> Speaking of which, is there any quicker way to visually select the
> entire file, analogous to ^A in other systems? I have to essentially do
>
> 1GVG<ctl-del>
>
> to stick everything into the scratchpad/clipboard/whatever to dump it
> back into the item from whence it originally came, and that's just a
> pain. Well, not so much a pain as an annoying itch I can't quite reach.
>
> I was thinking something along the lines of
>
> %V
>
> but that obviously won't work. :)
You're so close, it could bite you :) It looks like you're
getting hung up on expecting the solution to need visual mode
rather than just using Ex commands.
I frequently use
:%d
or if I need it to go to the system clipboard,
:%d*
:%d+
I use these (and their "y"anking counterparts, ":%y") so
regularly that they're ingrained muscle-memory.
Because the y/d Ex command takes any range, I also regularly use
:.,$d
to do just from my current line to the EOF, or
:1,.d
to pull from the first line through the current line.
-tim
