Insert a newline without entering in insert mode, vim

Question

I want insert newlines in normal mode in vim using Shift-Enter and Ctrl-Enter. I try some solutions and mixing solutions from Vim Wikia - Insert newline without entering insert mode but Shift-Enter and Ctrl-Enter didn't respond:

" put a new line before or after to this line
nnoremap <S-CR> m`o<Esc>``
nnoremap <C-CR> m`O<Esc>``

" reverse J command
nnoremap <C-J> vaW<Esc>Bi<CR><Esc>k:s/\s\+$//<CR>$

Grasshopper

What is your $TERM (if *nix)? – Madsen

echo $TERM -> xterm Why? – Grasshopper

It may be relevant how the keys are interpreted. Do you use screen or tmux aswell? That being said, I tried a couple of the alternatives, and it would only work for map <CR> o<Esc> here. – Madsen

well, I don't use screen or tmux with vim. And yes, map <CR> o<Esc> work. But, how map O<Esc>? . I'm sorry by my bad english – Grasshopper

Answer 1

My alternative is using oo (resp. OO) to insert a new line under (resp. over) the current through this mapping: nmap oo o<Esc>k (resp. nmap OO O<Esc>j)

Rainer

Great answer. Just 'o' works and goes to insert mode too. Thanks – Sherasherar

The thing that was bothering me most with the other answers was the shortcut. This one favors my preferences. – Macaroon

I did nmap <C-S-J> o<Esc>k since Shift+J deletes newline. – Monomania

Another enhancement is to use nmap oo m`o<Esc>`` and nmap OO m`O<Esc>`` to preserve cursor position when opening newlines into different indentation levels, as described in these comments. – Alanalana

You may also want to use a shorter timeout value than the default 1-second to more quickly go into insert mode with plain o and O. I like set timeoutlen=200. You'll just need to press the double oo quick enough, and this shrinks the window to execute other non-blocking time-outable commands sequences too. – Alanalana

Answer 2

Yank an empty line and shift-paste it:

Starting with cursor on empty line:

yy + (shift + p)

"yy" yanks the line, and "shift + p" insert it below, without entering insert mode.

Chan

(shift + y) then p as alternative – Darceydarci

Answer 3

Due to the way that the keyboard input is handled internally, this unfortunately isn't generally possible today. (This particular case should work in GVIM, though.) Some key combinations, like Ctrl + non-alphabetic cannot be mapped, and Ctrl + letter vs. Ctrl + Shift + letter cannot be distinguished. (Unless your terminal sends a distinct termcap code for it, which most don't.) In insert or command-line mode, try typing the key combination. If nothing happens / is inserted, you cannot use that key combination. This also applies to <Tab> / <C-I>, <CR> / <C-M> / <Esc> / <C-[> etc. (Only exception is <BS> / <C-H>.) This is a known pain point, and the subject of various discussions on vim_dev and the #vim IRC channel.

Some people (foremost Paul LeoNerd Evans) want to fix that (even for console Vim in terminals that support this), and have floated various proposals.

But as of today, no patches or volunteers have yet come forward, though many have expressed a desire to have this in a future Vim 8 major release.

Publicness

It's mostly due to historical reasons, but unfortunately quite hard to change. – Publicness

Answer 4

How about this if you just don't want to press ESC

yypd$

Crystalloid

since I have D to delete to the end of line, mine would be yypD – Henden

The downside to this is you lose whatever is in your clipboard (yankboard? not sure what it's called in vi(m)) – Nicolanicolai

yypdd works well in different enviroments. – Trichotomy

@Henden better yet: YpD (below) or YPD (above). Is a good aproach, but the problem is it doesn't take the cursor back to its initial position – Salesin

yankboard is absolutely hilarious, I'm only going to refer to it as that from now on. – Haematinic

@Nicolanicolai it's called a register. – Germain

Answer 5

I use :s/\n/\r\r/g (subsitute the newline with two newlines, which is the same as "o").

Cris

needed for this a chained cabbrev – Canine

Answer 6

This is what I use:

nmap <CR> :a<CR><CR>.<CR>

I tried nmap <CR> o<Esc>, but it made UI glitchy as it was switching to insert mode and back.

Constrictive

Answer 7

You can copy an empty line to a register and use that. I have built the habit of copying a new line to the n register. You can copy a new line to a register, in this case n using: "ny You can paste the new line anywhere without leaving normal mode like: "np

Dasha

Answer 8

If you want to add a newline without the cursor jumping around you can:

(Written in Lua for Neovim, but you could convert it to Vim script.)

vim.keymap.set("n", "<CR>", "mao<esc>0<S-d>`a<cmd>delmarks a<cr>", { desc = "Add new line below" })
vim.keymap.set("n", "<S-CR>", "maO<esc>0<S-d>`a<cmd>delmarks a<cr>", { desc = "Add new line above" })

This uses marks to preserve your line and column position. And deletes any characters that are automatically added when opening a new line (such as comment characters).

1. ma: mark current cursor position.
2. o: open a new line and enter insert mode.
3. <esc>: enter normal mode.
4. 0<S-d>: go to the beginning of the line and empty it.
5. `a: go to the original marked cursor location.
6. <cmd>delmarks a<cr>: delete the mark.

Note that if you want to avoid mapping the carriage return in non-normal windows (e.g. hitting enter in the quickfix list should still take you to the file) you can:

-- Set keymap for normal windows only (e.g. not quickfix)
local normal_window_keymap = function(mode, lhs, rhs, opts)
  local merged_opts = vim.tbl_extend("force", { noremap = true, expr = true }, opts or {})

  vim.keymap.set(mode, lhs, function()
    local buftype = vim.fn.win_gettype()
    return buftype == "" and rhs or lhs
  end, merged_opts)
end

-- Open new line (like o/O) without moving the cursor, without entering insert mode and removing any characters
normal_window_keymap("n", "<CR>", "mao<esc>0<S-d>`a<cmd>delmarks a<cr>", { desc = "Add new line below" })
normal_window_keymap("n", "<S-CR>", "maO<esc>0<S-d>`a<cmd>delmarks a<cr>", { desc = "Add new line above" })

Urban

Am I missing something, going back to the original mark and then deleting the mark? This just puts you back where you started? (I think the point was to be on the next line in normal mode) – Haematinic

Answer 9

You can use a hack to do this.

In edit mode, you can use p to paste the current clipboard. Since o adds a newline, you can use o<ESC>ddp to add a new line below the cursor; from there, p will add a new line until you delete something else.

Hylophagous