Vim Rectangular Blocks

Editing multiple lines at the same column is common (indentation, commenting). Character/line selection can’t handle this — you need column-based selection.

Block-wise visual mode (<C-v>) selects rectangular columns across multiple lines. This enables simultaneous edits to many lines at once.

Entry: <C-v> from Normal mode (or <C-q> on Windows if clipboard interferes)

Use cases:

• Comment multiple lines:

  1. 0 — go to first column
  2. <C-v> — start block selection
  3. <C-d> — move down (or jjj, %, etc.)
  4. I-- [ESC] — insert comment prefix on each line

• Append to all lines:

  1. <C-v> select blocks
  2. Move to target lines
  3. $ — extend to end of lines
  4. A, type text, ESC

Window commands:

• <C-w><dir> — switch split (dir = h,j,k,l or arrows)
• <C-w>_ — maximize horizontal split
• <C-w>| — maximize vertical split
• <C-w>+ / <C-w-> — resize splits

• Block selection persists during operations
• All selected lines get the same edit
• Case matters: <C-v> is block, V is line, v is character
• Works with :split and :vsplit for window splits

• Windows: <C-q> if <C-v> is clipboard paste
• $ selects to end of longest line, not each line individually
• Block selection combined with A appends at line ends

• Visual Selection — Block selection is a variant
• Macros — Can record block selection operations
• Text Objects — Alternative selection syntax
• Vim Splits — Related window functionality