How can I have (g)vim start in insert mode by default (when opening a .txt file)?

Question

I often just need to create a notes.txt file in Windows to just quickly paste some text from some other place, save it from the gvim UI, and close the file. I want to be able to perform this operation quickly without having to press i on the keyboard, and gvim is my editor of choice on Windows and all files with the .txt extension have been associated with gvim.

So, I want to configure my _Vimrc so that when a .txt file is opened, insert mode is enabled by default. For other files, if at all possible, starting in command mode is preferable as I often start a gvim session by jumping to a line number in command mode.

If the above is not possible, then how can I simply configure gvim to start in insert mode?

Thanks.

Sort of a dupe, but the other qu. is more about *nix than Windows — roblogic, Feb 26 '15 at 03:24

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 14 '15 at 18:34

3

This should do it:

autocmd BufRead *.txt startinsert

answered Feb 14 '15 at 18:34

Ben

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Documentation for :startinsert: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/insert.html#:startinsert – Evgeni Sergeev Mar 01 '16 at 06:08

How can I have (g)vim start in insert mode by default (when opening a .txt file)?

1 Answers1