How to 'tab backwards' (remove a tab or tab spaces) in Vim?

Vim Problem Overview

Is there a fast way to tab backward without pressing backspace (however many number of spaces for which I've set my tab space)?

Vim Solutions

Solution 1 - Vim

If you're in insert mode:

Ctrl+d - shift left
Ctrl+t - shift right

If you're in normal mode:

Shift+<< - shift current line left
Shift+>> - shift current line right

If you're in visual mode and have 1 or more lines selected:

< - shift selection left
> - shift selection right

If you mean just to move backwards a word in normal mode, you can use b to go backwards a word.

Solution 2 - Vim

set softtabstop=4 expandtab

and you will be able to add up to four spaces when you press tab and remove up to four spaces by pressing <BS> once.

Solution 3 - Vim

tl;dr: set tabstop=4 softtabstop=-1 shiftwidth=0 expandtab

short form: set ts=4 sts=-1 sw=0 et

Explanation

If you set softtabstop (or sts) to -1 it will automatically behave the same as tabstop (ts), which will save you some hassle if you change tabbing a lot. Setting shiftwidth (sw) to 0 should effectively make that the same as tabstop as well.

In Detail

shiftwidth sw

> Number of spaces to use for each step of (auto)indent. Used for cindent, >>, <<, etc.
When zero the tabstop value will be used.

tabstop ts

> Number of spaces that a in the file counts for. Also see > :retab command, and > softtabstop option.

softtabstop sts

> Number of spaces that a Tab counts for while performing editing > operations, like inserting a Tab or using BS. It > feels like Tabs are being inserted, while in fact a mix of spaces > and s are used. This is useful to keep the tabs is setting at its > standard value, while being able to edit like it is set to sts. When > sts is negative, the value of shiftwidth is used. This will save you > some hassle if you change tabstops a lot. When expandtab is not set, the > number of spaces is minimized by using Tabs.

expandtab et

> In Insert mode: Use the appropriate number of spaces to insert a . > Spaces are used in indents with the > and < commands > and when autoindent is on. To insert a real tab when expandtab is on, > use Ctrl-V Tab. See also > :retab

Solution 4 - Vim

in normal mode, << will tab the current line back one, in visual mode, < will make all selected lines tab back once

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Hien	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Vim	Ted Naleid	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Vim	ZyX	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Vim	Orwellophile	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Vim	Matt Briggs	View Answer on Stackoverflow