Home/ Questions/Q 8654807
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-12T14:52:36+00:00

I have an interview transcript with continuous text. At times, the names of the

  • 0

I have an interview transcript with continuous text. At times, the names of the person speaking are written (Aron:, Kalle:, Tomas: etc.). I want to insert a line break before every name that is followed by a colon (:) (names, which I specify).

How can I script this in VIM so that when I run the command, it goes through the entire text file and insert those extra linebreaks?

In other words, I want to turn this:

Aron: bla, bla, bla
Kalle: yes, yes, yes

into:

Aron: bla, bla, bla

Kalle: yes, yes, yes
Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Try this simple command:

    :g/^/pu_
    • g/^/ will match every line, then exec command below.
    • pu _ will put the text from register _(the black hole register) after current matched line.

    You can also use the :substitute command:

    :%s/$/\r

    Yet another one which uses external sed:

    :%!sed G

    All commands have the same length. Pick one you like.

    • 0