How to surround multiple lines individually with surround.vim

Question

I have these three (or more) lines that I want to surround with li (or any other) tag :

Bananas
Citrus
Orange

I can do it this way: qaysstli>jq then 2@a.

Is there a way to do this faster and without a macro ?

Answer 1

1. Select visually all the lines with <S-v>
2. Type :norm yss<li> then <CR>

Result:

<li>Bananas</li>
<li>Citrus</li>
<li>Orange</li>

Ranges are good too: :.,+2norm yss<li><CR> does the same, as well as :1,3norm yss<li><CR>.

Answer 2

The faster way I can think about it using zencoding-vim. With that plugin you can select visually the text, then you can type ctr+y , and then type:

ul > li*

Adn you'll get the list. It looks like magic and it's very fast too.

Answer 3

Use Visual Block and then surround.

<c-v> to start visual block mode and then move to the last line of the text. Use $ to select to the end of each line then S<li>

All together:

<c-v>2j$S<li>

Answer 4

Not the most efficient way but found it helpful as a newbie, you can use Visual Block twice to add the tag at the beginning and at the end of the word.

1. <c-v> to start the visual block and then use I to insert the first <li>, end with [esc].
2. <c-v> to start the visual block and then use $ to select to the end of the block. Use A and then append <li>, end with [esc].

All together: <c-v>2jI<li>[esc] and <c-v>2j$A<li>[esc]