Resources

Learning Vim is a journey without a finish line -- there's always a new motion to internalize, a plugin to discover, or a workflow to refine. The good news is that you don't have to walk that path alone. The Vim and Neovim communities are welcoming, generous with their knowledge, and have produced an incredible wealth of books, videos, and tools. Here are the resources that we've found most valuable.

What you'll learn in this chapter:

• Discover the most valuable books, videos, and interactive tools for deepening your Vim and Neovim skills

• Find active communities where you can ask questions and share knowledge

• Choose a starter configuration that matches your experience level

• Identify CLI tools that complement and enhance your Neovim workflow

Books

Practical Vim : By Drew Neil. The book on Vim — teaches you to think in Vim's language. Essential reading.

Modern Vim : Also by Drew Neil. Covers Neovim-specific features and modern workflows.

Learn Vimscript the Hard Way : By Steve Losh. A free online book for learning Vimscript from scratch. A great companion to this book's scripting chapter (see Vimscript & Lua Scripting).

Mastering Vim Quickly : By Jovica Ilic. Practical tips for becoming productive quickly.

Video Resources

ThePrimeagen : Popular YouTuber known for Vim/Neovim content. His "Vim As Your Editor" series is excellent for beginners.

TJ DeVries : Neovim core contributor. Deep dives into Neovim features, Telescope (see Telescope), and Lua (see Neovim and Lua).

Vimcasts : By Drew Neil. 76 free screencasts and 52 articles about Vim. Also has an amazing presentation on Vimeo: "Vim - precision editing at the speed of thought".

Derek Wyatt : Classic Vim tutorial videos on Vimeo.

Neovim Conf : Annual Neovim conference with talks from core developers and plugin authors.

Interactive Learning

VimGolf : Solve editing challenges with the fewest keystrokes possible. Addictive and educational.

Vim Adventures : An online game that teaches Vim navigation through a puzzle game.

Open Vim : Interactive Vim tutorial in the browser.

:Tutor : Vim/Neovim's built-in tutorial. Run :Tutor in Neovim to start. Covers the basics discussed in (see Modes, Navigation & Basics).

Community

r/neovim : The Neovim subreddit. Active community discussing plugins, configs, and workflows.

r/vim : The Vim subreddit. Tips, help, and discussion.

vi.stackexchange.com : Q&A community for Vim and Neovim. High-quality answers.

Neovim Discourse : Official Neovim discussion forum.

Neovim Matrix/IRC : Real-time chat with the Neovim community.

Starter Configurations

If you want a pre-configured Neovim setup to learn from:

kickstart.nvim : A single-file Neovim config (~500 lines) with comments explaining everything. Best for learning. Fork it and make it your own. Covers concepts from (see Configuring Vim & Neovim) and (see Plugin Management).

LazyVim : A full-featured Neovim distribution by the creator of lazy.nvim. Ready to use out of the box with sensible defaults.

AstroNvim : An aesthetic and feature-rich Neovim config.

NvChad : Beautiful, fast Neovim config with a focus on UI.

Tip: Start with kickstart.nvim. It teaches you what each line does, so you truly understand your config. Distributions like LazyVim are great for productivity but can feel like a "black box" at first.

Essential Websites

Neovim documentation : Official documentation. Also accessible via :help inside Neovim.

Vim Tips Wiki : A massive wiki with thousands of Vim tips and tricks.

Vim Awesome : Search and discover Vim plugins.

dotfyle.com : Discover Neovim plugins and configurations. Browse other users' setups.

You Don't Grok Vi : A famous Stack Overflow answer explaining Vim's philosophy. Essential reading.

Vim Registers: The Basics and Beyond : An excellent article about Vim registers. Complements this book's coverage in (see Registers).

Vim Tricks : Solutions and tips to improve your speed in the editor.

Vim Genius : Interactive tutorials that quiz you on Vim commands.

Coming Home to Vim : A classic blog post by Steve Losh on why and how to return to Vim.

Scripting the Vim Editor - IBM Developer : Comprehensive 5-part series on Vimscript: variables, functions, lists, dictionaries, and event-driven scripting.

CLI Tools That Complement Neovim

Tool	Description
ripgrep (rg)	Fast file content search (used by Telescope)
fd	Fast file finder (used by Telescope)
lazygit	Terminal UI for Git
zoxide	Smart directory jumper
fzf	General-purpose fuzzy finder
bat	cat with syntax highlighting
delta	Better git diff viewer
tmux	Terminal multiplexer

Summary

The Vim and Neovim ecosystem is rich with high-quality learning materials, active communities, and complementary tools. Whether you prefer books, video tutorials, or hands-on challenges like VimGolf, there is a resource that fits your learning style. The community itself -- across Reddit, Stack Exchange, and real-time chat -- is one of the most generous in the open-source world.

Key takeaways:

• Practical Vim by Drew Neil and the built-in :Tutor are the best starting points for learning to think in Vim's language.

• Interactive platforms like VimGolf and Vim Adventures make deliberate practice engaging and measurable.

• kickstart.nvim is the recommended starting configuration because it teaches you what every line does, rather than hiding complexity behind abstractions.

• CLI tools like ripgrep, fd, lazygit, and fzf are natural companions that extend Neovim's capabilities beyond the editor itself.

Next Steps

You have reached the end of this book, but your Vim journey is just beginning. Here are recommendations for continued growth:

1. Practice deliberately with VimGolf. Pick one challenge per week at vimgolf.com and try to solve it before looking at others' solutions. This builds the muscle memory for motions (see Modes, Navigation & Basics), text objects (see Text Objects), and macros (see Macros) that separates fluent users from beginners.

2. Build your own configuration from scratch. If you started with a distribution like LazyVim, set aside a weekend to build a fresh configuration using only kickstart.nvim as a reference. Understanding every line of your config will make you dramatically faster at diagnosing problems and adding new features (see Configuring Vim & Neovim).

3. Write a plugin. Choose a small annoyance in your daily workflow and write a Lua plugin to fix it. Even a 20-line plugin teaches you more about Neovim's API than hours of reading documentation (see Vimscript & Lua Scripting).

4. Engage with the community. Subscribe to r/neovim, follow Neovim contributors on YouTube, and attend Neovim Conf talks. Seeing how others use and extend their editors will inspire you to keep refining your own workflow (see Advanced Patterns & Workflows).