1*helphelp.txt* For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2016 Mar 26 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 {subject} can include wildcards like "*", "?" and 32 "[a-z]": 33 :help z? jump to help for any "z" command 34 :help z. jump to the help for "z." 35 If there is no full match for the pattern, or there 36 are several matches, the "best" match will be used. 37 A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which 38 match is better than another one. These items are 39 considered in the computation: 40 - A match with same case is much better than a match 41 with different case. 42 - A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric 43 character is better than a match in the middle of a 44 word. 45 - A match at or near the beginning of the tag is 46 better than a match further on. 47 - The more alphanumeric characters match, the better. 48 - The shorter the length of the match, the better. 49 50 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 51 the {subject} is available in several languages. 52 To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab", 53 where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See 54 |help-translated|. 55 56 Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less 57 matches will be found. You can get an idea how this 58 all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D 59 after ":help subject" |c_CTRL-D|). 60 If there are several matches, you can have them listed 61 by hitting CTRL-D. Example: > 62 :help cont<Ctrl-D> 63 64< Instead of typing ":help CTRL-V" to search for help 65 for CTRL-V you can type: > 66 :help ^V 67< This also works together with other characters, for 68 example to find help for CTRL-V in Insert mode: > 69 :help i^V 70< 71 To use a regexp |pattern|, first do ":help" and then 72 use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The 73 ":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other 74 matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one. > 75 :help index| :tse z. 76 77< When there is no argument you will see matches for 78 "help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that 79 would be very slow). 80 The number of matches displayed is limited to 300. 81 82 This command can be followed by '|' and another 83 command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a 84 help command. So these both work: > 85 :help | 86 :help k| only 87< Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of 88 the ":help" argument. 89 You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help 90 command from a following command. You need to type 91 CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example: > 92 :help so<C-V><CR>only 93< {not in Vi} 94 95:h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to 96 find a tag in a file with the same language as the 97 current file. See |help-translated|. 98 99 *:helpc* *:helpclose* 100:helpc[lose] Close one help window, if there is one. 101 102 *:helpg* *:helpgrep* 103:helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx] 104 Search all help text files and make a list of lines 105 in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match. 106 The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the 107 "xx" language are to be found. 108 You can navigate through the matches with the 109 |quickfix| commands, e.g., |:cnext| to jump to the 110 next one. Or use |:cwindow| to get the list of 111 matches in the quickfix window. 112 {pattern} is used as a Vim regexp |pattern|. 113 'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case. 114 Example for case sensitive search: > 115 :helpgrep Uganda 116< Example for case ignoring search: > 117 :helpgrep uganda\c 118< Example for searching in French help: > 119 :helpgrep backspace@fr 120< The pattern does not support line breaks, it must 121 match within one line. You can use |:grep| instead, 122 but then you need to get the list of help files in a 123 complicated way. 124 Cannot be followed by another command, everything is 125 used as part of the pattern. But you can use 126 |:execute| when needed. 127 Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora 128 compresses the help files). 129 {not in Vi} 130 131 *:lh* *:lhelpgrep* 132:lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx] 133 Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used 134 instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is 135 already opened, then the location list for that window 136 is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and 137 the location list for that window is set. The 138 location list for the current window is not changed. 139 140 *:exu* *:exusage* 141:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi 142 command. {not in Vi} 143 144 *:viu* *:viusage* 145:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate 146 the Nvi command. {not in Vi} 147 148When no argument is given to |:help| the file given with the 'helpfile' option 149will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags" 150files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option. 151 152The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option 153(default 20). 154 155Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways: 156- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option. 157 This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and 158 "g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]". 159- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword 160 characters. 161 162Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back. 163Use ":q" to close the help window. 164 165If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you 166can jump to each one of them: 1671. Open a help window 1682. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.: > 169 :tag /min 1703. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag. 171 172It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need 173to change the distributed help files for that. See |add-local-help|. 174 175To write a local help file, see |write-local-help|. 176 177Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to 178the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file |local-additions|. 179This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It 180is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each 181file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped. 182 183 *help-xterm-window* 184If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this 185command: > 186 :!xterm -e vim +help & 187< 188 189 *:helpfind* *:helpf* 190:helpf[ind] Like |:help|, but use a dialog to enter the argument. 191 Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the 192 ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin 193 dialog. {only when compiled with |+GUI_GTK|} 194 {not in Vi} 195 196 *:helpt* *:helptags* 197 *E154* *E150* *E151* *E152* *E153* *E670* 198:helpt[ags] [++t] {dir} 199 Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}. 200 When {dir} is ALL then all "doc" directories in 201 'runtimepath' will be used. 202 203 All "*.txt" and "*.??x" files in the directory and 204 sub-directories are scanned for a help tag definition 205 in between stars. The "*.??x" files are for 206 translated docs, they generate the "tags-??" file, see 207 |help-translated|. The generated tags files are 208 sorted. 209 When there are duplicates an error message is given. 210 An existing tags file is silently overwritten. 211 212 The optional "++t" argument forces adding the 213 "help-tags" tag. This is also done when the {dir} is 214 equal to $VIMRUNTIME/doc. 215 216 To rebuild the help tags in the runtime directory 217 (requires write permission there): > 218 :helptags $VIMRUNTIME/doc 219< {not in Vi} 220 221 222============================================================================== 2232. Translated help files *help-translated* 224 225It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help 226files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'. 227This is only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang| feature. 228 229At this moment translations are available for: 230 Chinese - multiple authors 231 French - translated by David Blanchet 232 Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo 233 Japanese - multiple authors 234 Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski 235 Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin 236See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php 237 238A set of translated help files consists of these files: 239 240 help.abx 241 howto.abx 242 ... 243 tags-ab 244 245"ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are: 246 247 help.itx 248 howto.itx 249 ... 250 tags-it 251 252The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is 253set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag 254in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found. 255 256To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the 257two-letter language code. Example: > 258 :he user-manual@it 259 :he user-manual@en 260The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty. 261The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to 262"it". 263 264When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en" 265extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the 266tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. 267 268When using |CTRL-]| or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to 269find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used 270to select a language. 271 272Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is 273utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must 274translate the header with "For Vim version". 275 276The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one 277directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use 278a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different 279directory. 280 281Hints for translators: 282- Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to 283 specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language. 284- When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version, 285 using the "tag@en" notation. 286- Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download. 287 Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it. 288 Report this to Bram, so that he can add a link on www.vim.org. 289- Use the |:helptags| command to generate the tags files. It will find all 290 languages in the specified directory. 291 292============================================================================== 2933. Writing help files *help-writing* 294 295For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the 296standard Vim help files. If you are writing a new help file it's best to copy 297one of the existing files and use it as a template. 298 299The first line in a help file should have the following format: 300 301*helpfile_name.txt* For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2010 June 4 302 303The first field is a link to the help file name. The second field describes 304the applicable Vim version. The last field specifies the last modification 305date of the file. Each field is separated by a tab. 306 307At the bottom of the help file, place a Vim modeline to set the 'textwidth' 308and 'tabstop' options and the 'filetype' to 'help'. Never set a global option 309in such a modeline, that can have consequences undesired by whoever reads that 310help. 311 312 313TAGS 314 315To define a help tag, place the name between asterisks (*tag-name*). The 316tag-name should be different from all the Vim help tag names and ideally 317should begin with the name of the Vim plugin. The tag name is usually right 318aligned on a line. 319 320When referring to an existing help tag and to create a hot-link, place the 321name between two bars (|) eg. |help-writing|. 322 323When referring to a Vim option in the help file, place the option name between 324two single quotes, eg. 'statusline' 325 326 327HIGHLIGHTING 328 329To define a column heading, use a tilde character at the end of the line. 330This will highlight the column heading in a different color. E.g. 331 332Column heading~ 333 334To separate sections in a help file, place a series of '=' characters in a 335line starting from the first column. The section separator line is highlighted 336differently. 337 338To quote a block of ex-commands verbatim, place a greater than (>) character 339at the end of the line before the block and a less than (<) character as the 340first non-blank on a line following the block. Any line starting in column 1 341also implicitly stops the block of ex-commands before it. E.g. > 342 function Example_Func() 343 echo "Example" 344 endfunction 345< 346 347The following are highlighted differently in a Vim help file: 348 - a special key name expressed either in <> notation as in <PageDown>, or 349 as a Ctrl character as in CTRL-X 350 - anything between {braces}, e.g. {lhs} and {rhs} 351 352The word "Note", "Notes" and similar automagically receive distinctive 353highlighting. So do these: 354 *Todo something to do 355 *Error something wrong 356 357You can find the details in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/help.vim 358 359 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 360