1*helphelp.txt* For Vim version 8.1. Last change: 2017 Mar 19 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Help on help files *helphelp* 8 91. Help commands |online-help| 102. Translated help files |help-translated| 113. Writing help files |help-writing| 12 13============================================================================== 141. Help commands *online-help* 15 16 *help* *<Help>* *:h* *:help* *<F1>* *i_<F1>* *i_<Help>* 17<Help> or 18:h[elp] Open a window and display the help file in read-only 19 mode. If there is a help window open already, use 20 that one. Otherwise, if the current window uses the 21 full width of the screen or is at least 80 characters 22 wide, the help window will appear just above the 23 current window. Otherwise the new window is put at 24 the very top. 25 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 26 the main help file is available in several languages. 27 {not in Vi} 28 29 *{subject}* *E149* *E661* 30:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}. 31 For example: > 32 :help options 33 34< {subject} can include wildcards such as "*", "?" and 35 "[a-z]": 36 :help z? jump to help for any "z" command 37 :help z. jump to the help for "z." 38 But when a tag exists it is taken literally: 39 :help :? jump to help for ":?" 40 41 If there is no full match for the pattern, or there 42 are several matches, the "best" match will be used. 43 A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which 44 match is better than another one. These items are 45 considered in the computation: 46 - A match with same case is much better than a match 47 with different case. 48 - A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric 49 character is better than a match in the middle of a 50 word. 51 - A match at or near the beginning of the tag is 52 better than a match further on. 53 - The more alphanumeric characters match, the better. 54 - The shorter the length of the match, the better. 55 56 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 57 the {subject} is available in several languages. 58 To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab", 59 where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See 60 |help-translated|. 61 62 Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less 63 matches will be found. You can get an idea how this 64 all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D 65 after ":help subject" |c_CTRL-D|). 66 If there are several matches, you can have them listed 67 by hitting CTRL-D. Example: > 68 :help cont<Ctrl-D> 69 70< Instead of typing ":help CTRL-V" to search for help 71 for CTRL-V you can type: > 72 :help ^V 73< This also works together with other characters, for 74 example to find help for CTRL-V in Insert mode: > 75 :help i^V 76< 77 It is also possible to first do ":help" and then 78 use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The 79 ":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other 80 matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one. > 81 :help index 82 :tselect /.*mode 83 84< When there is no argument you will see matches for 85 "help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that 86 would be very slow). 87 The number of matches displayed is limited to 300. 88 89 The `:help` command can be followed by '|' and another 90 command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a 91 help command. So these both work: > 92 :help | 93 :help k| only 94< Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of 95 the ":help" argument. 96 You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help 97 command from a following command. You need to type 98 CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example: > 99 :help so<C-V><CR>only 100< {not in Vi} 101 102:h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to 103 find a tag in a file with the same language as the 104 current file. See |help-translated|. 105 106 *:helpc* *:helpclose* 107:helpc[lose] Close one help window, if there is one. 108 109 *:helpg* *:helpgrep* 110:helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx] 111 Search all help text files and make a list of lines 112 in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match. 113 The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the 114 "xx" language are to be found. 115 You can navigate through the matches with the 116 |quickfix| commands, e.g., |:cnext| to jump to the 117 next one. Or use |:cwindow| to get the list of 118 matches in the quickfix window. 119 {pattern} is used as a Vim regexp |pattern|. 120 'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case. 121 Example for case sensitive search: > 122 :helpgrep Uganda 123< Example for case ignoring search: > 124 :helpgrep uganda\c 125< Example for searching in French help: > 126 :helpgrep backspace@fr 127< The pattern does not support line breaks, it must 128 match within one line. You can use |:grep| instead, 129 but then you need to get the list of help files in a 130 complicated way. 131 Cannot be followed by another command, everything is 132 used as part of the pattern. But you can use 133 |:execute| when needed. 134 Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora 135 compresses the help files). 136 {not in Vi} 137 138 *:lh* *:lhelpgrep* 139:lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx] 140 Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used 141 instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is 142 already opened, then the location list for that window 143 is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and 144 the location list for that window is set. The 145 location list for the current window is not changed 146 then. 147 148 *:exu* *:exusage* 149:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi 150 command. {not in Vi} 151 152 *:viu* *:viusage* 153:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate 154 the Nvi command. {not in Vi} 155 156When no argument is given to |:help| the file given with the 'helpfile' option 157will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags" 158files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option. 159 160The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option 161(default 20). 162 163Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways: 164- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option. 165 This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and 166 "g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]". 167- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword 168 characters. 169 170Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back. 171Use ":q" to close the help window. 172 173If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you 174can jump to each one of them: 1751. Open a help window 1762. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.: > 177 :tag /min 1783. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag. 179 180It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need 181to change the distributed help files for that. See |add-local-help|. 182 183To write a local help file, see |write-local-help|. 184 185Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to 186the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file |local-additions|. 187This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It 188is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each 189file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped. 190 191 *help-xterm-window* 192If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this 193command: > 194 :!xterm -e vim +help & 195< 196 197 *:helpfind* *:helpf* 198:helpf[ind] Like |:help|, but use a dialog to enter the argument. 199 Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the 200 ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin 201 dialog. {only when compiled with |+GUI_GTK|} 202 {not in Vi} 203 204 *:helpt* *:helptags* 205 *E154* *E150* *E151* *E152* *E153* *E670* 206:helpt[ags] [++t] {dir} 207 Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}. 208 When {dir} is ALL then all "doc" directories in 209 'runtimepath' will be used. 210 211 All "*.txt" and "*.??x" files in the directory and 212 sub-directories are scanned for a help tag definition 213 in between stars. The "*.??x" files are for 214 translated docs, they generate the "tags-??" file, see 215 |help-translated|. The generated tags files are 216 sorted. 217 When there are duplicates an error message is given. 218 An existing tags file is silently overwritten. 219 220 The optional "++t" argument forces adding the 221 "help-tags" tag. This is also done when the {dir} is 222 equal to $VIMRUNTIME/doc. 223 224 To rebuild the help tags in the runtime directory 225 (requires write permission there): > 226 :helptags $VIMRUNTIME/doc 227< {not in Vi} 228 229 230============================================================================== 2312. Translated help files *help-translated* 232 233It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help 234files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'. 235This is only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang| feature. 236 237At this moment translations are available for: 238 Chinese - multiple authors 239 French - translated by David Blanchet 240 Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo 241 Japanese - multiple authors 242 Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski 243 Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin 244See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php 245 246A set of translated help files consists of these files: 247 248 help.abx 249 howto.abx 250 ... 251 tags-ab 252 253"ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are: 254 255 help.itx 256 howto.itx 257 ... 258 tags-it 259 260The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is 261set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag 262in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found. 263 264To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the 265two-letter language code. Example: > 266 :he user-manual@it 267 :he user-manual@en 268The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty. 269The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to 270"it". 271 272When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en" 273extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the 274tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. When the first candidate has an 275"@ab" extension and it matches the first language in 'helplang' "@ab" is also 276omitted. 277 278When using |CTRL-]| or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to 279find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used 280to select a language. 281 282Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is 283utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must 284translate the header with "For Vim version". 285 286The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one 287directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use 288a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different 289directory. 290 291Hints for translators: 292- Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to 293 specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language. 294- When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version, 295 using the "tag@en" notation. 296- Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download. 297 Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it. 298 Report this to Bram, so that he can add a link on www.vim.org. 299- Use the |:helptags| command to generate the tags files. It will find all 300 languages in the specified directory. 301 302============================================================================== 3033. Writing help files *help-writing* 304 305For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the 306standard Vim help files. If you are writing a new help file it's best to copy 307one of the existing files and use it as a template. 308 309The first line in a help file should have the following format: 310 311*helpfile_name.txt* For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2010 June 4 312 313The first field is a link to the help file name. The second field describes 314the applicable Vim version. The last field specifies the last modification 315date of the file. Each field is separated by a tab. 316 317At the bottom of the help file, place a Vim modeline to set the 'textwidth' 318and 'tabstop' options and the 'filetype' to "help". Never set a global option 319in such a modeline, that can have consequences undesired by whoever reads that 320help. 321 322 323TAGS 324 325To define a help tag, place the name between asterisks (*tag-name*). The 326tag-name should be different from all the Vim help tag names and ideally 327should begin with the name of the Vim plugin. The tag name is usually right 328aligned on a line. 329 330When referring to an existing help tag and to create a hot-link, place the 331name between two bars (|) eg. |help-writing|. 332 333When referring to a Vim command and to create a hot-link, place the 334name between two backticks, eg. inside `:filetype`. You will see this is 335highlighted as a command, like a code block (see below). 336 337When referring to a Vim option in the help file, place the option name between 338two single quotes, eg. 'statusline' 339 340 341HIGHLIGHTING 342 343To define a column heading, use a tilde character at the end of the line. 344This will highlight the column heading in a different color. E.g. 345 346Column heading~ 347 348To separate sections in a help file, place a series of '=' characters in a 349line starting from the first column. The section separator line is highlighted 350differently. 351 352To quote a block of ex-commands verbatim, place a greater than (>) character 353at the end of the line before the block and a less than (<) character as the 354first non-blank on a line following the block. Any line starting in column 1 355also implicitly stops the block of ex-commands before it. E.g. > 356 function Example_Func() 357 echo "Example" 358 endfunction 359< 360 361The following are highlighted differently in a Vim help file: 362 - a special key name expressed either in <> notation as in <PageDown>, or 363 as a Ctrl character as in CTRL-X 364 - anything between {braces}, e.g. {lhs} and {rhs} 365 366The word "Note", "Notes" and similar automagically receive distinctive 367highlighting. So do these: 368 *Todo something to do 369 *Error something wrong 370 371You can find the details in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/help.vim 372 373 vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: 374