These are some of the useful settings and functions I use when working with vim.

vimrc settings

if has("gui_running")

else
  set background=dark
endif

Make sure Vim uses the light colorscheme when in gvim, but the dark one when in console mode.

set colorcolumn=+1: highlight the column after the maximum text width

set ignorecase
set smartcase

Only do case-sensitive searches if the search text has uppercase characters.

set laststatus=2
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.md setlocal tw=80 nocindent statusline=%<%f\ %h%m%r[%{wordcount().words}\ words]%=%-14.(%l,%c%V%)\ %P

Whenever I’m editing a Markdown document, set the status line to display the number of words in the document and set line width at 80 characters.

commands

• gqap: format the current paragraph according to word-wrapping rules

• "+y: copy text specifically into the system’s clipboard

• magg=G`a: indent the entire file, but return to the place where you started