Vim documentation: help



*help.txt*        For Vim version 7.0.  Last change: 2006 May 07

                        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-T or 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.
                    It is possible to further specify the context:

                                                        *help-context*
                          WHAT                  PREPEND    EXAMPLE      
                      Normal mode command      (nothing)   :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'
  Search for help:  Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching
                    help entries for "word".

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

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)
|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
|indent.txt|  automatic indenting for C and other languages
|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
|quickfix.txt|      commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle
|windows.txt|        commands for using multiple windows and buffers
|tabpage.txt|        commands for using multiple tab pages
|syntax.txt|  syntax highlighting
|spell.txt|    spell checking
|diff.txt|      working with two or three versions of the same file
|autocmd.txt|        automatically executing commands on an event
|filetype.txt|      settings done specifically for a type of file
|eval.txt|      expression evaluation, conditional commands
|fold.txt|      hide (fold) ranges of lines

Special issues 
|print.txt|    printing
|remote.txt|  using Vim as a server or client
|term.txt|      using different terminals and mice
|digraph.txt|        list of available digraphs
|mbyte.txt|    multi-byte text support
|mlang.txt|    non-English language support
|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
|rileft.txt|  right-to-left editing mode

GUI 
|gui.txt|        Graphical User Interface (GUI)
|gui_w16.txt|        Windows 3.1 GUI
|gui_w32.txt|        Win32 GUI
|gui_x11.txt|        X11 GUI

Interfaces 
|if_cscop.txt|      using Cscope with Vim
|if_mzsch.txt|      MzScheme interface
|if_perl.txt|        Perl interface
|if_pyth.txt|        Python interface
|if_sniff.txt|      SNiFF+ 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
|workshop.txt|      Sun Visual Workshop interface
|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

                                                *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 NT/95 common items
|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 95/98/NT

                                                *standard-plugin-list*
Standard plugins 
|pi_gzip.txt|        Reading and writing compressed files
|pi_netrw.txt|      Reading and writing files over a network
|pi_paren.txt|      Highlight matching parens
|pi_tar.txt|  Tar file explorer
|pi_zip.txt|  Zip archive explorer


LOCAL ADDITIONS:                                *local-additions*

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*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
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.

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