vim-tricks TILs

• hardwrap in vim with gqip #

  Nov 8, 2025

  Set the textwidth option first, e.g. :set textwidth=77

  Then gq will reformat the lines you want.

  For example,

  • select a block of text -> gq
  • you’re in a paragraph and want to reformat the whole paragraph -> gpip
  • reformat the next 10 lines -> gq10j

  Here’s how I configure this in my .editorconfig to set a textwidth in markdown files:

  [*.md]
  max_line_length = 77

• vim "+norm Go" "+startinsert" $filename #

  Oct 7, 2025

  Use the command

  vim "+norm Go" "+startinsert" $filename

  to automatically move at the end of the file and start editing.

  This is useful when you are invoking vim from another script i.e. when you don’t want this to be the default behaviour but want it in a special case.

  For me this was useful for my journal script which appends the current time at the end of a file and opens the file and (now) automatically moves to the end and goes to insert mode.