Question: I sometimes need to write the whole alphabet `abcd…z` and I hate typing it letter by letter in Vim's insert mode. Does there exist any method to do this more efficiently?

I know about the `ga` command which gives me the ascii code of the character where the cursor is … but don't know anything about how to mix it with my standard solution to type numbers from 1 to (for example) 5000: `a1ESCqqyyp^Aq4998@q` …

Answer: 
First, `set nrformats+=alpha`.

Then:

```
ia<ESC>Y25p<CTRL-V>}g<CTRL-A>k26gJ

```

Which means:

* `ia` insert the initial `a`
* `Y25p` yank the `a` and duplicate it on 25 lines
* `<CTRL-V>` go into visual block mode
* `}` go to the last character at the end of the current paragraph
* `g<CTRL-A>` incrementally increase each alphabetic character (see `help v_g_CTRL-A`)
* `k` go up one line
* `26gJ` join 26 lines without inserting or removing any spaces

Which leads to:

```
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

```
You might try using [Vim abbreviations](http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Using_abbreviations) or a full-fledged snippet manager plugin like [UltiSnips](https://github.com/SirVer/ultisnips). It might take a few moments to set up, and you'd have to type that alphabet one more time to define it as an abbreviation or snippet, but after that you'd be able to insert the alphabet or any other common chunk of text much more easily.