First time users of vim would use the arrow keys too. Only after you gain some experience do you start thinking with motions. The same holds true for Sublime T

First time users of vim would use the arrow keys too. Only after you gain some experience do you start thinking with motions. The same holds true for Sublime Text. Instead of using the arrow keys, you could do any of the following: Ctrl+H : Replace bar : Find what baz : Replace with Ctrl+Shift+H : Replace first match <esc> : Exit replace mode or Ctrl + I : Incremental Find (finds and selects finding) bar : Find & select text baz : Overwrite selection or Ctrl+<Right>+<Right>+<Right>+<Right> : Reach the word bar Ctrl+d : Select word under cursor baz : Overwrite selection or Ctrl+P : GoTo Anything # : Goto word bar : Goto word 'bar' & select it baz : Overwrite selection I agree that vim's vocabulary is very expressive and very powerfull. I switched to Sublime Text because tweaking vim to meet my needs was just too much effort, even for simple things. Couple this with even more effort to make it play nice with Greek (my native language), and the switch came naturally.