I finally discovered how to enable color syntax in vi:

:syntax enable

Here a couple good reference sites for customing vim and your exrc file.

• my .exrc is someone’s .exrc file which contains lots of useful settings.
• Best of VIM Tips shows some highly useful stuff, most of it I didn’t know was possible!

As I use vi more and more, I am curious to find new ways to customize it so to increase productivity. One option I may like to implement in the future is the use of abbreviations and mappings. Abbreviations are useful during insert mode to auto-complete phrases (e.g. img -> ). Mappings are useful for abbreviating commands, and can be used to wrap a line of code inside html tags or comments.