Visual-Line Mode

The second of Vim's visual modes is called visual-line 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-line mode by pressing V:

Enter Visual-Line Mode
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-LINE
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-LINE
60%
3:20
 

The key observations are:

  1. The selection starts from the upper-most cursor location (the cursor location when the editor entered visual mode), and includes all content from the line that contains the starting cursor.

  2. The selection ends at the lower-most cursor location (the current cursor location), and includes all content from the line that contains the ending cursor,

  3. All lines between the two cursor locations (if present) are included in the selection.