[tcoff91]

Vim does have the ability to insert text on multiple lines.

in visual block mode (CTRL-V or CTRL-Q), select a column of lines you would like to edit. Then, you can enter insert mode or paste and it will do the same thing on all the lines selected.

so to edit 4 lines at once it would be (CTRL-Q)3jI and then type in whatever i want and when I exit back to normal mode the text will appear on all 4 lines.