Vimtutor: what it teaches, how to start it, and what comes next

Vimtutor is a plain text file and a small launcher. The launcher copies the tutorial into a temporary file and opens it in Vim, so you can delete, change and break whatever you like: the original is untouched, and running vimtutor again gives you a fresh copy.

That is the whole idea, and it is a good one. You read an instruction, move the cursor to the exercise line under it, and do the edit right there. Nothing is simulated: it is the real editor you will use afterwards, with the real keys. Vim's own user manual describes it as a 30-minute tutorial that teaches the most basic Vim functionality hands-on.

• macOS and Linux: open a terminal and type vimtutor. If Vim is installed, the tutorial opens straight away. If the command is missing, install your system's full vim package; some systems ship only a minimal vi.
• Windows: the Vim installer adds it. Vim's manual says you can find it in the Vim entry of the Start menu ("Program/Vim 9.1"), or run vimtutor.bat from the installation folder.
• Neovim: start nvim and run :Tutor. With no argument it opens vim-01-beginner, which the Neovim docs describe as the equivalent of vimtutor. Press Tab after :Tutor to list the other tutorials it can find.
• Chapter two: vimtutor -c 2 in Vim. In Neovim, follow the link at the end of chapter one.

To leave at any point, press Esc and type :q! then ↵. Lesson 1.1.2 teaches exactly that, so you will only be stuck for a minute.

Chapter one of Vim's tutor (version 1.7) has seven lessons, each with a short summary at the end:

• Lesson 1.1: moving the cursor with h j k l, exiting Vim, deleting with x, inserting with i, appending with A, and editing a file.
• Lesson 1.2: deletion commands (dw, d$, dd), how operators and motions combine, counts for motions and for deletes, and undo with u and Ctrl-r.
• Lesson 1.3: put with p, replace with r, the change operator c and more changes with it, such as ce.
• Lesson 1.4: cursor location and file status with Ctrl-g, searching with /, matching parentheses with %, and the substitute command :s/old/new/g.
• Lesson 1.5: running an external command with :!, writing files, writing a selection, and reading a file in with :r.
• Lesson 1.6: opening lines with o and O, appending with a, Replace mode with R, copy and paste with y and p, and setting options such as :set ic.
• Lesson 1.7: getting help with :help, creating a startup file (a vimrc), and command-line completion.

Chapter two is shorter, about 8 to 10 minutes: text objects, the named registers, the expression register, the numbered registers, the special registers, and marks. It ends there.

Neovim's :Tutor follows the same seven lessons with slightly different numbering, swaps the vimrc lesson for one on configuring Nvim, and adds a lesson 0 that explains its check marks.

The tutorial says 30 minutes for chapter one, and that assumes you do every exercise as you go. Stopping to experiment takes longer and is time well spent. Chapter two says 8 to 10 minutes.

The catch is that finishing it is not the same as knowing it. Thirty minutes is enough to understand dw and cw, not to reach for them without thinking. Running it a second time a day or two later costs another half hour and is the cheapest way to make the basics stick.

Vimtutor is a first lesson, not a course. Things you will meet in every day of real editing that it skips or only touches:

• The dot command. . repeats your last change, and most of Vim's speed comes from setting up changes so that . can repeat them. Vimtutor never mentions it.
• Text objects in depth. Chapter two introduces them, but ci", da(, cit and the rest take practice before they become reflexes.
• Word motions and finding within a line. f, t, ; and , are among the most useful keys in Vim and get no lesson.
• Visual mode. It appears only as a way to select text to write to a file. Visual block mode (Ctrl-v) is absent.
• Macros. Recording with q and replaying with @ is not covered at all.
• Search as a motion, * and #, gn, the global command :g, ranges, buffers, windows and splits.

None of this is a criticism: a 30-minute tutorial has to stop somewhere. It is just worth knowing that "I did vimtutor" means you have the alphabet, not the grammar.

• Use Vim for one real task a day, even a small one: a commit message, a config file, a note. Keep the Vim cheat sheet open next to it.
• Learn the dot command next. Change one word with cw, move with n, press .. It changes how you think about edits. The dot command lesson is free and takes a few minutes.
• Then text objects (ciw, ci", dap): they let you edit things by what they are rather than by counting characters.
• Read on when you are ready for depth: the Vim user manual (:help user-manual) picks up where vimtutor leaves off, and a book like "Practical Vim" is the classic next step.

For a longer plan, with every option ranked by what it is best for, see the best way to learn Vim.

Vimtutor's main weakness is that it never tells you whether you got an exercise right (Neovim's version does, with its check marks). Several browser courses fill that gap, each with its own trade-offs:

• VimNinja (this site): 82 lessons in 14 tracks on its own Vim engine, checked against Neovim. The first 13 lessons (Foundations and The Vim Way) are free without sign-up. It covers the dot command, text objects, registers and macros that vimtutor leaves out; the rest of the course is a one-time $49.
• vim-hero: interactive lessons in the browser, the first 12 free without an account.
• OpenVim: a free, short interactive tutorial and a sandbox.
• Vim Adventures: a game that teaches motions as you play; paid after the opening levels.

All of these run in a simulated editor. Vimtutor runs in Vim itself, which is why it is still worth doing first, whichever you pick next.