The last of Vim's visual modes is called visual-block mode, and is demonstrated using the following buffer:
Initial Conditions
I·have·always·believed,·and·I·still·believe,
that·whatever·good·or·bad·fortune·may·come·our·way
we·can·always·give·it·meaning·and
transform·it·into·something·of·value.
NORMAL
40%
2:5
Enter visual-block mode by pressing C-V:
Enter Visual-Block Mode
<C-v>
I·have·always·believed,·and·I·still·believe,
that·whatever·good·or·bad·fortune·may·come·our·way
we·can·always·give·it·meaning·and
transform·it·into·something·of·value.
V-BLOCK
40%
2:5
Finally, move the cursor to another location in the buffer.
Define Current Selection
j3w
I·have·always·believed,·and·I·still·believe,
that·whatever·good·or·bad·fortune·may·come·our·way
we·can·always·give·it·meaning·and
transform·it·into·something·of·value.
V-BLOCK
60%
3:20
The key observations are:
-
The selection starts from the upper-most cursor location (the cursor location when the editor entered visual mode),
-
The selection ends at the lower-most cursor location (the current cursor location),
-
The selected content contains text that exists between the start and end of the selection, but only from columns that are also between the starting and ending cursor locations.