How to paste from buffer in ex mode of vim?

I understand that you want to:

1. yank the current line and the two lines below in the current buffer,
2. open an empty buffer in a new horizontal split and
3. paste those three lines in the empty buffer.

Is that correct?

What I don't get is why you would want to do it from Ex mode while it's so easy (and working) in normal mode:

3yy
:new<cr>
p

I think that you are confusing ex mode, accessible with Q and command mode, accessible with :. You probably also confuse the :p[rint] command and the :pu[t] command.

Do the following from normal mode:

:.,+2y|new|put!

It may be helpful to know that you can also directly write those three lines to a file with:

:.,+2w filename

You can use one of the following to copy from the clipboard in Vim:

"+p

"*p

SHIFTINSERT

Which one you use depends on your environment.

If you're using gVim or MacVim, you'll want "+p

If you're using Vim from the command line, you'll want "*p

If you're in insert mode or ex mode (I think) you use SHIFTINSERT

By insert I mean the key over by HOME, PAGE UP, and DELETE

Explanation:

• " means you're going to specify a register
• there are 26 custom registers - 1 for each letter
• there are many other registers (see this)
• + or " refers to the unnamed buffer, which represents the system clipboard
• p is the normal put command

More info on buffers:

If you want, you can store different text in different buffers.

To yank 3 lines to the buffer named x use this:

"x3yy

To paste the contents of the buffer named y above the cursor:

"yP