There are many things vi can do, for instance invoke other commands to process files. That’s pretty cool.
Since installing Okteta isn’t always an option, here’s a small snippet on how to work simple capabilities into vi:
vi -b myfile
[in vi]: %!xxd
[to return to previous view]: %!xxd -r
Pretty easy, pretty handy. Something to keep in mind. Another thing to keep in mind: Always open binary files with the -b switch, otherwise you’ll damage the files when saving them with vi.