Using vim's f command over multiple lines

Isn't that what "/" does?

If you're looking for the next "x" then do /x while in command mode.

Then you can hit "n" to advance to the next x, and then the next x, etc.

There are lots of vim cheat sheets out there with all kinds of tips.

There's an example of redefining f to ignore case in the 'eval.txt' help file.

:h eval.txt

(search for "ignore case" a couple times)

We can modify that to do what you want. Add the following function to your ~/.vimrc file or better yet, create a plugin file: ~/.vim/plugin/find-char.vim (create the directories if you do not already have them).

function FindChar()
    let c = nr2char( getchar() )
    let match = search('\V' . c)
endfunction

Then, in your ~/.vimrc add the following line:

nmap f :call FindChar()<CR>

Now, f should work like you want it to.

BTW, this was tested with Vim 7.2 on Ubuntu 10.04.

Christian Brabandt's ft_improved plugin extends the built-in f / t commands to search in following lines, too.