How to save a Vim macro that contains "Escape" key presses?

Question

I use the following Vim macro a lot (it puts the current line inside tags):

I<e>^[A</e>

So I saved it into my .vimrc

let @e='I<e>^[A</e>'

But it does not work.
The ^[ part means Escape but it is not understood as such when using .vimrc

How can I save this macro, or any macro that contains "Escape" ?

Answer 1

Try entering the escape with <Ctrl-v><Esc> in insert mode. See :help i_CTRL-V in vim.

Answer 2

<ESC> is your friend here. Literally type <ESC>, thus :

let @e=I<e><ESC>A</e>

See :help key-notation in Vim for more info.

Update:

Ah... <ESC> works in key mappings (such as :map <Leader>e <ESC>I<e><ESC>A</e> [tested]) but not in macros, which are expanded literally. I have just tried and tested this:

:let @e='^[I<e>^[A</e>'

Where ^[ is just one char formed by hitting CTRL+VESC. Note the escape right at the beginning of the macro.

Answer 3

If you're using Windows behavior for vim where Ctrl+V is the Paste command, the equivalent sequence is Ctrl+Q

Answer 4

Today I discovered a vim plug-in called MARVIM (http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2154).

It is capable of storing macros and executing them later using shortcuts.