VIM multi-line inserts making me crazy

[Steve Seremeth]

> I can do search and replace in the block like so:
> <C-V>
> Use arrows (or "j") to pick your lines
> :s/^/#/  (which turns into: ":'<,'>s/^/#/")
> <enter>
> 
> But then vim matches the beginning of every line in the file as noted by 
> the blinding yellow highlighted line I get up the side of my terminal.  
> If I wanted to indent using tabs, I would highlight the block and then 
> use ">" -- and I know I can define tab/space settings in my .vimrc, 
> etc..  Is that my best option?  That doesn't cover me when I want to 
> insert comment chars.
> 

I should add that the above search and replace works, but the 
highlighting vim does after the replace requires extra keystrokes to get 
rid of which seems a little silly.  So, while I have something that 
works, I'm looking for the better option -- and thanks for the 
suggestions so far.

Regards,

Steve