I have the same trouble when I use unconfigured vim. It gets rather better when I give vim stronger visual clues as to which mode it is in, which I seem to rem

I have the same trouble when I use unconfigured vim. It gets rather better when I give vim stronger visual clues as to which mode it is in, which I seem to remember for no more that 2 seconds otherwise. The following scripts give the general idea of how to do this: 1. http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Change_statusline_color_to_show_insert_or_normal_mode http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Change_statusline_color_to_show_in... 2. http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3165 http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3165 Also, I gather than the Gnome Vim's colorscheme support allows you to affect the appearance of the whole window, not just the status line or whatever. I don't use it, though.