Here are some general Vim settings that you can put in the vimrc file to customize your editor. See :h options.txt for complete reference.

  • set history=200 increase default history from 50 to 200
    • there are separate history lists for : commands, search patterns, etc
  • set nobackup disable backup files
  • set noswapfile disable swap files
  • colorscheme murphy a dark theme
    • you can use :colorscheme followed by a space and then press Tab or Ctrl+d to get a list of the available color schemes
  • set showcmd show partial Normal mode command on Command-line and character/line/block-selection for Visual mode
  • set wildmode=longest,list,full use Bash-like tab completion
    • first tab will complete as much as possible
    • second tab will provide a list
    • third and subsequent tabs will cycle through the completion options

info :h 'history' will give you the documentation for the given option (note the use of single quotes).

info You can use these settings from the Command-line mode as well, but will be active for the current Vim session only. Settings specified in the vimrc file will be loaded automatically at startup.

Video demo:


info See also my Vim Reference Guide and curated list of resources for Vim.