---
title: "replae <s> with spell and nohl"
date: 2020-01-11T12:57:46+01:00
draft: false
snippet_types: ["vim"]
---

When is the last time you used the **\<s>** key in vim? May not know what it even does?

The vim help pages lists it as substitute:

```
4.2 Substitute						*:substitute*
							*:s* *:su*
:[range]s[ubstitute]/{pattern}/{string}/[flags] [count]
```

In real use I find this visual selection putting or using **\<c>** along with movement keys much
better for substituting text. This leave the s key in normal mode open to be remapped! Here are two
mappings I have so far:

- turn off highlighting with a quick **\<s>\<s>**
```vim script
nnoremap ss :noh<CR>
```

- turn on spell check in a given language
```vim script
nnoremap <leader>se :setlocal spell spelllang=en<CR>
nnoremap <leader>sd :setlocal spell spelllang=de<CR>
```