I'm guessing you want :%s/^pick/s/ to replace "pick" at the start of line with "s" on all lines? If you execute it once in vim you can recall it later with ju

I'm guessing you want :%s/^pick/s/ to replace "pick" at the start of line with "s" on all lines? If you execute it once in vim you can recall it later with just typing :%↑ and confirm with Enter. As for the top of the file: gg I use the mnemonic "go go line" (as in Inspector Gadget's "go go gadget") and since you can prefix it with a line number (e.g. 4gg to go to line number 4), leaving it out gets me as close to line number nothing^Wzero as possible, i.e. line 1. HTH :) PS: the % says "on all lines" your trailing "/g" would make it match&replace "pick" multiple times on the (current, since % is missing) line PPS: As an aside, I use "vim somefile +N" all the time to open somefile at line number N; especially when there's an error message in the form "error at somefile:N" by typing vim, then double-click-middle-click copy&pasting "somefile:N", Ctrl-E to jump to the end and replacing ":" with " +". I really should write a shell function for that... EDIT: formatting