How do I paste non-ASCII characters into vim?

Question

My terminal emulator is configured for Unicode character encoding and my .vimrc contains the line

set encoding=utf-8

but when I try pasting the word "café" into vim, it comes out as "cafÃ©".

I can make an "é" in vim by typing Ctrl-vu followed by the 4-character code point (00e9) but I'd like the ability to paste it in.

I agree with Pekka; details of your system might be relevant here. I can paste things like that fine. — Cascabel, Nov 15 '10 at 15:15
can you paste it into the same terminal without running vim, i.e. does it show up correctly on the (bash) prompt? — catchmeifyoutry, Nov 15 '10 at 15:15
Yes, I can paste characters correctly into my shell (bash) and other unix utilities. I tried deleting my .vimrc to see if that fixes the problem, but it doesn't. My full .vimrc file is online here: https://github.com/sferik/dotfiles/raw/master/vimrc — sferik, Nov 16 '10 at 01:50
System details: MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.6.5 with Xcode 3.2.4. I'm using the built-in Terminal.app program. What else would you like to know? — sferik, Nov 16 '10 at 01:52

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 19 '10 at 16:47

14

The solution was to uncheck the "Escape non-ASCII input" checkbox in the Advanced tab of the Terminal.app settings.

answered Nov 19 '10 at 16:47

sferik

Michael · Answer 2 · 2010-11-15T18:52:13.197

3

Instead of copying the character from the clipboard and pasting it into the text editor, you can add it to the file using vim's digraph feature.

So, with default settings, using your example, you could enter insert mode, then hit Control-k, and type e'. The result will be é.

You can see the list of defined digraphs by running

:digraphs

and general help by running

:help digraph

which also explains how to customize your mappings.

If you are truly set on pasting the characters in, Shift-Insert has always worked for me.

edited Nov 15 '10 at 18:52

answered Nov 15 '10 at 17:35

Michael

Any tips on how to do the equivalent of Shift-Insert on an Apple keyboard (which has no insert key)? – sferik Nov 15 '10 at 19:54
On MacVim, Command-v will paste in insert mode. – Michael Feb 04 '21 at 18:12

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 01 '12 at 15:02

How to type a non ASCII code into vi

You'll have to know what your encoding is to enter the proper codes, I assume you left VI at the default.

In VI, go into insert mode, while in insert mode, press

Ctrl-v 172

That should insert the Logical Not (sideways and inverted L) character defined here:

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 15 '10 at 16:26

1

From where are you trying to paste it? If it is opera, then since opera-10.5* paste is broken in both directions. Before pasting anything you need to use xclip -o|xclip -i workaround (add -sel clip for clipboard).
What command do you use?

answered Nov 15 '10 at 16:26

ZyX

I'm trying to paste text from my pasteboard into vim using Command-V on my Mac. – sferik Nov 16 '10 at 00:55

4 Answers4