My very short vi cheat sheet

Insert Mode - Inserting/Appending text

• a - append after the cursor
• Esc - exit insert mode

Cut and Paste

• Delete
• (Acutally, I can use delete key and backspace in Insert Mode)
• Copy
• yy - yank (copy) a line
• yw - yank word
• y$ - yank to end of line
• Paste
• p - put (paste) the clipboard after cursor
• P - put (paste) before cursor
• Cut
• dd - delete (cut) a line
• dw - delete (cut) the current word
• x - delete (cut) current character

Exiting

• :w - write (save) the file, but don't exit
• :wq - write (save) and quit
• :q - quit (fails if anything has changed)
• :q! - quit and throw away changes

Search/Replace

• /pattern - search for pattern
• ?pattern - search backward for pattern
• n - repeat search in same direction
• N - repeat search in opposite direction
• :%s/old/new/g - replace all old with new throughout file
• :%s/old/new/gc - replace all old with new throughout file with confirmations

Reference: http://www.worldtimzone.com/res/vi.html