode | Mac CtrlW- | Source |
| Move the window to a new tab page Normal mode | Mac CtrlWShiftT | Source |
| Go to the bottom window Normal mode | Mac CtrlWB | Source |
About Vim and its shortcuts
Vim is the odd one out on this site, and deliberately so. It is modal: most of what other editors do with held combinations, Vim does with single letters typed in normal mode, which is why its commands are case sensitive and why a stray keypress can change what the next one means. Learning the modes matters more than learning any individual key.
Vim is endlessly configurable, so a configured installation may share little with the defaults published here. Commands also differ between terminal Vim, graphical versions and the Vim emulation built into other editors.
Where the Vim keys came from
Read from 1 documentation page published by the makers of Vim. Report a key that is wrong
To see how one action is done in other apps as well as Vim, browse the shortcuts by task. Shortcuts by task