Jump between changes

Vim tracks all of the changes you make during an editing session. You can undo and redo these changes with u and Ctrl-r. You can even navigate back and forth through history like a time traveller. But Vim has another useful change tracking feature: the changelist.

Vim keeps track of the position of every undo-able change and makes the last 100 available to you when you call :changes. You can navigate backwards and forwards to these positions in your file without undoing the change by using g; and g,:

• :changes – Show position of last 100 changes
• g; -Jump backwards to the position of the previous change
• g, – Jump forwards to the position of the next change

Here’s a short screencast showing this in practice. Click through the gif if you want to watch a slightly longer version in video form. (👋Thank you for your feedback, everyone. Keep it coming.)

Next steps:

• Read more in the docs with :help changelist.
• Watch the video form on YouTube.
• Tweet out this tip. (Thanks!)