Niki Kovacs wrote:
> :map <F2> cw <ESC>
>
> ... except this also deletes the word after the cursor, which is annoying.
>   
    c1l <esc>
thats digit 1, lower case letter L, lower L being the move left 
command.  the 1 is uneeded, but c3l would change 3 characters, etc.
btw, my favorite way of doing what you said would be...
    / <enter>
   c1l 
then n to find the next space, and . to execute the change op.   you 
sure don't want to change spaces that are inside < > commands, so a 
global change and replace is not suitable.