How to Input Special Characters in Vim (Foreign Letters / Symbols / Emojis) [Video]

FYI - Skip to content...

The main content of this post is a video (found lower down...)
If you would like to skip the preamble in the video and get straight to the topic then jump to this timestamp: 01:16

Vim Tips Series

I am creating a (hopefully fun/energetic) YouTube series about Vim Tips. In particular small easily consumable Tips & Tricks in Vim to help you become a better Vim-er. This series is for Beginners & Intermediate Vim users alike and will hopefully expose/highlight some of Vim's massive (maybe even lesser known) functionality with explanations & examples.

The main aim of this series is to help people learn about the POWER that Vim gives you, which more often than not is somewhat difficult to find on your own, so this series is about pointing out that (& more) functionality...

Check out all the currently released episodes here:
Vim Tips Playlist

This Episode

This episode shows you how to input special characters into Vim. Those are the characters that you can't normally type out-right on a traditional keyboard, for example foreign language letters, mathematical symbols, weird & wonderful shapes and even Emojis/Emoticons...

In this video I explain the concept of Character encoding (where in a computer each letter/character has a numerical value associated with it) and how you can actually use those values to enter in any character you like. So I start with a boring letter 'e' to showcase the concept and then move onto the characters you can usually type.

I then show you the incredibly powerful functionality that already exists within vim to help you input a vast array of special characters. This functionality is called Digraphs and removes the need for you to remember strange unicode numbers and to even copy and paste characters from the internet.

I hope you enjoy this video, please let me know if you do and if you would want more of it...

The Video

Onwards

If you have ANY feedback or questions at all please let me know in the comments below or reach out to me on twitter:

My Twitter (@ben_kadel)

Or if you want to see more videos from my channel then here you go:

My Youtube Channel

Thanks for reading and possibly watching!