Learning Vim commands

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To undo recent changes, use the undo command:

u: undo last change (can be repeated to undo preceding commands)
Ctrl-R: Redo changes which were undone (undo the undos). Compare to '.' to repeat a previous change, at the current cursor position. Ctrl-R will redo a previously undone change, wherever the change occurred.
A related command is:

U: return the last line which was modified to its original state (reverse all changes in last modified line)
U is not actually a true "undo" command as it does not actually navigate undo history like u and CTRL-R. This means that (somewhat confusingly) U is itself undo-able with u; it creates a new change to reverse previous changes.

U is seldom useful in practice, but is often accidentally pressed instead of u, so it is good to know about.

Vim commands

Cut and paste:

  Position the cursor where you want to begin cutting.
  Press v to select characters (or uppercase V to select whole lines).
  Move the cursor to the end of what you want to cut.
  Press d to cut (or y to copy).
  Move to where you would like to paste.
  Press P to paste before the cursor, or p to paste after.
  Copy and paste is performed with the same steps except for step 4 where you would press y instead of d:

d = delete = cut
y = yank = copy