Goal: Select multiple words, one at a time, then replace them all.

[![visual studio feature select and replace][1]][1]

I'm new to Vim, I come from Visual Studio. I would like to achieve one important feature that helped me a lot in my productivity: Select multiple words, one at a time, and then replace them all.

I know there is a Vim way of selecting and replacing using:

```
:% s/target-word/replacement/gc
```

But as you can see it's still a lot to write compared to its counterpart in VS.Code. Could someone help me with a vim script or a plugin to achieve this in the most similar way?

- imagine that I already have selected the word with `viw`, for example.
- then I want to have a single command to select the next match.
- then start writing and see those changes written in real-time or after hitting Esc.

Thanks for any guidance on this.

**[EDIT]**

As Martin Tournoij explains it, I can use the star `*` operator and then the `%s//replacement`, this is great.

[![enter image description here][2]][2]

Now... how can I map this to a `nmap`, `nnremap` or `inoremap` (that I yat don't fully understand...)
Let's say I already make a selection with `*` then... what do I do to avoid typing `:%s//replacement` just a lead key and then the replacement, is it possible?

**[Edit] Accepted answer**

Thank D. Ben Knoble, you provided to me the more convenient and practical answer. As the main goal is to change a word locally, the combination `*gn` Is perfect. 

As I'm changing the also the current word and `*` jumps me to the next match, what I add to go back to that word is `Ctrl + N`.

`* Ctrl + N cgn` then `.`

[![enter image description here][3]][3]

Thanks to this amazing community!
Cheers.


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/hMq4F.gif
  [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/wLDKK.gif
  [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/U87GJ.gif