VIM questions for you experts

help me tame the beast

[benlieb]

I have a few?s for the VIM experts out there. I have looked for solutions elsewhere, but found none forthcoming:

1) When using cygwin, how do I paste from the windows clipboard into vim? And vise versa
2) How do I copy text from the command line and paste it into VIM?
3) Can I get a command line "while in VIM"? And can I redirect output to the current open file?
4) Is it possible (easy?) to have vim plugins to use in something like dreamweaver, word, or textfields in web pages?
5) ctl+Q takes me to some weird "Ex" mode, what is this?

Thanks for any help.

[jollymcfats]

The first two are kind of Cygwin questions.

If you're using the Windows console window (e.g. you click on the cygwin icon to get a shell), you should find copy and paste by clicking on the window icon or pressing Alt-space.

If you're using rxvt instead (which is so, so much better), selecting with the mouse will copy to the clipboard, and Shift-left-click or middle-click will paste.

The VIM or vi quick-reference card (google) should list how to insert the output of shell commands and the like. (I never remember how, I'm an emacs user myself.)

ex mode makes vim act like

ex

, an older text editor. ex is a decendent of

ed

, the standard text editor.

[paybacksa]

ex mode is where all the fun is. Don't overlook it...