272 lines
10 KiB
Text
272 lines
10 KiB
Text
*usr_31.txt* For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2007 May 08
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VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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Exploiting the GUI
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Vim works well in a terminal, but the GUI has a few extra items. A file
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browser can be used for commands that use a file. A dialog to make a choice
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between alternatives. Use keyboard shortcuts to access menu items quickly.
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|31.1| The file browser
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|31.2| Confirmation
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|31.3| Menu shortcuts
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|31.4| Vim window position and size
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|31.5| Various
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Next chapter: |usr_32.txt| The undo tree
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Previous chapter: |usr_30.txt| Editing programs
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Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
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==============================================================================
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*31.1* The file browser
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When using the File/Open... menu you get a file browser. This makes it easier
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to find the file you want to edit. But what if you want to split a window to
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edit another file? There is no menu entry for this. You could first use
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Window/Split and then File/Open..., but that's more work.
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Since you are typing most commands in Vim, opening the file browser with a
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typed command is possible as well. To make the split command use the file
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browser, prepend "browse": >
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:browse split
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Select a file and then the ":split" command will be executed with it. If you
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cancel the file dialog nothing happens, the window isn't split.
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You can also specify a file name argument. This is used to tell the file
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browser where to start. Example: >
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:browse split /etc
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The file browser will pop up, starting in the directory "/etc".
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The ":browse" command can be prepended to just about any command that opens a
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file.
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If no directory is specified, Vim will decide where to start the file
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browser. By default it uses the same directory as the last time. Thus when
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you used ":browse split" and selected a file in "/usr/local/share", the next
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time you use a ":browse" it will start in "/usr/local/share" again.
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This can be changed with the 'browsedir' option. It can have one of three
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values:
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last Use the last directory browsed (default)
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buffer Use the same directory as the current buffer
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current use the current directory
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For example, when you are in the directory "/usr", editing the file
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"/usr/local/share/readme", then the command: >
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:set browsedir=buffer
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:browse edit
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Will start the browser in "/usr/local/share". Alternatively: >
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:set browsedir=current
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:browse edit
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Will start the browser in "/usr".
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Note:
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To avoid using the mouse, most file browsers offer using key presses
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to navigate. Since this is different for every system, it is not
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explained here. Vim uses a standard browser when possible, your
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system documentation should contain an explanation on the keyboard
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shortcuts somewhere.
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When you are not using the GUI version, you could use the file explorer window
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to select files like in a file browser. However, this doesn't work for the
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":browse" command. See |netrw-browse|.
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==============================================================================
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*31.2* Confirmation
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Vim protects you from accidentally overwriting a file and other ways to lose
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changes. If you do something that might be a bad thing to do, Vim produces an
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error message and suggests appending ! if you really want to do it.
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To avoid retyping the command with the !, you can make Vim give you a
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dialog. You can then press "OK" or "Cancel" to tell Vim what you want.
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For example, you are editing a file and made changes to it. You start
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editing another file with: >
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:confirm edit foo.txt
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Vim will pop up a dialog that looks something like this:
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+-----------------------------------+
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| ? Save changes to "bar.txt"? |
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| YES NO CANCEL |
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+-----------------------------------+
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Now make your choice. If you do want to save the changes, select "YES". If
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you want to lose the changes for ever: "NO". If you forgot what you were
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doing and want to check what really changed use "CANCEL". You will be back in
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the same file, with the changes still there.
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Just like ":browse", the ":confirm" command can be prepended to most commands
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that edit another file. They can also be combined: >
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:confirm browse edit
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This will produce a dialog when the current buffer was changed. Then it will
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pop up a file browser to select the file to edit.
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Note:
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In the dialog you can use the keyboard to select the choice.
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Typically the <Tab> key and the cursor keys change the choice.
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Pressing <Enter> selects the choice. This depends on the system
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though.
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When you are not using the GUI, the ":confirm" command works as well. Instead
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of popping up a dialog, Vim will print the message at the bottom of the Vim
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window and ask you to press a key to make a choice. >
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:confirm edit main.c
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< Save changes to "Untitled"? ~
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[Y]es, (N)o, (C)ancel: ~
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You can now press the single key for the choice. You don't have to press
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<Enter>, unlike other typing on the command line.
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==============================================================================
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*31.3* Menu shortcuts
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The keyboard is used for all Vim commands. The menus provide a simple way to
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select commands, without knowing what they are called. But you have to move
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your hand from the keyboard and grab the mouse.
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Menus can often be selected with keys as well. This depends on your
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system, but most often it works this way. Use the <Alt> key in combination
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with the underlined letter of a menu. For example, <A-w> (<Alt> and w) pops
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up the Window menu.
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In the Window menu, the "split" item has the p underlined. To select it,
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let go of the <Alt> key and press p.
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After the first selection of a menu with the <Alt> key, you can use the cursor
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keys to move through the menus. <Right> selects a submenu and <left> closes
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it. <Esc> also closes a menu. <Enter> selects a menu item.
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There is a conflict between using the <Alt> key to select menu items, and
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using <Alt> key combinations for mappings. The 'winaltkeys' option tells Vim
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what it should do with the <Alt> key.
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The default value "menu" is the smart choice: If the key combination is a
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menu shortcut it can't be mapped. All other keys are available for mapping.
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The value "no" doesn't use any <Alt> keys for the menus. Thus you must use
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the mouse for the menus, and all <Alt> keys can be mapped.
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The value "yes" means that Vim will use any <Alt> keys for the menus. Some
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<Alt> key combinations may also do other things than selecting a menu.
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==============================================================================
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*31.4* Vim window position and size
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To see the current Vim window position on the screen use: >
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:winpos
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This will only work in the GUI. The output may look like this:
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Window position: X 272, Y 103 ~
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The position is given in screen pixels. Now you can use the numbers to move
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Vim somewhere else. For example, to move it to the left a hundred pixels: >
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:winpos 172 103
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<
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Note:
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There may be a small offset between the reported position and where
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the window moves. This is because of the border around the window.
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This is added by the window manager.
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You can use this command in your startup script to position the window at a
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specific position.
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The size of the Vim window is computed in characters. Thus this depends on
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the size of the font being used. You can see the current size with this
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command: >
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:set lines columns
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To change the size set the 'lines' and/or 'columns' options to a new value: >
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:set lines=50
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:set columns=80
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Obtaining the size works in a terminal just like in the GUI. Setting the size
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is not possible in most terminals.
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You can start the X-Windows version of gvim with an argument to specify the
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size and position of the window: >
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gvim -geometry {width}x{height}+{x_offset}+{y_offset}
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{width} and {height} are in characters, {x_offset} and {y_offset} are in
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pixels. Example: >
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gvim -geometry 80x25+100+300
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==============================================================================
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*31.5* Various
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You can use gvim to edit an e-mail message. In your e-mail program you must
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select gvim to be the editor for messages. When you try that, you will
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see that it doesn't work: The mail program thinks that editing is finished,
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while gvim is still running!
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What happens is that gvim disconnects from the shell it was started in.
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That is fine when you start gvim in a terminal, so that you can do other work
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in that terminal. But when you really want to wait for gvim to finish, you
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must prevent it from disconnecting. The "-f" argument does this: >
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gvim -f file.txt
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The "-f" stands for foreground. Now Vim will block the shell it was started
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in until you finish editing and exit.
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DELAYED START OF THE GUI
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On Unix it's possible to first start Vim in a terminal. That's useful if you
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do various tasks in the same shell. If you are editing a file and decide you
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want to use the GUI after all, you can start it with: >
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:gui
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Vim will open the GUI window and no longer use the terminal. You can continue
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using the terminal for something else. The "-f" argument is used here to run
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the GUI in the foreground. You can also use ":gui -f".
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THE GVIM STARTUP FILE
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When gvim starts, it reads the gvimrc file. That's similar to the vimrc file
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used when starting Vim. The gvimrc file can be used for settings and commands
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that are only to be used when the GUI is going to be started. For example,
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you can set the 'lines' option to set a different window size: >
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:set lines=55
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You don't want to do this in a terminal, since its size is fixed (except for
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an xterm that supports resizing).
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The gvimrc file is searched for in the same locations as the vimrc file.
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Normally its name is "~/.gvimrc" for Unix and "$VIM/_gvimrc" for MS-Windows.
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The $MYGVIMRC environment variable is set to it, thus you can use this command
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to edit the file, if you have one: >
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:edit $MYGVIMRC
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<
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If for some reason you don't want to use the normal gvimrc file, you can
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specify another one with the "-U" argument: >
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gvim -U thisrc ...
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That allows starting gvim for different kinds of editing. You could set
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another font size, for example.
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To completely skip reading a gvimrc file: >
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gvim -U NONE ...
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==============================================================================
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Next chapter: |usr_32.txt| The undo tree
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Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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