For example, let's say I am happily editing a document in Vim when I accidentally hit gg. I then end up on the first row of the document, and of course I have no idea which was the exact row that I last edited. Is there any way of magically get back to the last edited row before the gg jump?
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1Great question that I'd just never thought to ask. – richo Jan 07 '11 at 06:12
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1Tell me about it. I have used Vim for a few months now and the involuntary gg jumps have been pretty much my only 'bad' experience with Vim. But still I never figured out how to reverse it. Until today that is when I reached the tipping point and spent a few seconds here to get an answer! – c00kiemonster Jan 07 '11 at 06:17
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The shortcut is Ctrl+O (that's the letter 'O') to move back to previous position.
And Ctrl+I to undo that (move back to the position before you pressed Ctrl+O).
These can be used multiple times like the back and forward buttons on your browser to travel to previously "jumped to" positions.
David Tang
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3Superb. You have no idea how much profanity you have saved me from uttering. – c00kiemonster Jan 07 '11 at 06:11
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It evens works when you are jumping on a tag. I used to use Ctrl+T, now I use Ctrl+O/I all the way ! – Xavier T. Jan 07 '11 at 07:07
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2out of curiosity, is there a mnemonic for `Ctrl-O` or is `O` just random? – Jeffrey Jose Jan 16 '11 at 01:25
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To bounce back and forth between your current position and the last place you jumped from, you can use `` (two backticks). See :h `` for a list of this and other shortcuts for jumping around.
Brian Carper
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Backticks instead of Ctrl-because the backticks jump once, since the shortcut ctrol it takes us more deeply to the list of jumps – SergioAraujo Jan 07 '11 at 11:13