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1 *usr_31.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2003 Oct 21
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3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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4
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5 Exploiting the GUI
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6
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7
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8 Vim works well in a terminal, but the GUI has a few extra items. A file
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9 browser can be used for commands that use a file. A dialog to make a choice
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10 between alternatives. Use keyboard shortcuts to access menu items quickly.
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11
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12 |31.1| The file browser
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13 |31.2| Confirmation
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14 |31.3| Menu shortcuts
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15 |31.4| Vim window position and size
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16 |31.5| Various
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17
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18 Next chapter: |usr_40.txt| Make new commands
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19 Previous chapter: |usr_30.txt| Editing programs
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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 *31.1* The file browser
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24
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25 When using the File/Open... menu you get a file browser. This makes it easier
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26 to find the file you want to edit. But what if you want to split a window to
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27 edit another file? There is no menu entry for this. You could first use
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28 Window/Split and then File/Open..., but that's more work.
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29 Since you are typing most commands in Vim, opening the file browser with a
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30 typed command is possible as well. To make the split command use the file
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31 browser, prepend "browse": >
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32
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33 :browse split
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34
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35 Select a file and then the ":split" command will be executed with it. If you
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36 cancel the file dialog nothing happens, the window isn't split.
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37 You can also specify a file name argument. This is used to tell the file
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38 browser where to start. Example: >
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39
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40 :browse split /etc
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41
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42 The file browser will pop up, starting in the directory "/etc".
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43
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44 The ":browse" command can be prepended to just about any command that opens a
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45 file.
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46 If no directory is specified, Vim will decide where to start the file
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47 browser. By default it uses the same directory as the last time. Thus when
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48 you used ":browse split" and selected a file in "/usr/local/share", the next
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49 time you use a ":browse" it will start in "/usr/local/share" again.
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50 This can be changed with the 'browsedir' option. It can have one of three
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51 values:
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52
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53 last Use the last directory browsed (default)
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54 buffer Use the same directory as the current buffer
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55 current use the current directory
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56
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57 For example, when you are in the directory "/usr", editing the file
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58 "/usr/local/share/readme", then the command: >
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59
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60 :set browsedir=buffer
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61 :browse edit
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62
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63 Will start the browser in "/usr/local/share". Alternatively: >
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64
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65 :set browsedir=current
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66 :browse edit
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67
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68 Will start the browser in "/usr".
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69
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70 Note:
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71 To avoid using the mouse, most file browsers offer using key presses
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72 to navigate. Since this is different for every system, it is not
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73 explained here. Vim uses a standard browser when possible, your
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74 system documentation should contain an explanation on the keyboard
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75 shortcuts somewhere.
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76
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77 When you are not using the GUI version, you could use the file explorer window
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78 to select files like in a file browser. However, this doesn't work for the
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79 ":browse" command. See |file-explorer|.
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80
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81 ==============================================================================
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82 *31.2* Confirmation
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83
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84 Vim protects you from accidentally overwriting a file and other ways to lose
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85 changes. If you do something that might be a bad thing to do, Vim produces an
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86 error message and suggests appending ! if you really want to do it.
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87 To avoid retyping the command with the !, you can make Vim give you a
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88 dialog. You can then press "OK" or "Cancel" to tell Vim what you want.
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89 For example, you are editing a file and made changes to it. You start
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90 editing another file with: >
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91
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92 :confirm edit foo.txt
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93
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94 Vim will pop up a dialog that looks something like this:
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95
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96 +-----------------------------------+
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97 | |
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98 | ? Save changes to "bar.txt"? |
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99 | |
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100 | YES NO CANCEL |
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101 +-----------------------------------+
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102
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103 Now make your choice. If you do want to save the changes, select "YES". If
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104 you want to lose the changes for ever: "NO". If you forgot what you were
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105 doing and want to check what really changed use "CANCEL". You will be back in
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106 the same file, with the changes still there.
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107
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108 Just like ":browse", the ":confirm" command can be prepended to most commands
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109 that edit another file. They can also be combined: >
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110
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111 :confirm browse edit
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112
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113 This will produce a dialog when the current buffer was changed. Then it will
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114 pop up a file browser to select the file to edit.
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115
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116 Note:
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117 In the dialog you can use the keyboard to select the choice.
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118 Typically the <Tab> key and the cursor keys change the choice.
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119 Pressing <Enter> selects the choice. This depends on the system
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120 though.
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121
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122 When you are not using the GUI, the ":confirm" command works as well. Instead
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123 of popping up a dialog, Vim will print the message at the bottom of the Vim
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124 window and ask you to press a key to make a choice. >
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125
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126 :confirm edit main.c
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127 < Save changes to "Untitled"? ~
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128 [Y]es, (N)o, (C)ancel: ~
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129
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130 You can now press the single key for the choice. You don't have to press
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131 <Enter>, unlike other typing on the command line.
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132
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133 ==============================================================================
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134 *31.3* Menu shortcuts
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135
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136 The keyboard is used for all Vim commands. The menus provide a simple way to
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137 select commands, without knowing what they are called. But you have to move
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138 your hand from the keyboard and grab the mouse.
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139 Menus can often be selected with keys as well. This depends on your
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140 system, but most often it works this way. Use the <Alt> key in combination
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141 with the underlined letter of a menu. For example, <A-w> (<Alt> and w) pops
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142 up the Window menu.
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143 In the Window menu, the "split" item has the p underlined. To select it,
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144 let go of the <Alt> key and press p.
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145
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146 After the first selection of a menu with the <Alt> key, you can use the cursor
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147 keys to move through the menus. <Right> selects a submenu and <left> closes
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148 it. <Esc> also closes a menu. <Enter> selects a menu item.
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149
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150 There is a conflict between using the <Alt> key to select menu items, and
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151 using <Alt> key combinations for mappings. The 'winaltkeys' option tells Vim
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152 what it should do with the <Alt> key.
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153 The default value "menu" is the smart choice: If the key combination is a
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154 menu shortcut it can't be mapped. All other keys are available for mapping.
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155 The value "no" doesn't use any <Alt> keys for the menus. Thus you must use
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156 the mouse for the menus, and all <Alt> keys can be mapped.
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157 The value "yes" means that Vim will use any <Alt> keys for the menus. Some
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158 <Alt> key combinations may also do other things than selecting a menu.
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159
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160 ==============================================================================
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161 *31.4* Vim window position and size
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162
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163 To see the current Vim window position on the screen use: >
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164
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165 :winpos
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166
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167 This will only work in the GUI. The output may look like this:
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168
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169 Window position: X 272, Y 103 ~
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170
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171 The position is given in screen pixels. Now you can use the numbers to move
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172 Vim somewhere else. For example, to move it to the left a hundred pixels: >
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173
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174 :winpos 172 103
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175 <
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176 Note:
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177 There may be a small offset between the reported position and where
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178 the window moves. This is because of the border around the window.
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179 This is added by the window manager.
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180
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181 You can use this command in your startup script to position the window at a
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182 specific position.
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183
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184 The size of the Vim window is computed in characters. Thus this depends on
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185 the size of the font being used. You can see the current size with this
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186 command: >
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187
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188 :set lines columns
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189
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190 To change the size set the 'lines' and/or 'columns' options to a new value: >
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191
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192 :set lines=50
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193 :set columns=80
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194
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195 Obtaining the size works in a terminal just like in the GUI. Setting the size
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196 is not possible in most terminals.
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197
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198 You can start the X-Windows version of gvim with an argument to specify the
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199 size and position of the window: >
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200
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201 gvim -geometry {width}x{height}+{x_offset}+{y_offset}
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202
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203 {width} and {height} are in characters, {x_offset} and {y_offset} are in
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204 pixels. Example: >
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205
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206 gvim -geometry 80x25+100+300
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207
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208 ==============================================================================
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209 *31.5* Various
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210
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211 You can use gvim to edit an e-mail message. In your e-mail program you must
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212 select gvim to be the editor for messages. When you try that, you will
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213 see that it doesn't work: The mail program thinks that editing is finished,
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214 while gvim is still running!
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215 What happens is that gvim disconnects from the shell it was started in.
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216 That is fine when you start gvim in a terminal, so that you can do other work
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217 in that terminal. But when you really want to wait for gvim to finish, you
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218 must prevent it from disconnecting. The "-f" argument does this: >
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219
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220 gvim -f file.txt
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221
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222 The "-f" stands for foreground. Now Vim will block the shell it was started
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223 in until you finish editing and exit.
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224
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225
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226 DELAYED START OF THE GUI
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227
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228 On Unix it's possible to first start Vim in a terminal. That's useful if you
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229 do various tasks in the same shell. If you are editing a file and decide you
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230 want to use the GUI after all, you can start it with: >
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231
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232 :gui
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233
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234 Vim will open the GUI window and no longer use the terminal. You can continue
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235 using the terminal for something else. The "-f" argument is used here to run
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236 the GUI in the foreground. You can also use ":gui -f".
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237
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238
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239 THE GVIM STARTUP FILE
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240
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241 When gvim starts, it reads the gvimrc file. That's similar to the vimrc file
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242 used when starting Vim. The gvimrc file can be used for settings and commands
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243 that are only to be used when the GUI is going to be started. For example,
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244 you can set the 'lines' option to set a different window size: >
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245
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246 :set lines=55
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247
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248 You don't want to do this in a terminal, since it's size is fixed (except for
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249 an xterm that supports resizing).
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250 The gvimrc file is searched for in the same locations as the vimrc file.
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251 Normally it's name is "~/.gvimrc" for Unix and "$VIM/_gvimrc" for MS-Windows.
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252 If for some reason you don't want to use the normal gvimrc file, you can
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253 specify another one with the "-U" argument: >
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254
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255 gvim -U thisrc ...
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256
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257 That allows starting gvim for different kinds of editing. You could set
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258 another font size, for example.
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259 To completely skip reading a gvimrc file: >
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260
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261 gvim -U NONE ...
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262
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263 ==============================================================================
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264
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265 Next chapter: |usr_40.txt| Make new commands
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266
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267 Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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