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1 *usr_09.txt* For Vim version 9.0. Last change: 2017 Aug 11
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3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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4
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5 Using the GUI
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7
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8 Vim works in an ordinary terminal, while gVim has a Graphical User Interface
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9 (GUI). It can do the same things and a few more. The GUI offers menus, a
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10 toolbar, scrollbars and other items. This chapter is about these extra things
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11 that the GUI offers.
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12
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13 |09.1| Parts of the GUI
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14 |09.2| Using the mouse
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15 |09.3| The clipboard
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16 |09.4| Select mode
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17
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18 Next chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
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19 Previous chapter: |usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
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20 Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
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21
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22 ==============================================================================
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23 *09.1* Parts of the GUI
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24
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25 You might have an icon on your desktop that starts gvim. Otherwise, one of
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26 these commands should do it: >
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27
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28 gvim file.txt
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29 vim -g file.txt
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30
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31 If this doesn't work you don't have a version of Vim with GUI support. You
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32 will have to install one first.
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33 Vim will open a window and display "file.txt" in it. What the window looks
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34 like depends on the version of Vim. It should resemble the following picture
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35 (for as far as this can be shown in ASCII!).
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36
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37 +----------------------------------------------------+
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38 | file.txt + (~/dir) - VIM X | <- window title
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39 +----------------------------------------------------+
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40 | File Edit Tools Syntax Buffers Window Help | <- menubar
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41 +----------------------------------------------------+
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42 | aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj | <- toolbar
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43 | aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj |
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44 +----------------------------------------------------+
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45 | file text | ^ |
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46 | ~ | # |
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47 | ~ | # | <- scrollbar
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48 | ~ | # |
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49 | ~ | # |
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50 | ~ | # |
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51 | | V |
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52 +----------------------------------------------------+
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53
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54 The largest space is occupied by the file text. This shows the file in the
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55 same way as in a terminal. With some different colors and another font
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56 perhaps.
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57
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58
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59 THE WINDOW TITLE
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60
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61 At the very top is the window title. This is drawn by your window system.
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62 Vim will set the title to show the name of the current file. First comes the
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63 name of the file. Then some special characters and the directory of the file
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64 in parens. These special characters can be present:
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65
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66 - The file cannot be modified (e.g., a help file)
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67 + The file contains changes
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68 = The file is read-only
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69 =+ The file is read-only, contains changes anyway
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70
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71 If nothing is shown you have an ordinary, unchanged file.
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72
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73
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74 THE MENUBAR
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75
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76 You know how menus work, right? Vim has the usual items, plus a few more.
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77 Browse them to get an idea of what you can use them for. A relevant submenu
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78 is Edit/Global Settings. You will find these entries:
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79
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80 Toggle Toolbar make the toolbar appear/disappear
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81 Toggle Bottom Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the bottom
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82 Toggle Left Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the left
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83 Toggle Right Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the right
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84
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85 On most systems you can tear-off the menus. Select the top item of the menu,
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86 the one that looks like a dashed line. You will get a separate window with
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87 the items of the menu. It will hang around until you close the window.
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88
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89
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90 THE TOOLBAR
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91
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92 This contains icons for the most often used actions. Hopefully the icons are
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93 self-explanatory. There are tooltips to get an extra hint (move the mouse
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94 pointer to the icon without clicking and don't move it for a second).
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95
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96 The "Edit/Global Settings/Toggle Toolbar" menu item can be used to make the
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97 toolbar disappear. If you never want a toolbar, use this command in your
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98 vimrc file: >
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99
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100 :set guioptions-=T
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101
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102 This removes the 'T' flag from the 'guioptions' option. Other parts of the
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103 GUI can also be enabled or disabled with this option. See the help for it.
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104
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105
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106 THE SCROLLBARS
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107
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108 By default there is one scrollbar on the right. It does the obvious thing.
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109 When you split the window, each window will get its own scrollbar.
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110 You can make a horizontal scrollbar appear with the menu item
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111 Edit/Global Settings/Toggle Bottom Scrollbar. This is useful in diff mode, or
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112 when the 'wrap' option has been reset (more about that later).
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113
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114 When there are vertically split windows, only the windows on the right side
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115 will have a scrollbar. However, when you move the cursor to a window on the
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116 left, it will be this one that the scrollbar controls. This takes a bit of
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117 time to get used to.
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118 When you work with vertically split windows, consider adding a scrollbar on
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119 the left. This can be done with a menu item, or with the 'guioptions' option:
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120 >
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121 :set guioptions+=l
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122
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123 This adds the 'l' flag to 'guioptions'.
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124
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125 ==============================================================================
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126 *09.2* Using the mouse
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127
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128 Standards are wonderful. In Microsoft Windows, you can use the mouse to
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129 select text in a standard manner. The X Window system also has a standard
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130 system for using the mouse. Unfortunately, these two standards are not the
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131 same.
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132 Fortunately, you can customize Vim. You can make the behavior of the mouse
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236
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133 work like an X Window system mouse or a Microsoft Windows mouse. The following
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134 command makes the mouse behave like an X Window mouse: >
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135
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136 :behave xterm
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137
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138 The following command makes the mouse work like a Microsoft Windows mouse: >
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139
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140 :behave mswin
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141
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142 The default behavior of the mouse on UNIX systems is xterm. The default
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143 behavior on a Microsoft Windows system is selected during the installation
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144 process. For details about what the two behaviors are, see |:behave|. Here
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145 follows a summary.
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146
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147
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148 XTERM MOUSE BEHAVIOR
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149
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150 Left mouse click position the cursor
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151 Left mouse drag select text in Visual mode
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152 Middle mouse click paste text from the clipboard
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153 Right mouse click extend the selected text until the mouse
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154 pointer
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155
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156
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157 MSWIN MOUSE BEHAVIOR
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158
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159 Left mouse click position the cursor
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160 Left mouse drag select text in Select mode (see |09.4|)
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161 Left mouse click, with Shift extend the selected text until the mouse
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162 pointer
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163 Middle mouse click paste text from the clipboard
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164 Right mouse click display a pop-up menu
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165
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166
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167 The mouse can be further tuned. Check out these options if you want to change
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168 the way how the mouse works:
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169
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170 'mouse' in which mode the mouse is used by Vim
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171 'mousemodel' what effect a mouse click has
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172 'mousetime' time between clicks for a double-click
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173 'mousehide' hide the mouse while typing
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174 'selectmode' whether the mouse starts Visual or Select mode
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175
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176 ==============================================================================
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177 *09.3* The clipboard
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178
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179 In section |04.7| the basic use of the clipboard was explained. There is one
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180 essential thing to explain about X-windows: There are actually two places to
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181 exchange text between programs. MS-Windows doesn't have this.
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182
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183 In X-Windows there is the "current selection". This is the text that is
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184 currently highlighted. In Vim this is the Visual area (this assumes you are
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185 using the default option settings). You can paste this selection in another
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186 application without any further action.
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187 For example, in this text select a few words with the mouse. Vim will
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188 switch to Visual mode and highlight the text. Now start another gvim, without
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189 a file name argument, so that it displays an empty window. Click the middle
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190 mouse button. The selected text will be inserted.
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191
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192 The "current selection" will only remain valid until some other text is
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193 selected. After doing the paste in the other gvim, now select some characters
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194 in that window. You will notice that the words that were previously selected
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195 in the other gvim window are displayed differently. This means that it no
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196 longer is the current selection.
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197
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198 You don't need to select text with the mouse, using the keyboard commands for
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199 Visual mode works just as well.
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200
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201
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202 THE REAL CLIPBOARD
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203
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204 Now for the other place with which text can be exchanged. We call this the
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205 "real clipboard", to avoid confusion. Often both the "current selection" and
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206 the "real clipboard" are called clipboard, you'll have to get used to that.
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207 To put text on the real clipboard, select a few different words in one of
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208 the gvims you have running. Then use the Edit/Copy menu entry. Now the text
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209 has been copied to the real clipboard. You can't see this, unless you have
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210 some application that shows the clipboard contents (e.g., KDE's Klipper).
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211 Now select the other gvim, position the cursor somewhere and use the
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212 Edit/Paste menu. You will see the text from the real clipboard is inserted.
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213
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214
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215 USING BOTH
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216
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217 This use of both the "current selection" and the "real clipboard" might sound
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218 a bit confusing. But it is very useful. Let's show this with an example.
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219 Use one gvim with a text file and perform these actions:
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220
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221 - Select two words in Visual mode.
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222 - Use the Edit/Copy menu to get these words onto the clipboard.
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223 - Select one other word in Visual mode.
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224 - Use the Edit/Paste menu item. What will happen is that the single selected
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225 word is replaced with the two words from the clipboard.
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226 - Move the mouse pointer somewhere else and click the middle button. You
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227 will see that the word you just overwrote with the clipboard is inserted
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228 here.
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229
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230 If you use the "current selection" and the "real clipboard" with care, you can
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231 do a lot of useful editing with them.
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232
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233
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234 USING THE KEYBOARD
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235
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236 If you don't like using the mouse, you can access the current selection and
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237 the real clipboard with two registers. The "* register is for the current
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238 selection.
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239 To make text become the current selection, use Visual mode. For example,
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240 to select a whole line just press "V".
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241 To insert the current selection before the cursor: >
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242
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243 "*P
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244
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245 Notice the uppercase "P". The lowercase "p" puts the text after the cursor.
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246
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247 The "+ register is used for the real clipboard. For example, to copy the text
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248 from the cursor position until the end of the line to the clipboard: >
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249
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250 "+y$
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251
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252 Remember, "y" is yank, which is Vim's copy command.
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253 To insert the contents of the real clipboard before the cursor: >
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254
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255 "+P
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256
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257 It's the same as for the current selection, but uses the plus (+) register
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258 instead of the star (*) register.
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259
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260 ==============================================================================
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261 *09.4* Select mode
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262
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263 And now something that is used more often on MS-Windows than on X-Windows.
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264 But both can do it. You already know about Visual mode. Select mode is like
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265 Visual mode, because it is also used to select text. But there is an obvious
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266 difference: When typing text, the selected text is deleted and the typed text
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267 replaces it.
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268
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269 To start working with Select mode, you must first enable it (for MS-Windows
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270 it is probably already enabled, but you can do this anyway): >
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271
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272 :set selectmode+=mouse
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273
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274 Now use the mouse to select some text. It is highlighted like in Visual mode.
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275 Now press a letter. The selected text is deleted, and the single letter
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276 replaces it. You are in Insert mode now, thus you can continue typing.
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277
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278 Since typing normal text causes the selected text to be deleted, you can not
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279 use the normal movement commands "hjkl", "w", etc. Instead, use the shifted
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280 function keys. <S-Left> (shifted cursor left key) moves the cursor left. The
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281 selected text is changed like in Visual mode. The other shifted cursor keys
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282 do what you expect. <S-End> and <S-Home> also work.
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283
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284 You can tune the way Select mode works with the 'selectmode' option.
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285
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286 ==============================================================================
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287
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288 Next chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
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289
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290 Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:
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