In normal text editors, you select the block of text and then press Tab to entab and Shift + Tab to detab.
How do I entab or detab a selected block of text in VIM?
+3
A:
If you select the text and hit ">" it will indent, and "<" will de-indent.
Whether it inserts tabs or spaces depends on your "expandtab" setting. You can edit the number of spaces/tabstop with the "shiftwidth" and "tabstop" settings.
Andy White
2009-11-19 00:58:09
+1 Note: Shift V (Visual mode) to select the text block. Otherwise < and > will work on the current line.
Stefan Mai
2009-11-19 00:59:55
You can also select a block of text and press = to get vim to auto-indent.
MichaelM
2009-11-19 01:05:55
@MichaelM: Thanks for that tip! Post it as an answer please, instead of a comment. I'll upvote you
Andreas Grech
2009-11-19 01:07:53
+2
A:
In addition to Andy White's answer. I would also add the following into vimrc:
vnoremap > >gv
vnoremap < <gv
So you wouldn't need to reselect your code block to indent/dedent further.
Maxim Kim
2009-11-19 07:57:12
A:
You don't even need to select the text. You can indent/unindent the current line by hitting ">>" or "<<".
Alison R.
2009-11-19 14:33:34