Repeat a line command?

Question

I'm new to the more advanced aspects of vi/vim/viemu

I commonly need to select a bit of text and indent/undent, among other things. Right now I have two ways to do this:

• select the text and use <<
• use a multi-line command such as :198,205<<

Now, sometimes I need to do this multiple times. When using the dot command though(.) it will never repeat my last command unless I was previously in insert mode. Instead, it will just delete the current line.

Is there a quick and easy way of doing this?

Answer 1

Use V to visually select the lines and then press the keys 5 then > to indent the lines 5 tabs to the right (or just < to indent once to the left).

Answer 2

If you want to auto-indent the entire file use gg=G. gg move to the beginning of the file, = auto-indent function, G to the end of the file. This will indent code based on block nesting levels.

For what it's worth, >G will indent all the lines one tab to the right from the cursor position to the end of file.

You can also auto-indent text marked with the m bookmark function, i.e. position cursor at start, ma, position the cursor at end, ='a