Copy/Paste the block of text in vi/vim

• Mark the location of the first character of the block of text you want to copy by pressing mx
This marks the begining of the text to be copied into a buffer 'x'.
• Move the cursor over the last character of the block of text you want to copy and press (shift)+x
By pressing shift you are moving all the characters from mark to the current position into a buffer.
• To copy (or, in vi terminology, to yank the buffered text) press y'x
This will yank everything from the buffer x. ('tick' character ' is command in vi to read from the named buffer)
• Now move the cursor above the location where you want to paste the yanked text and press p
p (for paste) will insert the copied (yanked) text at the line below the cursor.