Vim documentation: help
*help.txt* For Vim version 8.1. Last change: 2017 Oct 28
VIM - main help file
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Move around: Use the cursor keys, or "h" to go left, h l
"j" to go down, "k" to go up, "l" to go right. j
Close this window: Use ":q<Enter>".
Get out of Vim: Use ":qa!<Enter>" (careful, all changes are lost!).
Jump to a subject: Position the cursor on a tag (e.g. |bars|) and hit CTRL-].
With the mouse: ":set mouse=a" to enable the mouse (in xterm or GUI).
Double-click the left mouse button on a tag, e.g. |bars|.
Jump back: Type CTRL-T or CTRL-O. Repeat to go further back.
Get specific help: It is possible to go directly to whatever you want help
on, by giving an argument to the |:help| command.
Prepend something to specify the context: *help-context*
WHAT PREPEND EXAMPLE
Normal mode command :help x
Visual mode command v_ :help v_u
Insert mode command i_ :help i_<Esc>
Command-line command : :help :quit
Command-line editing c_ :help c_<Del>
Vim command argument - :help -r
Option '' :help 'textwidth'
Regular expression / :help /[
See |help-summary| for more contexts and an explanation.
Search for help: Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching
help entries for "word".
Or use ":helpgrep word". |:helpgrep|
Vim stands for Vi IMproved. Most of Vim was made by Bram Moolenaar, but only
through the help of many others. See |credits|.
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*doc-file-list* *Q_ct*
BASIC:
|quickref| Overview of the most common commands you will use
|tutor| 30 minutes training course for beginners
|copying| About copyrights
|iccf| Helping poor children in Uganda
|sponsor| Sponsor Vim development, become a registered Vim user
|www| Vim on the World Wide Web
|bugs| Where to send bug reports
USER MANUAL: These files explain how to accomplish an editing task.
|usr_toc.txt| Table Of Contents
Getting Started
|usr_01.txt| About the manuals
|usr_02.txt| The first steps in Vim
|usr_03.txt| Moving around
|usr_04.txt| Making small changes
|usr_05.txt| Set your settings
|usr_06.txt| Using syntax highlighting
|usr_07.txt| Editing more than one file
|usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
|usr_09.txt| Using the GUI
|usr_10.txt| Making big changes
|usr_11.txt| Recovering from a crash
|usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
Editing Effectively
|usr_20.txt| Typing command-line commands quickly
|usr_21.txt| Go away and come back
|usr_22.txt| Finding the file to edit
|usr_23.txt| Editing other files
|usr_24.txt| Inserting quickly
|usr_25.txt| Editing formatted text
|usr_26.txt| Repeating
|usr_27.txt| Search commands and patterns
|usr_28.txt| Folding
|usr_29.txt| Moving through programs
|usr_30.txt| Editing programs
|usr_31.txt| Exploiting the GUI
|usr_32.txt| The undo tree
Tuning Vim
|usr_40.txt| Make new commands
|usr_41.txt| Write a Vim script
|usr_42.txt| Add new menus
|usr_43.txt| Using filetypes
|usr_44.txt| Your own syntax highlighted
|usr_45.txt| Select your language
Making Vim Run
|usr_90.txt| Installing Vim
REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim. *reference_toc*
General subjects
|intro.txt| general introduction to Vim; notation used in help files
|help.txt| overview and quick reference (this file)
|helphelp.txt| about using the help files
|index.txt| alphabetical index of all commands
|help-tags| all the tags you can jump to (index of tags)
|howto.txt| how to do the most common editing tasks
|tips.txt| various tips on using Vim
|message.txt| (error) messages and explanations
|quotes.txt| remarks from users of Vim
|todo.txt| known problems and desired extensions
|develop.txt| development of Vim
|debug.txt| debugging Vim itself
|uganda.txt| Vim distribution conditions and what to do with your money
Basic editing
|starting.txt| starting Vim, Vim command arguments, initialisation
|editing.txt| editing and writing files
|motion.txt| commands for moving around
|scroll.txt| scrolling the text in the window
|insert.txt| Insert and Replace mode
|change.txt| deleting and replacing text
|indent.txt| automatic indenting for C and other languages
|undo.txt| Undo and Redo
|repeat.txt| repeating commands, Vim scripts and debugging
|visual.txt| using the Visual mode (selecting a text area)
|various.txt| various remaining commands
|recover.txt| recovering from a crash
Advanced editing
|cmdline.txt| Command-line editing
|options.txt| description of all options
|pattern.txt| regexp patterns and search commands
|map.txt| key mapping and abbreviations
|tagsrch.txt| tags and special searches
|quickfix.txt| commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle
|windows.txt| commands for using multiple windows and buffers
|tabpage.txt| commands for using multiple tab pages
|syntax.txt| syntax highlighting
|spell.txt| spell checking
|diff.txt| working with two to four versions of the same file
|autocmd.txt| automatically executing commands on an event
|filetype.txt| settings done specifically for a type of file
|eval.txt| expression evaluation, conditional commands
|channel.txt| Jobs, Channels, inter-process communication
|fold.txt| hide (fold) ranges of lines
Special issues
|print.txt| printing
|remote.txt| using Vim as a server or client
|term.txt| using different terminals and mice
|terminal.txt| Terminal window support
|digraph.txt| list of available digraphs
|mbyte.txt| multi-byte text support
|mlang.txt| non-English language support
|arabic.txt| Arabic language support and editing
|farsi.txt| Farsi (Persian) editing
|hebrew.txt| Hebrew language support and editing
|russian.txt| Russian language support and editing
|ft_ada.txt| Ada (the programming language) support
|ft_rust.txt| Filetype plugin for Rust
|ft_sql.txt| about the SQL filetype plugin
|hangulin.txt| Hangul (Korean) input mode
|rileft.txt| right-to-left editing mode
GUI
|gui.txt| Graphical User Interface (GUI)
|gui_w32.txt| Win32 GUI
|gui_x11.txt| X11 GUI
Interfaces
|if_cscop.txt| using Cscope with Vim
|if_lua.txt| Lua interface
|if_mzsch.txt| MzScheme interface
|if_perl.txt| Perl interface
|if_pyth.txt| Python interface
|if_tcl.txt| Tcl interface
|if_ole.txt| OLE automation interface for Win32
|if_ruby.txt| Ruby interface
|debugger.txt| Interface with a debugger
|workshop.txt| Sun Visual Workshop interface
|netbeans.txt| NetBeans External Editor interface
|sign.txt| debugging signs
Versions
|vi_diff.txt| Main differences between Vim and Vi
|version4.txt| Differences between Vim version 3.0 and 4.x
|version5.txt| Differences between Vim version 4.6 and 5.x
|version6.txt| Differences between Vim version 5.7 and 6.x
|version7.txt| Differences between Vim version 6.4 and 7.x
|version8.txt| Differences between Vim version 7.4 and 8.x
*sys-file-list*
Remarks about specific systems
|os_390.txt| OS/390 Unix
|os_amiga.txt| Amiga
|os_beos.txt| BeOS and BeBox
|os_dos.txt| MS-DOS and MS-Windows NT/95 common items
|os_mac.txt| Macintosh
|os_mint.txt| Atari MiNT
|os_msdos.txt| MS-DOS (plain DOS and DOS box under Windows)
|os_os2.txt| OS/2
|os_qnx.txt| QNX
|os_risc.txt| RISC-OS
|os_unix.txt| Unix
|os_vms.txt| VMS
|os_win32.txt| MS-Windows 95/98/NT
*standard-plugin-list*
Standard plugins
|pi_getscript.txt| Downloading latest version of Vim scripts
|pi_gzip.txt| Reading and writing compressed files
|pi_logipat.txt| Logical operators on patterns
|pi_netrw.txt| Reading and writing files over a network
|pi_paren.txt| Highlight matching parens
|pi_spec.txt| Filetype plugin to work with rpm spec files
|pi_tar.txt| Tar file explorer
|pi_vimball.txt| Create a self-installing Vim script
|pi_zip.txt| Zip archive explorer
LOCAL ADDITIONS: *local-additions*
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*bars* Bars example
Now that you've jumped here with CTRL-] or a double mouse click, you can use
CTRL-T, CTRL-O, g<RightMouse>, or <C-RightMouse> to go back to where you were.
Note that tags are within | characters, but when highlighting is enabled these
characters are hidden. That makes it easier to read a command.
Anyway, you can use CTRL-] on any word, also when it is not within |, and Vim
will try to find help for it. Especially for options in single quotes, e.g.
'compatible'.
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