xref: /vim-8.2.3635/runtime/doc/help.txt (revision 2286304c) 
1*help.txt*	For Vim version 8.2.  Last change: 2020 Aug 15
2
3			VIM - main help file
4									 k
5      Move around:  Use the cursor keys, or "h" to go left,	       h   l
6		    "j" to go down, "k" to go up, "l" to go right.	 j
7Close this window:  Use ":q<Enter>".
8   Get out of Vim:  Use ":qa!<Enter>" (careful, all changes are lost!).
9
10Jump to a subject:  Position the cursor on a tag (e.g. |bars|) and hit CTRL-].
11   With the mouse:  ":set mouse=a" to enable the mouse (in xterm or GUI).
12		    Double-click the left mouse button on a tag, e.g. |bars|.
13	Jump back:  Type CTRL-O.  Repeat to go further back.
14
15Get specific help:  It is possible to go directly to whatever you want help
16		    on, by giving an argument to the |:help| command.
17		    Prepend something to specify the context:  *help-context*
18
19			  WHAT			PREPEND    EXAMPLE	~
20		      Normal mode command		   :help x
21		      Visual mode command	  v_	   :help v_u
22		      Insert mode command	  i_	   :help i_<Esc>
23		      Command-line command	  :	   :help :quit
24		      Command-line editing	  c_	   :help c_<Del>
25		      Vim command argument	  -	   :help -r
26		      Option			  '	   :help 'textwidth'
27		      Regular expression	  /	   :help /[
28		    See |help-summary| for more contexts and an explanation.
29
30  Search for help:  Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching
31		    help entries for "word".
32		    Or use ":helpgrep word". |:helpgrep|
33
34  Getting started:  Do the Vim tutor, a 30-minute interactive course for the
35		    basic commands, see |vimtutor|.
36		    Read the user manual from start to end: |usr_01.txt|
37
38Vim stands for Vi IMproved.  Most of Vim was made by Bram Moolenaar, but only
39through the help of many others.  See |credits|.
40------------------------------------------------------------------------------
41						*doc-file-list* *Q_ct*
42BASIC:
43|quickref|	Overview of the most common commands you will use
44|tutor|		30-minute interactive course for beginners
45|copying|	About copyrights
46|iccf|		Helping poor children in Uganda
47|sponsor|	Sponsor Vim development, become a registered Vim user
48|www|		Vim on the World Wide Web
49|bugs|		Where to send bug reports
50
51USER MANUAL: These files explain how to accomplish an editing task.
52
53|usr_toc.txt|	Table Of Contents
54
55Getting Started ~
56|usr_01.txt|  About the manuals
57|usr_02.txt|  The first steps in Vim
58|usr_03.txt|  Moving around
59|usr_04.txt|  Making small changes
60|usr_05.txt|  Set your settings
61|usr_06.txt|  Using syntax highlighting
62|usr_07.txt|  Editing more than one file
63|usr_08.txt|  Splitting windows
64|usr_09.txt|  Using the GUI
65|usr_10.txt|  Making big changes
66|usr_11.txt|  Recovering from a crash
67|usr_12.txt|  Clever tricks
68
69Editing Effectively ~
70|usr_20.txt|  Typing command-line commands quickly
71|usr_21.txt|  Go away and come back
72|usr_22.txt|  Finding the file to edit
73|usr_23.txt|  Editing other files
74|usr_24.txt|  Inserting quickly
75|usr_25.txt|  Editing formatted text
76|usr_26.txt|  Repeating
77|usr_27.txt|  Search commands and patterns
78|usr_28.txt|  Folding
79|usr_29.txt|  Moving through programs
80|usr_30.txt|  Editing programs
81|usr_31.txt|  Exploiting the GUI
82|usr_32.txt|  The undo tree
83
84Tuning Vim ~
85|usr_40.txt|  Make new commands
86|usr_41.txt|  Write a Vim script
87|usr_42.txt|  Add new menus
88|usr_43.txt|  Using filetypes
89|usr_44.txt|  Your own syntax highlighted
90|usr_45.txt|  Select your language
91|usr_46.txt|  Write plugins using Vim9 script
92
93Making Vim Run ~
94|usr_90.txt|  Installing Vim
95
96
97REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim.	*reference_toc*
98
99General subjects ~
100|intro.txt|	general introduction to Vim; notation used in help files
101|help.txt|	overview and quick reference (this file)
102|helphelp.txt|	about using the help files
103|index.txt|	alphabetical index of all commands
104|help-tags|	all the tags you can jump to (index of tags)
105|howto.txt|	how to do the most common editing tasks
106|tips.txt|	various tips on using Vim
107|message.txt|	(error) messages and explanations
108|quotes.txt|	remarks from users of Vim
109|todo.txt|	known problems and desired extensions
110|develop.txt|	development of Vim
111|debug.txt|	debugging Vim itself
112|uganda.txt|	Vim distribution conditions and what to do with your money
113
114Basic editing ~
115|starting.txt|	starting Vim, Vim command arguments, initialisation
116|editing.txt|	editing and writing files
117|motion.txt|	commands for moving around
118|scroll.txt|	scrolling the text in the window
119|insert.txt|	Insert and Replace mode
120|change.txt|	deleting and replacing text
121|undo.txt|	Undo and Redo
122|repeat.txt|	repeating commands, Vim scripts and debugging
123|visual.txt|	using the Visual mode (selecting a text area)
124|various.txt|	various remaining commands
125|recover.txt|	recovering from a crash
126
127Advanced editing ~
128|cmdline.txt|	Command-line editing
129|options.txt|	description of all options
130|pattern.txt|	regexp patterns and search commands
131|map.txt|	key mapping and abbreviations
132|tagsrch.txt|	tags and special searches
133|windows.txt|	commands for using multiple windows and buffers
134|tabpage.txt|	commands for using multiple tab pages
135|spell.txt|	spell checking
136|diff.txt|	working with two to eight versions of the same file
137|autocmd.txt|	automatically executing commands on an event
138|eval.txt|	expression evaluation, conditional commands
139|channel.txt|	Jobs, Channels, inter-process communication
140|fold.txt|	hide (fold) ranges of lines
141
142Special issues ~
143|testing.txt|	testing Vim and Vim scripts
144|print.txt|	printing
145|remote.txt|	using Vim as a server or client
146|term.txt|	using different terminals and mice
147|terminal.txt|	Terminal window support
148|popup.txt|	popup window support
149|vim9.txt|	using Vim9 script
150
151Programming language support ~
152|indent.txt|	automatic indenting for C and other languages
153|syntax.txt|	syntax highlighting
154|textprop.txt|	Attaching properties to text for highlighting or other
155|filetype.txt|	settings done specifically for a type of file
156|quickfix.txt|	commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle
157|ft_ada.txt|	Ada (the programming language) support
158|ft_ps1.txt|	Filetype plugin for Windows PowerShell
159|ft_raku.txt|	Filetype plugin for Raku
160|ft_rust.txt|	Filetype plugin for Rust
161|ft_sql.txt|	about the SQL filetype plugin
162
163Language support ~
164|digraph.txt|	list of available digraphs
165|mbyte.txt|	multibyte text support
166|mlang.txt|	non-English language support
167|rileft.txt|	right-to-left editing mode
168|arabic.txt|	Arabic language support and editing
169|farsi.txt|	Farsi (Persian) editing
170|hebrew.txt|	Hebrew language support and editing
171|russian.txt|	Russian language support and editing
172|hangulin.txt|	Hangul (Korean) input mode
173
174GUI ~
175|gui.txt|	Graphical User Interface (GUI)
176|gui_w32.txt|	Win32 GUI
177|gui_x11.txt|	X11 GUI
178
179Interfaces ~
180|if_cscop.txt|	using Cscope with Vim
181|if_lua.txt|	Lua interface
182|if_mzsch.txt|	MzScheme interface
183|if_perl.txt|	Perl interface
184|if_pyth.txt|	Python interface
185|if_tcl.txt|	Tcl interface
186|if_ole.txt|	OLE automation interface for Win32
187|if_ruby.txt|	Ruby interface
188|debugger.txt|	Interface with a debugger
189|netbeans.txt|	NetBeans External Editor interface
190|sign.txt|	debugging signs
191
192Versions ~
193|vi_diff.txt|	Main differences between Vim and Vi
194|version4.txt|	Differences between Vim version 3.0 and 4.x
195|version5.txt|	Differences between Vim version 4.6 and 5.x
196|version6.txt|	Differences between Vim version 5.7 and 6.x
197|version7.txt|	Differences between Vim version 6.4 and 7.x
198|version8.txt|	Differences between Vim version 7.4 and 8.x
199						*sys-file-list*
200Remarks about specific systems ~
201|os_390.txt|	OS/390 Unix
202|os_amiga.txt|	Amiga
203|os_beos.txt|	BeOS and BeBox
204|os_dos.txt|	MS-DOS and MS-Windows common items
205|os_haiku.txt|	Haiku
206|os_mac.txt|	Macintosh
207|os_mint.txt|	Atari MiNT
208|os_msdos.txt|	MS-DOS (plain DOS and DOS box under Windows)
209|os_os2.txt|	OS/2
210|os_qnx.txt|	QNX
211|os_risc.txt|	RISC-OS
212|os_unix.txt|	Unix
213|os_vms.txt|	VMS
214|os_win32.txt|	MS-Windows
215						*standard-plugin-list*
216Standard plugins ~
217|pi_getscript.txt| Downloading latest version of Vim scripts
218|pi_gzip.txt|      Reading and writing compressed files
219|pi_logipat.txt|   Logical operators on patterns
220|pi_netrw.txt|     Reading and writing files over a network
221|pi_paren.txt|     Highlight matching parens
222|pi_spec.txt|      Filetype plugin to work with rpm spec files
223|pi_tar.txt|       Tar file explorer
224|pi_vimball.txt|   Create a self-installing Vim script
225|pi_zip.txt|       Zip archive explorer
226
227LOCAL ADDITIONS:				*local-additions*
228
229------------------------------------------------------------------------------
230*bars*		Bars example
231
232Now that you've jumped here with CTRL-] or a double mouse click, you can use
233CTRL-T, CTRL-O, g<RightMouse>, or <C-RightMouse> to go back to where you were.
234
235Note that tags are within | characters, but when highlighting is enabled these
236characters are hidden.  That makes it easier to read a command.
237
238Anyway, you can use CTRL-] on any word, also when it is not within |, and Vim
239will try to find help for it.  Especially for options in single quotes, e.g.
240'compatible'.
241
242------------------------------------------------------------------------------
243 vim:tw=78:isk=!-~,^*,^\|,^\":ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:
244