Vimscript: Placing the cursor at a defined position in the buffer

Question

I use vim as a note-taking app by editing a text file and appending notes to it.

I have written a simple function to insert a block of text as follows:

function! AddBlock2(...) range
    let l:hdr = strftime("_%d%b%y_%H-%M-%S")
    let l:b = repeat("-", 20)
    call append(line('$'), ['',l:b,'MEETING TIME : ' . l:hdr,'KEYWORDS : ',l:b, ''])
    execute "normal! G$o"
endfunction

I have mapped it so that it is easy to add a new header at the beginning of a meeting:

" append header to existing buffer
:nnoremap <C-b> :call AddBlock2() <CR>
:inoremap <C-b> :call AddBlock2() <CR>

This has the effect of inserting a block like this at the end of the file:

Currently the code puts the cursor at the end of the block of inserted text because of execute "normal! G$o".

Ideally I would like to cursor to be placed in insert mode after "KEYWORD: " once the text has been inserted

How could I change the code to achieve this ? I have tried replacing the last line with execute "normal! G?:a " but it does not work at all

Answer 1

? needn't be called with :norm. Just use ?: alone.

With your :norm calls there's no need to wrap in :execute since there are no variables being used.

And need to start insert with, well, :startinsert.

That gives...

function! AddBlock2(...) range
    let l:hdr = strftime("_%d%b%y_%H-%M-%S")
    let l:b = repeat("-", 20)
    call append(line('$'), ['',l:b,'MEETING TIME : ' . l:hdr,'KEYWORDS : ',l:b, ''])
    norm! G$o
    ?:
    norm! A<space>
    startinsert
endfunction

Replace the <space> after norm! A with an actual space.

You could alternatively place the cursor with movement commands (e.g. 2k$) or function call(s) but this works just fine.

BTW, your Insert mode mapping won't work. You need to exit Insert mode before you can get to the command line...

:inoremap <c-b> <Esc>:call AddBlock2()<CR>