Question

When I open a new line (via ‘o’) my cursor jumps to a correctly indented position on the next line. On the other hand, entering insert mode while my cursor is on a blank line doesn’t move my cursor to the correctly indented location.

How do I make vim correctly indent my cursor when entering insert mode (via i) on a blank line?

Answer 1

cc will replace the contents of the current line and enter insert mode at the correct indentation – so on a blank line will do exactly what you’re after.

I believe that the behaviour of i you describe is correct because there are many use cases where you want to insert at that specific location on a blank line, rather than jumping to wherever vim guesses you want to insert.