Andrii Prokhorenko

Vim Part 6 - Command line mode

May 20, 2026

So far we have worked with two modes: Insert mode and Normal mode.

There are more modes to Vim:

• Visual mode
• Visual line mode
• Visual block mode
• Search mode (We briefly touched that in vertical navigation block)
• Replace mode
• Command line mode

Today we are talking about the latter one.

Disclaimer

I am still learning this, and these posts are my way to solidfy my understanding and knowledge. Command line mode is something I am currently actively learning, and because of that, some information here may not be accurate.

Why we need it

Command line mode allows you to execute Vim and shell commands without leaving your editor.

In the first blog post "Vim Part 1", we entered this mode to run wq command and close Vim.

How to use it

In normal mode, start typing : and you will see a command line appearing at the bottom.

There you can type in different commands like:

• w to save (write);
• q to quit;
• q! to quit without saving;

These are commands that you will be using the most.

TBDL

I am not good at command line. I am still learning. I wanted to post this to save something I already know. Even though it is not much, I will be definitely be updating this blog post in the future.