Traversing text in Insert mode

Question

While in Insert Mode in Vim, is there any way to traverse the text moving some characters forward and backward other than using the arrow keys?

If I

Answer 1

I believe Home and End (and PageUp/PageDn) also work normally while in insert mode, but aside from that, I don't believe there are any other standard keys defined for text traversal.

Answer 2

Many people in the Vim community argue that you should not navigate in Insert mode, that it is not the Vim way. I think this is an incorrect sentiment learned when transitioning from standard editors to Vim.

Vim is most powerful when you use its tools to create atomic, repeatable actions or finds.

It is ok to navigate while in Insert mode if you are fixing a mistake you made in the same Insert session. You should not navigate outside of the range of text you modified.

If you make a mistake while entering text and escape out of Insert mode to fix it you will not be able to repeat the intended action, . will repeat the correction.

Vim does support many Insert mode navigation keys. Obviously there are the arrow keys, Home, and End, but there are also many other shortcuts. See :h ins-special-keys.

Answer 3

While in insert mode, use CtrlO to go to normal mode for just one command:

CTRL-O h  move cursor left 
CTRL-O l  move cursor right
CTRL-O j  move cursor down
CTRL-O k  move cursor up

which is probably the simplest way to do what you want and is easy to remember.

Other very useful control keys in insert mode:

CTRL-W    delete word to the left of cursor
CTRL-O D  delete everything to the right of cursor
CTRL-U    delete everything to the left of cursor
CTRL-H    backspace/delete
CTRL-J    insert newline (easier than reaching for the return key)
CTRL-T    indent current line
CTRL-D    un-indent current line

these will eliminate many wasteful switches back to normal mode.

Answer 4

To have a little better navigation in insert mode, why not map some keys?

imap <C-b> <Left>
imap <C-f> <Right>
imap <C-e> <End>
imap <C-a> <Home>
" <C-a> is used to repeat last entered text. Override it, if its not needed

If you can work around making the Meta key work in your terminal, you can mock emacs mode even better. The navigation in normal-mode is way better, but for shorter movements it helps to stay in insert mode.

For longer jumps, I prefer the following default translation:

<Meta-b>    maps to     <Esc><C-left>

This shifts to normal-mode and goes back a word

Answer 5

Insert mode

Movement

hjkl

Notwithstanding what Pavel Shved said - that it is probably more advisable to get used to Escaping Insert mode - here is an example set of mappings for quick navigation within Insert mode:

" provide hjkl movements in Insert mode via the <Alt> modifier key
inoremap <A-h> <C-o>h
inoremap <A-j> <C-o>j
inoremap <A-k> <C-o>k
inoremap <A-l> <C-o>l

This will make Alt+h in Insert mode go one character left, Alt+j down and so on, analogously to hjkl in Normal mode.

You have to copy that code into your vimrc file to have it loaded every time you start vim (you can open that by typing :new $myvimrc starting in Normal mode).

Any Normal mode movements

Since the Alt modifier key is not mapped (to something important) by default, you can in the same fashion pull other (or all) functionality from Normal mode to Insert mode. E.g.:
Moving to the beginning of the current word with Alt+b:

inoremap <A-b> <C-o>b
inoremap <A-w> <C-o>w

(Other uses of Alt in Insert mode)

It is worth mentioning that there may be better uses for the Alt key than replicating Normal mode behaviour: e.g. here are mappings for copying from an adjacent line the portion from the current column till the end of the line:

" Insert the rest of the line below the cursor.
" Mnemonic: Elevate characters from below line
inoremap <A-e> 
    \<Esc>
    \jl
        \y$
    \hk
        \p
        \a
" Insert the rest of the line above the cursor.
" Mnemonic:  Y depicts a funnel, through which the above line's characters pour onto the current line.
inoremap <A-y> 
    \<Esc>
    \kl
        \y$
    \hj
        \p
        \a

(I used \ line continuation and indentation to increase clarity - the commands are interpreted as if written on a single line.)

Built-in hotkeys for editing

CTRL-H   delete the character  in front of the cursor (same as <Backspace>)
CTRL-W   delete the word       in front of the cursor
CTRL-U   delete all characters in front of the cursor (influenced by the 'backspace' option)

_{(There are no notable built-in hotkeys for movement in Insert mode.)}

Reference: :help insert-index

---

Command-line mode

This set of mappings makes the upper Alt+hjkl movements available in the Command-line:

" provide hjkl movements in Command-line mode via the <Alt> modifier key
cnoremap <A-h> <Left>
cnoremap <A-j> <Down>
cnoremap <A-k> <Up>
cnoremap <A-l> <Right>

Alternatively, these mappings add the movements both to Insert mode and Command-line mode in one go:

" provide hjkl movements in Insert mode and Command-line mode via the <Alt> modifier key
noremap! <A-h> <Left>
noremap! <A-j> <Down>
noremap! <A-k> <Up>
noremap! <A-l> <Right>

The mapping commands for pulling Normal mode commands to Command-line mode look a bit different from the Insert mode mapping commands (because Command-line mode lacks Insert mode's Ctrl+O):

" Normal mode command(s) go… --v <-- here
cnoremap <expr> <A-h> &cedit. 'h' .'<C-c>'
cnoremap <expr> <A-j> &cedit. 'j' .'<C-c>'
cnoremap <expr> <A-k> &cedit. 'k' .'<C-c>'
cnoremap <expr> <A-l> &cedit. 'l' .'<C-c>'

cnoremap <expr> <A-b> &cedit. 'b' .'<C-c>'
cnoremap <expr> <A-w> &cedit. 'w' .'<C-c>'

Built-in hotkeys for movement and editing

CTRL-B       cursor to beginning of command-line
CTRL-E       cursor to end       of command-line

CTRL-F       opens the command-line window (unless a different key is specified in 'cedit')

CTRL-H       delete the character  in front of the cursor (same as <Backspace>)
CTRL-W       delete the word       in front of the cursor
CTRL-U       delete all characters in front of the cursor

CTRL-P       recall previous command-line from history (that matches pattern in front of the cursor)
CTRL-N       recall next     command-line from history (that matches pattern in front of the cursor)
<Up>         recall previous command-line from history (that matches pattern in front of the cursor)
<Down>       recall next     command-line from history (that matches pattern in front of the cursor)
<S-Up>       recall previous command-line from history
<S-Down>     recall next     command-line from history
<PageUp>     recall previous command-line from history
<PageDown>   recall next     command-line from history

<S-Left>     cursor one word left
<C-Left>     cursor one word left
<S-Right>    cursor one word right
<C-Right>    cursor one word right

<LeftMouse>  cursor at mouse click

Reference: :help ex-edit-index

Answer 6

Sorry but vim don't work that way.

You should switch to "normal" mode, navigate and then go back to insert again.