Type less with abbreviations

You may not know that Vim has a built-in system for expanding text abbreviations into longer strings. This has numerous applications for all types of Vim users. You might be writing prose and often have long, difficult-to-type names. Or if you’re writing code, you might have common snippets you want to insert by typing just a short abbreviation. Here’s how to save time by storing abbreviation mappings in Vim:

Add the mapping to Vim’s abbreviation registry:

:ab short_string Longer Description

Then, whenever you type short_string in insert mode, it will auto-expand to Long Description upon pressing space or enter. Here’s a quick demo:

In the screencast, I first define the new abbreviation. In this case, I want spacex to expand to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. automatically. I define it like so:

:ab spacex Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Then, back in insert mode I simply type spacex and when I press space, it auto expands.

Put these abbreviation definitions in your .vimrc for access automatically.