created 2005 · complexity basic · author David S · version 6.0
Vim's help is remarkably helpful, but in order to use it effectively you need to spend a few minutes learning how it is organised.
Getting started
Try these examples:
- Enter :help to browse help. Scroll down the help page to see the quickref and tutor links, and the table of contents.
- Enter :help pattern for help on the topic pattern (for example).
- :h pattern is the same (the :help command can be abbreviated).
Command completion can be used when entering a help topic:
- Type :h patt then press Ctrl-D to list all topics that contain "patt".
- Type :h patt then press Tab to scroll through the topics that start with "patt".
Links:
- Enter :h to open the main help page.
- Type /quick to search for "quick" (should find the quickref link).
- Press Ctrl-] to follow the link (jump to the quickref topic).
- After browsing the quickref topic, press Ctrl-T to go back to the previous topic.
- You can also press Ctrl-O to jump to older locations, or Ctrl-I to jump to newer locations.
Searching:
- Search within a help file using / like you would when searching any file.
- Search all the help files with the :helpgrep command, for example:
- :helpgrep \csearch.\{,12}file
- \c means the pattern is case insensitive.
- The pattern finds "search" then up to 12 characters followed by "file".
- You will then see the first match. To see other matches for the same pattern, use:
- :cnext
- :cprev
- :cnfile
- :cpfile
- :cfirst
- :clast
- and even
- :cc
- which brings you back to the current match after you scrolled the helpfile, or
- :copen
- which will list out all the matches in a separate window. Read up on these commands with the :help entry for each of them!
Each week, read a new section from the :help page to learn something new!
Context
Each help topic has a context:
Prefix | Example | Context |
---|---|---|
: | :h :r | ex command (command starting with a colon) |
none | :h r | normal mode |
v_ | :h v_r | visual mode |
i_ | :h i_CTRL-W | insert mode |
c_ | :h c_CTRL-R | ex command line |
/ | :h /\r | search pattern (in this case, :h \r also works) |
' | :h 'ro' | option |
- | :h -r | Vim argument (starting Vim) |
Sometimes you want to know what a particular control key means to Vim. For example, to see all help topics containing "ctrl-r", type :h ctrl-r then press Ctrl-D. The following examples show the help for pressing various keys in different contexts.
Example | Help for key |
---|---|
:h CTRL-R | Ctrl-R in normal mode |
:h i_CTRL-R | Ctrl-R in insert mode |
:h c_CTRL-R | Ctrl-R in command mode |
:h v_CTRL-V | Ctrl-V in visual mode |
The following mappings simplify navigation when viewing help:
- Press Enter to jump to the subject (topic) under the cursor.
- Press Backspace to return from the last jump.
- Press s to find the next subject, or S to find the previous subject.
- Press o to find the next option, or O to find the previous option.
Create file ~/.vim/ftplugin/help.vim (Unix) or $HOME/vimfiles/ftplugin/help.vim (Windows) containing:
nnoremap <buffer> <CR> <C-]> nnoremap <buffer> <BS> <C-T> nnoremap <buffer> o /'\l\{2,\}'<CR> nnoremap <buffer> O ?'\l\{2,\}'<CR> nnoremap <buffer> s /\|\zs\S\+\ze\|<CR> nnoremap <buffer> S ?\|\zs\S\+\ze\|<CR>
The following mappings (which can go in your vimrc) simplify navigating the results of quickfix commands such as (among others) :helpgrep
:nnoremap <S-F1> :cc<CR> :nnoremap <F2> :cnext<CR> :nnoremap <S-F2> :cprev<CR> :nnoremap <F3> :cnfile<CR> :nnoremap <S-F3> :cpfile<CR> :nnoremap <F4> :cfirst<CR> :nnoremap <S-F4> :clast<CR>
References
See also
- Remember to search this wiki (see 'search' in the sidebar)!
- Search the FAQ and other guides on our documentation page
- Search the archives of the Vim mailing lists
Comments
Also see the wildmenu. My settings:
set wildmenu wildmode=longest:full,full
What it does:
- First tab: longest match, list in the statusbar.
- Following tabs: cycle through matches.