1*gui.txt* For Vim version 8.1. Last change: 2019 Jan 06 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Vim's Graphical User Interface *gui* *GUI* 8 91. Starting the GUI |gui-start| 102. Scrollbars |gui-scrollbars| 113. Mouse Control |gui-mouse| 124. Making GUI Selections |gui-selections| 135. Menus |menus| 146. Extras |gui-extras| 157. Shell Commands |gui-shell| 16 17Other GUI documentation: 18|gui_x11.txt| For specific items of the X11 GUI. 19|gui_w32.txt| For specific items of the Win32 GUI. 20 21{Vi does not have any of these commands} 22 23============================================================================== 241. Starting the GUI *gui-start* *E229* *E233* 25 26First you must make sure you actually have a version of Vim with the GUI code 27included. You can check this with the ":version" command, it says "with xxx 28GUI", where "xxx" is X11-Motif, X11-Athena, Photon, GTK2, GTK3, etc., or 29"MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version". 30 31How to start the GUI depends on the system used. Mostly you can run the 32GUI version of Vim with: 33 gvim [options] [files...] 34 35The X11 version of Vim can run both in GUI and in non-GUI mode. See 36|gui-x11-start|. 37 38 *gui-init* *gvimrc* *.gvimrc* *_gvimrc* *$MYGVIMRC* 39The gvimrc file is where GUI-specific startup commands should be placed. It 40is always sourced after the |vimrc| file. If you have one then the $MYGVIMRC 41environment variable has its name. 42 43When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order: 44- The 'term' option is set to "builtin_gui" and terminal options are reset to 45 their default value for the GUI |terminal-options|. 46- If the system menu file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is 47 normally "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". You can check this with ":version". Also 48 see |$VIMRUNTIME|. To skip loading the system menu include 'M' in 49 'guioptions'. *buffers-menu* *no_buffers_menu* 50 The system menu file includes a "Buffers" menu. If you don't want this, set 51 the "no_buffers_menu" variable in your .vimrc (not .gvimrc!): > 52 :let no_buffers_menu = 1 53< NOTE: Switching on syntax highlighting also loads the menu file, thus 54 disabling the Buffers menu must be done before ":syntax on". 55 The path names are truncated to 35 characters. You can truncate them at a 56 different length, for example 50, like this: > 57 :let bmenu_max_pathlen = 50 58- If the "-U {gvimrc}" command-line option has been used when starting Vim, 59 the {gvimrc} file will be read for initializations. The following 60 initializations are skipped. When {gvimrc} is "NONE" no file will be read 61 for initializations. 62- For Unix and MS-Windows, if the system gvimrc exists, it is sourced. The 63 name of this file is normally "$VIM/gvimrc". You can check this with 64 ":version". Also see |$VIM|. 65- The following are tried, and only the first one that exists is used: 66 - If the GVIMINIT environment variable exists and is not empty, it is 67 executed as an Ex command. 68 - If the user gvimrc file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is 69 normally "$HOME/.gvimrc". You can check this with ":version". 70 - For Win32, $HOME is set by Vim if needed, see |$HOME-windows|. 71 - When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too. And vice 72 versa. 73 The name of the first file found is stored in $MYGVIMRC, unless it was 74 already set. 75- If the 'exrc' option is set (which is NOT the default) the file ./.gvimrc 76 is sourced, if it exists and isn't the same file as the system or user 77 gvimrc file. If this file is not owned by you, some security restrictions 78 apply. When ".gvimrc" is not found, "_gvimrc" is tried too. For Macintosh 79 and DOS/Win32 "_gvimrc" is tried first. 80 81NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with 82"-u NONE" or "-u DEFAULTS" and no "-U" argument was given, or when started 83with "-U NONE". 84 85All this happens AFTER the normal Vim initializations, like reading your 86.vimrc file. See |initialization|. 87But the GUI window is only opened after all the initializations have been 88carried out. If you want some commands to be executed just after opening the 89GUI window, use the |GUIEnter| autocommand event. Example: > 90 :autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50 91 92You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customized menus (see |:menu|) 93and initialize other things that you may want to set up differently from the 94terminal version. 95 96Recommended place for your personal GUI initializations: 97 Unix $HOME/.gvimrc or $HOME/.vim/gvimrc 98 OS/2 $HOME/.gvimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/gvimrc 99 or $VIM/.gvimrc 100 MS-DOS and Win32 $HOME/_gvimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/gvimrc 101 or $VIM/_gvimrc 102 Amiga s:.gvimrc, home:.gvimrc, home:vimfiles:gvimrc 103 or $VIM/.gvimrc 104 105The personal initialization files are searched in the order specified above 106and only the first one that is found is read. 107 108There are a number of options which only have meaning in the GUI version of 109Vim. These are 'guicursor', 'guifont', 'guipty' and 'guioptions'. They are 110documented in |options.txt| with all the other options. 111 112If using the Motif or Athena version of the GUI (but not for the GTK+ or 113Win32 version), a number of X resources are available. See |gui-resources|. 114 115Another way to set the colors for different occasions is with highlight 116groups. The "Normal" group is used to set the background and foreground 117colors. Example (which looks nice): > 118 119 :highlight Normal guibg=grey90 120 121The "guibg" and "guifg" settings override the normal background and 122foreground settings. The other settings for the Normal highlight group are 123not used. Use the 'guifont' option to set the font. 124 125Also check out the 'guicursor' option, to set the colors for the cursor in 126various modes. 127 128Vim tries to make the window fit on the screen when it starts up. This avoids 129that you can't see part of it. On the X Window System this requires a bit of 130guesswork. You can change the height that is used for the window title and a 131task bar with the 'guiheadroom' option. 132 133 *:winp* *:winpos* *E188* 134:winp[os] 135 Display current position of the top left corner of the GUI vim 136 window in pixels. Does not work in all versions. 137 Also see |getwinpos()|, |getwinposx()| and |getwinposy()|. 138 139:winp[os] {X} {Y} *E466* 140 Put the GUI vim window at the given {X} and {Y} coordinates. 141 The coordinates should specify the position in pixels of the 142 top left corner of the window. Does not work in all versions. 143 Does work in an (new) xterm |xterm-color|. 144 When the GUI window has not been opened yet, the values are 145 remembered until the window is opened. The position is 146 adjusted to make the window fit on the screen (if possible). 147 148 *:win* *:winsize* *E465* 149:win[size] {width} {height} 150 Set the window height to {width} by {height} characters. 151 Obsolete, use ":set lines=11 columns=22". 152 If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom' 153 option. 154 155If you are running the X Window System, you can get information about the 156window Vim is running in with these commands: > 157 :!xwininfo -id $WINDOWID 158 :!xprop -id $WINDOWID 159 :execute '!xwininfo -id ' . v:windowid 160 :execute '!xprop -id ' . v:windowid 161< 162 *gui-IME* *iBus* 163Input methods for international characters in X that rely on the XIM 164framework, most notably iBus, have been known to produce undesirable results 165in gvim. These may include an inability to enter spaces, or long delays 166between typing a character and it being recognized by the application. 167 168One workaround that has been successful, for unknown reasons, is to prevent 169gvim from forking into the background by starting it with the |-f| argument. 170 171============================================================================== 1722. Scrollbars *gui-scrollbars* 173 174There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbar. You may 175configure which ones appear with the 'guioptions' option. 176 177The interface looks like this (with ":set guioptions=mlrb"): 178 179 +------------------------------+ ` 180 | File Edit Help | <- Menu bar (m) ` 181 +-+--------------------------+-+ ` 182 |^| |^| ` 183 |#| Text area. |#| ` 184 | | | | ` 185 |v|__________________________|v| ` 186 Normal status line -> |-+ File.c 5,2 +-| ` 187 between Vim windows |^|""""""""""""""""""""""""""|^| ` 188 | | | | ` 189 | | Another file buffer. | | ` 190 | | | | ` 191 |#| |#| ` 192 Left scrollbar (l) -> |#| |#| <- Right ` 193 |#| |#| scrollbar (r) ` 194 | | | | ` 195 |v| |v| ` 196 +-+--------------------------+-+ ` 197 | |< #### >| | <- Bottom ` 198 +-+--------------------------+-+ scrollbar (b) ` 199 200Any of the scrollbar or menu components may be turned off by not putting the 201appropriate letter in the 'guioptions' string. The bottom scrollbar is 202only useful when 'nowrap' is set. 203 204 205VERTICAL SCROLLBARS *gui-vert-scroll* 206 207Each Vim window has a scrollbar next to it which may be scrolled up and down 208to move through the text in that buffer. The size of the scrollbar-thumb 209indicates the fraction of the buffer which can be seen in the window. 210When the scrollbar is dragged all the way down, the last line of the file 211will appear in the top of the window. 212 213If a window is shrunk to zero height (by the growth of another window) its 214scrollbar disappears. It reappears when the window is restored. 215 216If a window is vertically split, it will get a scrollbar when it is the 217current window and when, taking the middle of the current window and drawing a 218vertical line, this line goes through the window. 219When there are scrollbars on both sides, and the middle of the current window 220is on the left half, the right scrollbar column will contain scrollbars for 221the rightmost windows. The same happens on the other side. 222 223 224HORIZONTAL SCROLLBARS *gui-horiz-scroll* 225 226The horizontal scrollbar (at the bottom of the Vim GUI) may be used to 227scroll text sideways when the 'wrap' option is turned off. The 228scrollbar-thumb size is such that the text of the longest visible line may be 229scrolled as far as possible left and right. The cursor is moved when 230necessary, it must remain on a visible character (unless 'virtualedit' is 231set). 232 233Computing the length of the longest visible line takes quite a bit of 234computation, and it has to be done every time something changes. If this 235takes too much time or you don't like the cursor jumping to another line, 236include the 'h' flag in 'guioptions'. Then the scrolling is limited by the 237text of the current cursor line. 238 239 *athena-intellimouse* 240If you have an Intellimouse and an X server that supports using the wheel, 241then you can use the wheel to scroll the text up and down in gvim. This works 242with XFree86 4.0 and later, and with some older versions when you add patches. 243See |scroll-mouse-wheel|. 244 245For older versions of XFree86 you must patch your X server. The following 246page has a bit of information about using the Intellimouse on Linux as well as 247links to the patches and X server binaries (may not have the one you need 248though): 249 http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/ 250 251============================================================================== 2523. Mouse Control *gui-mouse* 253 254The mouse only works if the appropriate flag in the 'mouse' option is set. 255When the GUI is switched on, and 'mouse' wasn't set yet, the 'mouse' option is 256automatically set to "a", enabling it for all modes except for the 257|hit-enter| prompt. If you don't want this, a good place to change the 258'mouse' option is the "gvimrc" file. 259 260Other options that are relevant: 261'mousefocus' window focus follows mouse pointer |gui-mouse-focus| 262'mousemodel' what mouse button does which action 263'mousehide' hide mouse pointer while typing text 264'selectmode' whether to start Select mode or Visual mode 265 266A quick way to set these is with the ":behave" command. 267 *:behave* *:be* 268:be[have] {model} Set behavior for mouse and selection. Valid 269 arguments are: 270 mswin MS-Windows behavior 271 xterm Xterm behavior 272 273 Using ":behave" changes these options: 274 option mswin xterm ~ 275 'selectmode' "mouse,key" "" 276 'mousemodel' "popup" "extend" 277 'keymodel' "startsel,stopsel" "" 278 'selection' "exclusive" "inclusive" 279 280In the $VIMRUNTIME directory, there is a script called |mswin.vim|, which will 281also map a few keys to the MS-Windows cut/copy/paste commands. This is NOT 282compatible, since it uses the CTRL-V, CTRL-X and CTRL-C keys. If you don't 283mind, use this command: > 284 :so $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim 285 286For scrolling with a wheel on a mouse, see |scroll-mouse-wheel|. 287 288 2893.1 Moving Cursor with Mouse *gui-mouse-move* 290 291Click the left mouse button somewhere in a text buffer where you want the 292cursor to go, and it does! 293This works in when 'mouse' contains ~ 294Normal mode 'n' or 'a' 295Visual mode 'v' or 'a' 296Insert mode 'i' or 'a' 297 298Select mode is handled like Visual mode. 299 300You may use this with an operator such as 'd' to delete text from the current 301cursor position to the position you point to with the mouse. That is, you hit 302'd' and then click the mouse somewhere. 303 304 *gui-mouse-focus* 305The 'mousefocus' option can be set to make the keyboard focus follow the 306mouse pointer. This means that the window where the mouse pointer is, is the 307active window. Warning: this doesn't work very well when using a menu, 308because the menu command will always be applied to the top window. 309 310If you are on the ':' line (or '/' or '?'), then clicking the left or right 311mouse button will position the cursor on the ':' line (if 'mouse' contains 312'c', 'a' or 'A'). 313 314In any situation the middle mouse button may be clicked to paste the current 315selection. 316 317 3183.2 Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-select* 319 320The mouse can be used to start a selection. How depends on the 'mousemodel' 321option: 322'mousemodel' is "extend": use the right mouse button 323'mousemodel' is "popup": use the left mouse button, while keeping the Shift 324key pressed. 325 326If there was no selection yet, this starts a selection from the old cursor 327position to the position pointed to with the mouse. If there already is a 328selection then the closest end will be extended. 329 330If 'selectmode' contains "mouse", then the selection will be in Select mode. 331This means that typing normal text will replace the selection. See 332|Select-mode|. Otherwise, the selection will be in Visual mode. 333 334Double clicking may be done to make the selection word-wise, triple clicking 335makes it line-wise, and quadruple clicking makes it rectangular block-wise. 336 337See |gui-selections| on how the selection is used. 338 339 3403.3 Other Text Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-modeless* 341 *modeless-selection* 342A different kind of selection is used when: 343- in Command-line mode 344- in the Command-line window and pointing in another window 345- at the |hit-enter| prompt 346- whenever the current mode is not in the 'mouse' option 347- when holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys in the GUI 348 349Since Vim continues like the selection isn't there, and there is no mode 350associated with the selection, this is called modeless selection. Any text in 351the Vim window can be selected. Select the text by pressing the left mouse 352button at the start, drag to the end and release. To extend the selection, 353use the right mouse button when 'mousemodel' is "extend", or the left mouse 354button with the shift key pressed when 'mousemodel' is "popup". 355The selection is removed when the selected text is scrolled or changed. 356 357On the command line CTRL-Y can be used to copy the selection into the 358clipboard. To do this from Insert mode, use CTRL-O : CTRL-Y <CR>. When 359'guioptions' contains a or A (default on X11), the selection is automatically 360copied to the "* register. 361 362The middle mouse button can then paste the text. On non-X11 systems, you can 363use CTRL-R +. 364 365 3663.4 Using Mouse on Status Lines *gui-mouse-status* 367 368Clicking the left or right mouse button on the status line below a Vim 369window makes that window the current window. This actually happens on button 370release (to be able to distinguish a click from a drag action). 371 372With the left mouse button a status line can be dragged up and down, thus 373resizing the windows above and below it. This does not change window focus. 374 375The same can be used on the vertical separator: click to give the window left 376of it focus, drag left and right to make windows wider and narrower. 377 378 3793.5 Various Mouse Clicks *gui-mouse-various* 380 381 <S-LeftMouse> Search forward for the word under the mouse click. 382 When 'mousemodel' is "popup" this starts or extends a 383 selection. 384 <S-RightMouse> Search backward for the word under the mouse click. 385 <C-LeftMouse> Jump to the tag name under the mouse click. 386 <C-RightMouse> Jump back to position before the previous tag jump 387 (same as "CTRL-T") 388 389 3903.6 Mouse Mappings *gui-mouse-mapping* 391 392The mouse events, complete with modifiers, may be mapped. Eg: > 393 :map <S-LeftMouse> <RightMouse> 394 :map <S-LeftDrag> <RightDrag> 395 :map <S-LeftRelease> <RightRelease> 396 :map <2-S-LeftMouse> <2-RightMouse> 397 :map <2-S-LeftDrag> <2-RightDrag> 398 :map <2-S-LeftRelease> <2-RightRelease> 399 :map <3-S-LeftMouse> <3-RightMouse> 400 :map <3-S-LeftDrag> <3-RightDrag> 401 :map <3-S-LeftRelease> <3-RightRelease> 402 :map <4-S-LeftMouse> <4-RightMouse> 403 :map <4-S-LeftDrag> <4-RightDrag> 404 :map <4-S-LeftRelease> <4-RightRelease> 405These mappings make selection work the way it probably should in a Motif 406application, with shift-left mouse allowing for extending the visual area 407rather than the right mouse button. 408 409Mouse mapping with modifiers does not work for modeless selection. 410 411 4123.7 Drag and drop *drag-n-drop* 413 414You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will 415be opened as if a |:drop| command was used. 416 417If you hold down Shift while doing this, Vim changes to the first dropped 418file's directory. If you hold Ctrl Vim will always split a new window for the 419file. Otherwise it's only done if the current buffer has been changed. 420 421You can also drop a directory on Vim. This starts the explorer plugin for 422that directory (assuming it was enabled, otherwise you'll get an error 423message). Keep Shift pressed to change to the directory instead. 424 425If Vim happens to be editing a command line, the names of the dropped files 426and directories will be inserted at the cursor. This allows you to use these 427names with any Ex command. Special characters (space, tab, double quote and 428'|'; backslash on non-MS-Windows systems) will be escaped. 429 430============================================================================== 4314. Making GUI Selections *gui-selections* 432 433 *quotestar* 434You may make selections with the mouse (see |gui-mouse-select|), or by using 435Vim's Visual mode (see |v|). If 'a' is present in 'guioptions', then 436whenever a selection is started (Visual or Select mode), or when the selection 437is changed, Vim becomes the owner of the windowing system's primary selection 438(on MS-Windows the |gui-clipboard| is used; under X11, the |x11-selection| is 439used - you should read whichever of these is appropriate now). 440 441 *clipboard* 442There is a special register for storing this selection, it is the "* 443register. Nothing is put in here unless the information about what text is 444selected is about to change (e.g. with a left mouse click somewhere), or when 445another application wants to paste the selected text. Then the text is put 446in the "* register. For example, to cut a line and make it the current 447selection/put it on the clipboard: > 448 449 "*dd 450 451Similarly, when you want to paste a selection from another application, e.g., 452by clicking the middle mouse button, the selection is put in the "* register 453first, and then 'put' like any other register. For example, to put the 454selection (contents of the clipboard): > 455 456 "*p 457 458When using this register under X11, also see |x11-selection|. This also 459explains the related "+ register. 460 461Note that when pasting text from one Vim into another separate Vim, the type 462of selection (character, line, or block) will also be copied. For other 463applications the type is always character. However, if the text gets 464transferred via the |x11-cut-buffer|, the selection type is ALWAYS lost. 465 466When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed 467register is the same as the "* register. Thus you can yank to and paste the 468selection without prepending "* to commands. 469 470============================================================================== 4715. Menus *menus* 472 473For an introduction see |usr_42.txt| in the user manual. 474 475 4765.1 Using Menus *using-menus* 477 478Basically, menus can be used just like mappings. You can define your own 479menus, as many as you like. 480Long-time Vim users won't use menus much. But the power is in adding your own 481menus and menu items. They are most useful for things that you can't remember 482what the key sequence was. 483 484For creating menus in a different language, see |:menutrans|. 485If you don't want to use menus at all, see |'go-M'|. 486 487 *menu.vim* 488The default menus are read from the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". See 489|$VIMRUNTIME| for where the path comes from. You can set up your own menus. 490Starting off with the default set is a good idea. You can add more items, or, 491if you don't like the defaults at all, start with removing all menus 492|:unmenu-all|. You can also avoid the default menus being loaded by adding 493this line to your .vimrc file (NOT your .gvimrc file!): > 494 :let did_install_default_menus = 1 495If you also want to avoid the Syntax menu: > 496 :let did_install_syntax_menu = 1 497The first item in the Syntax menu can be used to show all available filetypes 498in the menu (which can take a bit of time to load). If you want to have all 499filetypes already present at startup, add: > 500 :let do_syntax_sel_menu = 1 501 502The following menuitems show all available color schemes, keymaps and compiler 503settings: 504 Edit > Color Scheme ~ 505 Edit > Keymap ~ 506 Tools > Set Compiler ~ 507However, they can also take a bit of time to load, because they search all 508related files from the directories in 'runtimepath'. Therefore they are 509loaded lazily (by the |CursorHold| event), or you can also load them manually. 510If you want to have all these items already present at startup, add: > 511 :let do_no_lazyload_menus = 1 512 513Note that the menu.vim is sourced when `:syntax on` or `:filetype on` is 514executed or after your .vimrc file is sourced. This means that the 'encoding' 515option and the language of messages (`:language messages`) must be set before 516that (if you want to change them). 517 518 *console-menus* 519Although this documentation is in the GUI section, you can actually use menus 520in console mode too. You will have to load |menu.vim| explicitly then, it is 521not done by default. You can use the |:emenu| command and command-line 522completion with 'wildmenu' to access the menu entries almost like a real menu 523system. To do this, put these commands in your .vimrc file: > 524 :source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim 525 :set wildmenu 526 :set cpo-=< 527 :set wcm=<C-Z> 528 :map <F4> :emenu <C-Z> 529Pressing <F4> will start the menu. You can now use the cursor keys to select 530a menu entry. Hit <Enter> to execute it. Hit <Esc> if you want to cancel. 531This does require the |+menu| feature enabled at compile time. 532 533 *tear-off-menus* 534GTK+ 2 and Motif support Tear-off menus. These are sort of sticky menus or 535pop-up menus that are present all the time. If the resizing does not work 536correctly, this may be caused by using something like "Vim*geometry" in the 537defaults. Use "Vim.geometry" instead. 538 539As to GTK+ 3, tear-off menus have been deprecated since GTK+ 3.4. 540Accordingly, they are disabled if gvim is linked against GTK+ 3.4 or later. 541 542The Win32 GUI version emulates Motif's tear-off menus. Actually, a Motif user 543will spot the differences easily, but hopefully they're just as useful. You 544can also use the |:tearoff| command together with |hidden-menus| to create 545floating menus that do not appear on the main menu bar. 546 547 5485.2 Creating New Menus *creating-menus* 549 550 *:me* *:menu* *:noreme* *:noremenu* 551 *:am* *:amenu* *:an* *:anoremenu* 552 *:nme* *:nmenu* *:nnoreme* *:nnoremenu* 553 *:ome* *:omenu* *:onoreme* *:onoremenu* 554 *:vme* *:vmenu* *:vnoreme* *:vnoremenu* 555 *:xme* *:xmenu* *:xnoreme* *:xnoremenu* 556 *:sme* *:smenu* *:snoreme* *:snoremenu* 557 *:ime* *:imenu* *:inoreme* *:inoremenu* 558 *:cme* *:cmenu* *:cnoreme* *:cnoremenu* 559 *:tlm* *:tlmenu* *:tln* *:tlnoremenu* 560 *E330* *E327* *E331* *E336* *E333* 561 *E328* *E329* *E337* *E792* 562To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are mostly like 563the ":map" set of commands but the first argument is a menu item name, given 564as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them, e.g.: > 565 566 :menu File.Save :w<CR> 567 :inoremenu File.Save <C-O>:w<CR> 568 :menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces :%s/[ ^I]//g<CR> 569 570This last one will create a new item in the menu bar called "Edit", holding 571the mouse button down on this will pop up a menu containing the item 572"Big Changes", which is a sub-menu containing the item "Delete All Spaces", 573which when selected, performs the operation. 574 575To create a menu for terminal mode, use |:tlmenu| instead of |:tmenu| unlike 576key mapping (|:tmap|). This is because |:tmenu| is already used for defining 577tooltips for menus. See |terminal-typing|. 578 579Special characters in a menu name: 580 581 & The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each 582 shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu. If you want to 583 insert a literal "&" in the menu name use "&&". 584 <Tab> Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be 585 used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "<Tab>" 586 can be used here for convenience. If you are using a real 587 tab, don't forget to put a backslash before it! 588Example: > 589 590 :amenu &File.&Open<Tab>:e :browse e<CR> 591 592[typed literally] 593With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the <Alt> key pressed), and then "O", 594this menu can be used. The second part is shown as "Open :e". The ":e" 595is right aligned, and the "O" is underlined, to indicate it is the shortcut. 596 597The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once, 598except for Terminal mode. To make the command work correctly, a character is 599automatically inserted for some modes: 600 mode inserted appended ~ 601 Normal nothing nothing 602 Visual <C-C> <C-\><C-G> 603 Insert <C-\><C-O> 604 Cmdline <C-C> <C-\><C-G> 605 Op-pending <C-C> <C-\><C-G> 606 607Appending CTRL-\ CTRL-G is for going back to insert mode when 'insertmode' is 608set. |CTRL-\_CTRL-G| 609 610Example: > 611 612 :amenu File.Next :next^M 613 614is equal to: > 615 616 :nmenu File.Next :next^M 617 :vmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G 618 :imenu File.Next ^\^O:next^M 619 :cmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G 620 :omenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G 621 622Careful: In Insert mode this only works for a SINGLE Normal mode command, 623because of the CTRL-O. If you have two or more commands, you will need to use 624the ":imenu" command. For inserting text in any mode, you can use the 625expression register: > 626 627 :amenu Insert.foobar "='foobar'<CR>P 628 629Note that the '<' and 'k' flags in 'cpoptions' also apply here (when 630included they make the <> form and raw key codes not being recognized). 631 632Note that <Esc> in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This 633is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode. 634 635 *:menu-<silent>* *:menu-silent* 636To define a menu which will not be echoed on the command line, add 637"<silent>" as the first argument. Example: > 638 :menu <silent> Settings.Ignore\ case :set ic<CR> 639The ":set ic" will not be echoed when using this menu. Messages from the 640executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a ":silent" 641in the executed command: > 642 :menu <silent> Search.Header :exe ":silent normal /Header\r"<CR> 643"<silent>" may also appear just after "<special>" or "<script>". 644 645 *:menu-<special>* *:menu-special* 646Define a menu with <> notation for special keys, even though the "<" flag 647may appear in 'cpoptions'. This is useful if the side effect of setting 648'cpoptions' is not desired. Example: > 649 :menu <special> Search.Header /Header<CR> 650"<special>" must appear as the very first argument to the ":menu" command or 651just after "<silent>" or "<script>". 652 653 *:menu-<script>* *:menu-script* 654The "to" part of the menu will be inspected for mappings. If you don't want 655this, use the ":noremenu" command (or the similar one for a specific mode). 656If you do want to use script-local mappings, add "<script>" as the very first 657argument to the ":menu" command or just after "<silent>" or "<special>". 658 659 *menu-priority* 660You can give a priority to a menu. Menus with a higher priority go more to 661the right. The priority is given as a number before the ":menu" command. 662Example: > 663 :80menu Buffer.next :bn<CR> 664 665The default menus have these priorities: 666 File 10 667 Edit 20 668 Tools 40 669 Syntax 50 670 Buffers 60 671 Window 70 672 Help 9999 673 674When no or zero priority is given, 500 is used. 675The priority for the PopUp menu is not used. 676 677The Help menu will be placed on the far right side of the menu bar on systems 678which support this (Motif and GTK+). For GTK+ 2 and 3, this is not done 679anymore because right-aligning the Help menu is now discouraged UI design. 680 681You can use a priority higher than 9999, to make it go after the Help menu, 682but that is non-standard and is discouraged. The highest possible priority is 683about 32000. The lowest is 1. 684 685 *sub-menu-priority* 686The same mechanism can be used to position a sub-menu. The priority is then 687given as a dot-separated list of priorities, before the menu name: > 688 :menu 80.500 Buffer.next :bn<CR> 689Giving the sub-menu priority is only needed when the item is not to be put 690in a normal position. For example, to put a sub-menu before the other items: > 691 :menu 80.100 Buffer.first :brew<CR> 692Or to put a sub-menu after the other items, and further items with default 693priority will be put before it: > 694 :menu 80.900 Buffer.last :blast<CR> 695When a number is missing, the default value 500 will be used: > 696 :menu .900 myMenu.test :echo "text"<CR> 697The menu priority is only used when creating a new menu. When it already 698existed, e.g., in another mode, the priority will not change. Thus, the 699priority only needs to be given the first time a menu is used. 700An exception is the PopUp menu. There is a separate menu for each mode 701(Normal, Op-pending, Visual, Insert, Cmdline). The order in each of these 702menus can be different. This is different from menu-bar menus, which have 703the same order for all modes. 704NOTE: sub-menu priorities currently don't work for all versions of the GUI. 705 706 *menu-separator* *E332* 707Menu items can be separated by a special item that inserts some space between 708items. Depending on the system this is displayed as a line or a dotted line. 709These items must start with a '-' and end in a '-'. The part in between is 710used to give it a unique name. Priorities can be used as with normal items. 711Example: > 712 :menu Example.item1 :do something 713 :menu Example.-Sep- : 714 :menu Example.item2 :do something different 715Note that the separator also requires a rhs. It doesn't matter what it is, 716because the item will never be selected. Use a single colon to keep it 717simple. 718 719 *gui-toolbar* 720The toolbar is currently available in the Win32, Athena, Motif, GTK+ (X11), 721and Photon GUI. It should turn up in other GUIs in due course. The 722default toolbar is setup in menu.vim. 723The display of the toolbar is controlled by the 'guioptions' letter 'T'. You 724can thus have menu & toolbar together, or either on its own, or neither. 725The appearance is controlled by the 'toolbar' option. You can choose between 726an image, text or both. 727 728 *toolbar-icon* 729The toolbar is defined as a special menu called ToolBar, which only has one 730level. Vim interprets the items in this menu as follows: 7311) If an "icon=" argument was specified, the file with this name is used. 732 The file can either be specified with the full path or with the base name. 733 In the last case it is searched for in the "bitmaps" directory in 734 'runtimepath', like in point 3. Examples: > 735 :amenu icon=/usr/local/pixmaps/foo_icon.xpm ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR> 736 :amenu icon=FooIcon ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR> 737< Note that in the first case the extension is included, while in the second 738 case it is omitted. 739 If the file cannot be opened the next points are tried. 740 A space in the file name must be escaped with a backslash. 741 A menu priority must come _after_ the icon argument: > 742 :amenu icon=foo 1.42 ToolBar.Foo :echo "42!"<CR> 7432) An item called 'BuiltIn##', where ## is a number, is taken as number ## of 744 the built-in bitmaps available in Vim. Currently there are 31 numbered 745 from 0 to 30 which cover most common editing operations |builtin-tools|. > 746 :amenu ToolBar.BuiltIn22 :call SearchNext("back")<CR> 7473) An item with another name is first searched for in the directory 748 "bitmaps" in 'runtimepath'. If found, the bitmap file is used as the 749 toolbar button image. Note that the exact filename is OS-specific: For 750 example, under Win32 the command > 751 :amenu ToolBar.Hello :echo "hello"<CR> 752< would find the file 'hello.bmp'. Under GTK+/X11 it is 'Hello.xpm'. With 753 GTK+ 2 the files 'Hello.png', 'Hello.xpm' and 'Hello.bmp' are checked for 754 existence, and the first one found would be used. 755 For MS-Windows and GTK+ 2 the bitmap is scaled to fit the button. For 756 MS-Windows a size of 18 by 18 pixels works best. 757 For MS-Windows the bitmap should have 16 colors with the standard palette. 758 The light grey pixels will be changed to the Window frame color and the 759 dark grey pixels to the window shadow color. More colors might also work, 760 depending on your system. 7614) If the bitmap is still not found, Vim checks for a match against its list 762 of built-in names. Each built-in button image has a name. 763 So the command > 764 :amenu ToolBar.Open :e 765< will show the built-in "open a file" button image if no open.bmp exists. 766 All the built-in names can be seen used in menu.vim. 7675) If all else fails, a blank, but functioning, button is displayed. 768 769 *builtin-tools* 770nr Name Normal action ~ 77100 New open new window 77201 Open browse for file to open in current window 77302 Save write buffer to file 77403 Undo undo last change 77504 Redo redo last undone change 77605 Cut delete selected text to clipboard 77706 Copy copy selected text to clipboard 77807 Paste paste text from clipboard 77908 Print print current buffer 78009 Help open a buffer on Vim's builtin help 78110 Find start a search command 78211 SaveAll write all modified buffers to file 78312 SaveSesn write session file for current situation 78413 NewSesn write new session file 78514 LoadSesn load session file 78615 RunScript browse for file to run as a Vim script 78716 Replace prompt for substitute command 78817 WinClose close current window 78918 WinMax make current window use many lines 79019 WinMin make current window use few lines 79120 WinSplit split current window 79221 Shell start a shell 79322 FindPrev search again, backward 79423 FindNext search again, forward 79524 FindHelp prompt for word to search help for 79625 Make run make and jump to first error 79726 TagJump jump to tag under the cursor 79827 RunCtags build tags for files in current directory 79928 WinVSplit split current window vertically 80029 WinMaxWidth make current window use many columns 80130 WinMinWidth make current window use few columns 802 803 *hidden-menus* *win32-hidden-menus* 804In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, starting a menu name with ']' excludes that menu 805from the main menu bar. You must then use the |:popup| or |:tearoff| command 806to display it. 807 808 *window-toolbar* *WinBar* 809Each window can have a local toolbar. This uses the first line of the window, 810thus reduces the space for the text by one line. The items in the toolbar 811must start with "WinBar". 812 813Only text can be used. When using Unicode, special characters can be used to 814make the items look like icons. 815 816If the items do not fit then the last ones cannot be used. The toolbar does 817not wrap. 818 819Note that Vim may be in any mode when executing these commands. The menu 820should be defined for Normal mode and will be executed without changing the 821current mode. Thus if the current window is in Visual mode and the menu 822command does not intentionally change the mode, Vim will remain in Visual 823mode. Best is to use `:nnoremenu` to avoid side effects. 824 825Example for debugger tools: > 826 nnoremenu 1.10 WinBar.Step :Step<CR> 827 nnoremenu 1.20 WinBar.Next :Next<CR> 828 nnoremenu 1.30 WinBar.Finish :Finish<CR> 829 nnoremenu 1.40 WinBar.Cont :Continue<CR> 830< 831The window toolbar uses the ToolbarLine and ToolbarButton highlight groups. 832 833When splitting the window the window toolbar is not copied to the new window. 834 835 *popup-menu* 836In the Win32, GTK+, Motif, Athena and Photon GUI, you can define the 837special menu "PopUp". This is the menu that is displayed when the right mouse 838button is pressed, if 'mousemodel' is set to popup or popup_setpos. 839Example: > 840 nnoremenu 1.40 PopUp.&Paste "+gP 841 menu PopUp 842 843 8445.3 Showing What Menus Are Mapped To *showing-menus* 845 846To see what an existing menu is mapped to, use just one argument after the 847menu commands (just like you would with the ":map" commands). If the menu 848specified is a submenu, then all menus under that hierarchy will be shown. 849If no argument is given after :menu at all, then ALL menu items are shown 850for the appropriate mode (e.g., Command-line mode for :cmenu). 851 852Special characters in the list, just before the rhs: 853* The menu was defined with "nore" to disallow remapping. 854& The menu was defined with "<script>" to allow remapping script-local 855 mappings only. 856- The menu was disabled. 857 858Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after a menu command may 859be used to complete the name of the menu item. 860 861 8625.4 Executing Menus *execute-menus* 863 864 *:em* *:emenu* *E334* *E335* 865:[range]em[enu] {menu} Execute {menu} from the command line. 866 The default is to execute the Normal mode 867 menu. If a range is specified, it executes 868 the Visual mode menu. 869 If used from <c-o>, it executes the 870 insert-mode menu Eg: > 871 :emenu File.Exit 872 873:[range]em[enu] {mode} {menu} Like above, but execute the menu for {mode}: 874 'n': |:nmenu| Normal mode 875 'v': |:vmenu| Visual mode 876 's': |:smenu| Select mode 877 'o': |:omenu| Operator-pending mode 878 't': |:tlmenu| Terminal mode 879 'i': |:imenu| Insert mode 880 'c': |:cmenu| Cmdline mode 881 882 883If the console-mode vim has been compiled with WANT_MENU defined, you can 884use :emenu to access useful menu items you may have got used to from GUI 885mode. See 'wildmenu' for an option that works well with this. See 886|console-menus| for an example. 887 888When using a range, if the lines match with '<,'>, then the menu is executed 889using the last visual selection. 890 891 8925.5 Deleting Menus *delete-menus* 893 894 *:unme* *:unmenu* 895 *:aun* *:aunmenu* 896 *:nunme* *:nunmenu* 897 *:ounme* *:ounmenu* 898 *:vunme* *:vunmenu* 899 *:xunme* *:xunmenu* 900 *:sunme* *:sunmenu* 901 *:iunme* *:iunmenu* 902 *:cunme* *:cunmenu* 903 *:tlu* *:tlunmenu* 904To delete a menu item or a whole submenu, use the unmenu commands, which are 905analogous to the unmap commands. Eg: > 906 :unmenu! Edit.Paste 907 908This will remove the Paste item from the Edit menu for Insert and 909Command-line modes. 910 911Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after an umenu command 912may be used to complete the name of the menu item for the appropriate mode. 913 914To remove all menus use: *:unmenu-all* > 915 :unmenu * " remove all menus in Normal and visual mode 916 :unmenu! * " remove all menus in Insert and Command-line mode 917 :aunmenu * " remove all menus in all modes, except for Terminal 918 " mode 919 :tlunmenu * " remove all menus in Terminal mode 920 921If you want to get rid of the menu bar: > 922 :set guioptions-=m 923 924 9255.6 Disabling Menus *disable-menus* 926 927 *:menu-disable* *:menu-enable* 928If you do not want to remove a menu, but disable it for a moment, this can be 929done by adding the "enable" or "disable" keyword to a ":menu" command. 930Examples: > 931 :menu disable &File.&Open\.\.\. 932 :amenu enable * 933 :amenu disable &Tools.* 934 935The command applies to the modes as used with all menu commands. Note that 936characters like "&" need to be included for translated names to be found. 937When the argument is "*", all menus are affected. Otherwise the given menu 938name and all existing submenus below it are affected. 939 940 9415.7 Examples for Menus *menu-examples* 942 943Here is an example on how to add menu items with menu's! You can add a menu 944item for the keyword under the cursor. The register "z" is used. > 945 946 :nmenu Words.Add\ Var wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR> 947 :nmenu Words.Remove\ Var wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR> 948 :vmenu Words.Add\ Var "zy:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z <CR> 949 :vmenu Words.Remove\ Var "zy:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR> 950 :imenu Words.Add\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>a 951 :imenu Words.Remove\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>a 952 953(the rhs is in <> notation, you can copy/paste this text to try out the 954mappings, or put these lines in your gvimrc; "<C-R>" is CTRL-R, "<CR>" is 955the <CR> key. |<>|) 956 957 9585.8 Tooltips & Menu tips 959 960See section |42.4| in the user manual. 961 962 *:tmenu* *:tm* 963:tm[enu] {menupath} {rhs} Define a tip for a menu or tool. {only in 964 X11 and Win32 GUI} 965 966:tm[enu] [menupath] List menu tips. {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} 967 968 *:tunmenu* *:tu* 969:tu[nmenu] {menupath} Remove a tip for a menu or tool. 970 {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} 971 972Note: To create menus for terminal mode, use |:tlmenu| instead. 973 974When a tip is defined for a menu item, it appears in the command-line area 975when the mouse is over that item, much like a standard Windows menu hint in 976the status bar. (Except when Vim is in Command-line mode, when of course 977nothing is displayed.) 978When a tip is defined for a ToolBar item, it appears as a tooltip when the 979mouse pauses over that button, in the usual fashion. Use the |hl-Tooltip| 980highlight group to change its colors. 981 982A "tip" can be defined for each menu item. For example, when defining a menu 983item like this: > 984 :amenu MyMenu.Hello :echo "Hello"<CR> 985The tip is defined like this: > 986 :tmenu MyMenu.Hello Displays a greeting. 987And delete it with: > 988 :tunmenu MyMenu.Hello 989 990Tooltips are currently only supported for the X11 and Win32 GUI. However, they 991should appear for the other gui platforms in the not too distant future. 992 993The ":tmenu" command works just like other menu commands, it uses the same 994arguments. ":tunmenu" deletes an existing menu tip, in the same way as the 995other unmenu commands. 996 997If a menu item becomes invalid (i.e. its actions in all modes are deleted) Vim 998deletes the menu tip (and the item) for you. This means that :aunmenu deletes 999a menu item - you don't need to do a :tunmenu as well. 1000 1001 10025.9 Popup Menus 1003 1004In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, you can cause a menu to popup at the cursor. 1005This behaves similarly to the PopUp menus except that any menu tree can 1006be popped up. 1007 1008This command is for backwards compatibility, using it is discouraged, because 1009it behaves in a strange way. 1010 1011 *:popup* *:popu* 1012:popu[p] {name} Popup the menu {name}. The menu named must 1013 have at least one subentry, but need not 1014 appear on the menu-bar (see |hidden-menus|). 1015 {only available for Win32 and GTK GUI or in 1016 the terminal when compiled with +insert_expand} 1017 1018:popu[p]! {name} Like above, but use the position of the mouse 1019 pointer instead of the cursor. 1020 In the terminal this is the last known 1021 position, which is usually at the last click 1022 or release (mouse movement is irrelevant). 1023 1024Example: > 1025 :popup File 1026will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear at the text cursor (mouse 1027pointer if ! was used). > 1028 1029 :amenu ]Toolbar.Make :make<CR> 1030 :popup ]Toolbar 1031This creates a popup menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar. 1032 1033Note that in the GUI the :popup command will return immediately, before a 1034selection has been made. In the terminal the commands waits for the user to 1035make a selection. 1036 1037Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed. 1038 1039============================================================================== 10406. Extras *gui-extras* 1041 1042This section describes other features which are related to the GUI. 1043 1044- With the GUI, there is no wait for one second after hitting escape, because 1045 the key codes don't start with <Esc>. 1046 1047- Typing ^V followed by a special key in the GUI will insert "<Key>", since 1048 the internal string used is meaningless. Modifiers may also be held down to 1049 get "<Modifiers-Key>". 1050 1051- In the GUI, the modifiers SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT (or META) may be used within 1052 mappings of special keys and mouse events. E.g.: :map <M-LeftDrag> <LeftDrag> 1053 1054- In the GUI, several normal keys may have modifiers in mappings etc, these 1055 are <Space>, <Tab>, <NL>, <CR>, <Esc>. 1056 1057- To check in a Vim script if the GUI is being used, you can use something 1058 like this: > 1059 1060 if has("gui_running") 1061 echo "yes, we have a GUI" 1062 else 1063 echo "Boring old console" 1064 endif 1065< *setting-guifont* 1066- When you use the same vimrc file on various systems, you can use something 1067 like this to set options specifically for each type of GUI: > 1068 1069 if has("gui_running") 1070 if has("gui_gtk2") 1071 :set guifont=Luxi\ Mono\ 12 1072 elseif has("x11") 1073 " Also for GTK 1 1074 :set guifont=*-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-*-*-180-*-*-m-*-* 1075 elseif has("gui_win32") 1076 :set guifont=Luxi_Mono:h12:cANSI 1077 endif 1078 endif 1079 1080A recommended Japanese font is MS Mincho. You can find info here: 1081http://www.lexikan.com/mincho.htm 1082 1083============================================================================== 10847. Shell Commands *gui-shell* 1085 1086For the X11 GUI the external commands are executed inside the gvim window. 1087See |gui-pty|. 1088 1089WARNING: Executing an external command from the X11 GUI will not always 1090work. "normal" commands like "ls", "grep" and "make" mostly work fine. 1091Commands that require an intelligent terminal like "less" and "ispell" won't 1092work. Some may even hang and need to be killed from another terminal. So be 1093careful! 1094 1095For the Win32 GUI the external commands are executed in a separate window. 1096See |gui-shell-win32|. 1097 1098 vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: 1099