We’ll show you how to use a more secure encryption method later.Ī password will be associated with the current text file in Vim, but you’ll need to save your changes before the password is actually assigned to the file.

Vim will warn that you’re using a weak encryption method by default. You’ll need to enter this password any time you want to open the file in the future. Type the password you want to use, press Enter, and type it again to confirm.

You’ll be prompted to enter a password, which the text file will be encrypted with. While editing a file, press Esc to ensure you’re in command mode and not insert mode. For example, you can press “i” to enter insert mode and then type text normally. You don’t have to create a file in the current directory.Įdit the file normally. You can also point vi at another path with a command like the below one. If that file doesn’t exist, vim will create a file named “example” in the current directory when you save it: For example, the following command will launch vim and point it at a file named “example” in the current directory. To leave insert mode, press “Esc” and you’ll be back to command mode.įirst, launch vim. You can also press “i” to enter “Insert mode”, where you can type normally and move the cursor around with the arrow keys, as you would in other text editors. By default, you’re in a “command mode” where you can use the keys on your keyboard to perform commands. When you open a text file in vim, there are two modes. If you don’t, you might get hung up on vi’s modal interface. The basic process is relatively simple if you know Just launch a terminal window from Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal and the commands will work the same on macOS as they do on Linux.Ī Beginner's Guide to Editing Text Files With Vi The version of vim included by default with macOS does include encryption support, so you don’t need to install anything else on a Mac. For example, on Ubuntu, you can get the full version of vim that by running the following command:

You may need to install the full version of vim to get this feature on your Linux distribution. If you try to use encryption in such a minimal version of vim, you’ll see a “Sorry, this command isn’t available in this version” message. For example, Ubuntu calls this package “vim-tiny”. Some Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, include a minimal version of vim by default, intended only for basic text editing. Make Sure Your System’s Vim Has Encryption Support

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