Tables and Boarders

I don't think you should really use these tips frequently, but they introduce a couple of visual block features that could be broadly useful.

Introducing visual mode

Visual mode is a way to select text in a way that might feel more similar to how you would edit text in a word processor. To enter visual mode, press v in normal mode. You can then move the cursor around and text will be selected. You can then use d to delete the selected text, y to yank it, or c to change it, just like in normal mode.

Exercise: visual-mode-basics:

Enter visual mode to highlight THIS word (vaw) then delete it

Enter visual mode and select from HERE to the end of the line (v$) and yank it then paste the yanked text below this line (p)

Introducing visual line mode

Visual line mode is similar to visual mode, but selects whole lines at a time. That's pretty much it. You can enter visual line mode with V in normal mode.

Exercise: visual-line-mode:

Enter visual line mode and select all 3 lines. Yank the selected lines. Without moving your cursor, paste them once, what happened? Undo and try P instead of p.

Exercise: swap-case:

oH NO! tHE UPPER/LOWER CASE. iT IS COMPLETELY SWAPPED!

Fix the above line by entering visual line mode and selecting the line, then pressing ~ to swap the case of each character in the line.

Introducing visual block mode

Visual block mode is similar to visual mode, but selects a rectangular block of text. You can enter visual block mode with C-v in normal mode. You can then move the cursor around to select text. You can even use o to take control of the opposite corner of the block.

Exercise: visual-block-columns:

Enter visual block mode and highlight the entire grid below.
Next try highlighting just the 2nd column.
Finally try deleting the 3rd column with `x`.

12345
12345
12345
12345

TSV to a text table

Given a tab-separated text file, how do we draw a nice table? To start, we will use data.tsv in this directory and try to make the following table:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME          |  COURSE  |  ITEM         |   COMMENT                |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Troy          |  Main    |  Lasagna      |                          |
Steve         |  Side    |  Greek salad  |   Not vegan!             |
Barbara Anne  |  Drinks  |  Punch        |   A really long comment  |
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the main steps, read entirety before trying!

:r data.tsv         read in the file
:retab              convert tabs to spaces
align columns
capitalize header with VgU
select ends of lines with block visual then add spaces to end of each line (40A<space>)
block replace separator between columns
yypVr-              add in horizontal ruler
Block copy and space to adjust spacing, try using o and O to move corners

Try it yourself on the line below and we will go over a solution.

Boarders

Personally I dislike having decoration in source code as it just wastes disk and screen space. However, I did always wonder how they were made...

80i*<esc>
yy4p
C-v       visual block select interior
r<space>
R<new words>

Try it out here:

Here are the steps for centered entries:

Write out the rows you want
visual-line select and :center
pad to 80 characters 
make top and bottom rows
make column markers

It can be helpful to use :let &colorcolumn=80 to guide your work

Try centering the following 3 lines to replicate the table below

Whole seasons are spent Mastering the form, the style. None calls it easy.

Here's what the centered header could look like:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                           Whole seasons are spent                            |
|                        Mastering the form, the style.                        |
|                             None calls it easy.                              |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------