If your aim is to indent/de-indent text, try the > and < commands (in normal mode).

I also find that selecting large blocks of text then using the = command to autoindent everything is exceedingly useful.

do you know how to highlight a block then double-indent? I can't make that work. With a block highlighted, I only know how to indent one ts at a time (then re-hightlight, etc.).

You can use the universal "repeat last action" command: just hit . You can hit . as many times as you like and it will keep indenting.

d'oh! I never even thought of that...it works great! Thank you.

Great tip! I will be using this one.