Occasionally there is a need to edit in column mode to apply a certain string to f.e. 100 lines at one time. In the past I have been using Crimson Editor, later Emerald Editor while working with Windows. While working with OSX I have been using TextMate for that purpose.

Now while using Linux my editor of choice is ViM .To use ViM(Vi) column mode edit use following commands.

• Ctrl + v column mode edit command
• Select the columns, rows (h,j,k,l)
• Shift + i to go into insert mode in column mode
• Type in desired text. At the time of typing only ONE row is changed, showed
• Press the Esc key to apply the changes to the selected column

Et voila!