Vim help files

This is an HTML version of the Vim help pages, current as of Vim 9.1.0781. They are kept up-to-date automatically from the Vim source repository. Also included is the Vim FAQ, kept up to date from its GitHub repository.

Help pages for Neovim are also available.

Quick links: help overview · quick reference · user manual toc · reference manual toc · faq
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help.txt  	For Vim version 9.1.  Last change: 2024 May 27

			VIM - main help file
									 k
      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-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.
		    See notation for an explanation of the help syntax.

  Search for help:  Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching
		    help entries for "word".
		    Or use ":helpgrep word". :helpgrep

  Getting started:  Do the Vim tutor, a 30-minute interactive course for the
		    basic commands, see vimtutor.
		    Read the user manual from start to end: usr_01.txt

Vim stands for Vi IMproved.  Most of Vim was made by Bram Moolenaar, but only
through the help of many others.  See credits.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
						doc-file-list Q_ct
BASIC:
quickref  	Overview of the most common commands you will use
tutor  		30-minute interactive 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

Writing Vim scripts 
usr_50.txt  Advanced Vim script writing
usr_51.txt  Create a plugin
usr_52.txt  Write plugins using Vim9 script

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
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
windows.txt  	commands for using multiple windows and buffers
tabpage.txt  	commands for using multiple tab pages
spell.txt  	spell checking
diff.txt  	working with two to eight versions of the same file
autocmd.txt  	automatically executing commands on an event
eval.txt  	expression evaluation, conditional commands
builtin.txt  	builtin functions
userfunc.txt  	defining user functions
channel.txt  	Jobs, Channels, inter-process communication
fold.txt  	hide (fold) ranges of lines

Special issues 
testing.txt  	testing Vim and Vim scripts
print.txt  	printing
remote.txt  	using Vim as a server or client
term.txt  	using different terminals and mice
terminal.txt  	Terminal window support
popup.txt  	popup window support
vim9.txt  	using Vim9 script
vim9class.txt  	using Vim9 script classes

Programming language support 
indent.txt  	automatic indenting for C and other languages
syntax.txt  	syntax highlighting
textprop.txt  	Attaching properties to text for highlighting or other
filetype.txt  	settings done specifically for a type of file
quickfix.txt  	commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle
ft_ada.txt  	Ada (the programming language) support
ft_context.txt  Filetype plugin for ConTeXt
ft_hare.txt  	Filetype plugin for Hare
ft_mp.txt  	Filetype plugin for METAFONT and MetaPost
ft_ps1.txt  	Filetype plugin for Windows PowerShell
ft_raku.txt  	Filetype plugin for Raku
ft_rust.txt  	Filetype plugin for Rust
ft_sql.txt  	about the SQL filetype plugin

Language support 
digraph.txt  	list of available digraphs
mbyte.txt  	multibyte text support
mlang.txt  	non-English language support
rileft.txt  	right-to-left editing mode
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
hangulin.txt  	Hangul (Korean) input 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
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
version9.txt  	Differences between Vim version 8.2 and 9.0
						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 common items
os_haiku.txt  	Haiku
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
						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
matchit.txt       Extended "%" matching
editorconfig.txt  EditorConfig plugin for vim.
vim_faq.txt       Frequently Asked Questions

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 vim:tw=78:isk=!-~,^*,^\|,^\":ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:


Quick links: help overview · quick reference · user manual toc · reference manual toc · faq