vim – edit, save and exit, it is too simple!

Do not blame admins (or in general users, too) of using nano (pico) it is away too simple for simple tasks, which are probably the most cases under console.

• • Save a file – press Esc key, then press and hold SHIFT and then press colons “:”, the bottom line of your screen will change and will start with colons “:”, then type the key “w” and then hit Enter key, so you’ve just saved the opened file.
    • 1. press Esc
      2. press and hold SHIFT
      3. press the key with colons “:“
      4. type “w“
      5. hit Enter key
  • Save a file and quit – press Esc key, then press and hold SHIFT and then press colons “:”, the bottom line of your screen will change and will start with colons “:”, then type the key “x” and then hit Enter key, so you’ve just saved the opened file.
    • 1. press Esc
      2. press and hold SHIFT
      3. press the key with colons “:“
      4. type “x“
      5. hit Enter key
  • Save all opened files – press Esc key, then press and hold SHIFT and then press colons “:”, the bottom line of your screen will change and will start with colons “:”, then type the key “wa” and then hit Enter key, so you’ve just saved the opened file.
    • 1. press Esc
      2. press and hold SHIFT
      3. press the key with colons “:“
      4. type “wa“
      5. hit Enter key
  • Quit without saving, just quit the vim – press Esc key, then press and hold SHIFT and then press colons “:”, the bottom line of your screen will change and will start with colons “:”, then type the key “q!” and then hit Enter key
    • 1. press Esc
      2. press and hold SHIFT
      3. press the key with colons “:“
      4. type “q!“
      5. hit Enter key
• Enable auto save with two ESC keys – create or edit file
  

  ~/.vimrc

  Add the following line:

  map <Esc><Esc> :w<CR>
  

* The Esc can be avoided

The escape key can be replaced with pressing and holding CTRL and pressing “[” (left square bracket) = “CTRL+[” and if your “[” is hard typing, you can try CTRL plus “c” = “CTRL+c”, all this is needed to be sure you are not in vim’s insert mode. Avoiding Esc – escape button could be useful under not qwerty keyboards of the mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and so on.