how to edit text in multiple columns in vim

I think what you want to do is split windows...

Type :Vexplore to split a window vertically.

Then use Ctrl + W + arrowkey to navigate to another window. :Sexplore will enable you to split the window horizontally.

To evenly space after resizing, you can type Ctrl + W + =

Just press CTRL-W v and the file you are working on will be split into two separate independent columns. Repeat CTRL-W v as many times as you want.

Set scrollbind: set scrollbind to columns that you want to scroll in sync.

For example:

vim afile         # Open a file
^w v              # split it
gg                # go to top
:set scrollbind   # bind this one
^w l              # go to the new split
L                 # go to bottom of this split
zt                # make it the top line
:set scrollbind   # bind with this one

Now, while you move on one column, the other one scrolls so as if the first column overflows the text to the second column.