vi - How do I exit the Vim editor?

Question

I'm stuck and cannot escape. It says:

"type :quit<Enter> to quit VIM"

But when I type that it simply appears in the object body.

Answer 1

Hit the Esc key to enter "Normal mode". Then you can type : to enter "Command-line mode". A colon (:) will appear at the bottom of the screen and you can type in one of the following commands. To execute a command, press the Enter key.

• :q to quit (short for :quit)
• :q! to quit without saving (short for :quit!)
• :wq to write and quit
• :wq! to write and quit even if file has only read permission (if file does not have write permission: force write)
• :x to write and quit (similar to :wq, but only write if there are changes)
• :exit to write and exit (same as :x)
• :qa to quit all (short for :quitall)
• :cq to quit without saving and make Vim return non-zero error (i.e. exit with error)

You can also exit Vim directly from "Normal mode" by typing ZZ to save and quit (same as :x) or ZQ to just quit (same as :q!). (Note that case is important here. ZZ and zz do not mean the same thing.)

Vim has extensive help - that you can access with the :help command - where you can find answers to all your questions and a tutorial for beginners.