1*helphelp.txt* For Vim version 8.2. Last change: 2020 Mar 01 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 28 *{subject}* *E149* *E661* 29:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}. 30 For example: > 31 :help options 32 33< {subject} can include wildcards such as "*", "?" and 34 "[a-z]": 35 :help z? jump to help for any "z" command 36 :help z. jump to the help for "z." 37 But when a tag exists it is taken literally: 38 :help :? jump to help for ":?" 39 40 If there is no full match for the pattern, or there 41 are several matches, the "best" match will be used. 42 A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which 43 match is better than another one. These items are 44 considered in the computation: 45 - A match with same case is much better than a match 46 with different case. 47 - A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric 48 character is better than a match in the middle of a 49 word. 50 - A match at or near the beginning of the tag is 51 better than a match further on. 52 - The more alphanumeric characters match, the better. 53 - The shorter the length of the match, the better. 54 55 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 56 the {subject} is available in several languages. 57 To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab", 58 where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See 59 |help-translated|. 60 61 Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less 62 matches will be found. You can get an idea how this 63 all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D 64 after ":help subject" |c_CTRL-D|). 65 If there are several matches, you can have them listed 66 by hitting CTRL-D. Example: > 67 :help cont<Ctrl-D> 68 69< Instead of typing ":help CTRL-V" to search for help 70 for CTRL-V you can type: > 71 :help ^V 72< This also works together with other characters, for 73 example to find help for CTRL-V in Insert mode: > 74 :help i^V 75< 76 It is also possible to first do ":help" and then 77 use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The 78 ":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other 79 matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one. > 80 :help index 81 :tselect /.*mode 82 83< When there is no argument you will see matches for 84 "help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that 85 would be very slow). 86 The number of matches displayed is limited to 300. 87 88 The `:help` command can be followed by '|' and another 89 command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a 90 help command. So these both work: > 91 :help | 92 :help k| only 93< Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of 94 the ":help" argument. 95 You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help 96 command from a following command. You need to type 97 CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example: > 98 :help so<C-V><CR>only 99 100:h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to 101 find a tag in a file with the same language as the 102 current file. See |help-translated|. 103 104 *:helpc* *:helpclose* 105:helpc[lose] Close one help window, if there is one. 106 Vim will try to restore the window layout (including 107 cursor position) to the same layout it was before 108 opening the help window initially. This might cause 109 triggering several autocommands. 110 111 *:helpg* *:helpgrep* 112:helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx] 113 Search all help text files and make a list of lines 114 in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match. 115 The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the 116 "xx" language are to be found. 117 You can navigate through the matches with the 118 |quickfix| commands, e.g., |:cnext| to jump to the 119 next one. Or use |:cwindow| to get the list of 120 matches in the quickfix window. 121 {pattern} is used as a Vim regexp |pattern|. 122 'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case. 123 Example for case sensitive search: > 124 :helpgrep Uganda 125< Example for case ignoring search: > 126 :helpgrep uganda\c 127< Example for searching in French help: > 128 :helpgrep backspace@fr 129< The pattern does not support line breaks, it must 130 match within one line. You can use |:grep| instead, 131 but then you need to get the list of help files in a 132 complicated way. 133 Cannot be followed by another command, everything is 134 used as part of the pattern. But you can use 135 |:execute| when needed. 136 Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora 137 compresses the help files). 138 139 *:lh* *:lhelpgrep* 140:lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx] 141 Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used 142 instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is 143 already opened, then the location list for that window 144 is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and 145 the location list for that window is set. The 146 location list for the current window is not changed 147 then. 148 149 *:exu* *:exusage* 150:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi 151 command. 152 153 *:viu* *:viusage* 154:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate 155 the Nvi command. 156 157When no argument is given to |:help| the file given with the 'helpfile' option 158will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags" 159files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option. 160 161The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option 162(default 20). 163 164Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways: 165- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option. 166 This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and 167 "g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]". 168- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword 169 characters. 170 171Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back. 172Use ":q" to close the help window. 173 174If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you 175can jump to each one of them: 1761. Open a help window 1772. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.: > 178 :tag /min 1793. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag. 180 181It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need 182to change the distributed help files for that. See |add-local-help|. 183 184To write a local help file, see |write-local-help|. 185 186Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to 187the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file |local-additions|. 188This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It 189is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each 190file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped. 191 192 *help-xterm-window* 193If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this 194command: > 195 :!xterm -e vim +help & 196< 197 198 *:helpfind* *:helpf* 199:helpf[ind] Like |:help|, but use a dialog to enter the argument. 200 Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the 201 ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin 202 dialog. {only when compiled with |+GUI_GTK|} 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 227 228============================================================================== 2292. Translated help files *help-translated* 230 231It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help 232files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'. 233This is only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang| feature. 234 235At this moment translations are available for: 236 Chinese - multiple authors 237 French - translated by David Blanchet 238 Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo 239 Japanese - multiple authors 240 Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski 241 Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin 242See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php 243 244A set of translated help files consists of these files: 245 246 help.abx 247 howto.abx 248 ... 249 tags-ab 250 251"ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are: 252 253 help.itx 254 howto.itx 255 ... 256 tags-it 257 258The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is 259set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag 260in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found. 261 262To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the 263two-letter language code. Example: > 264 :he user-manual@it 265 :he user-manual@en 266The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty. 267The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to 268"it". 269 270When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en" 271extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the 272tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. When the first candidate has an 273"@ab" extension and it matches the first language in 'helplang' "@ab" is also 274omitted. 275 276When using |CTRL-]| or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to 277find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used 278to select a language. 279 280Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is 281utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must 282translate the header with "For Vim version". 283 284The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one 285directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use 286a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different 287directory. 288 289Hints for translators: 290- Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to 291 specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language. 292- When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version, 293 using the "tag@en" notation. 294- Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download. 295 Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it. 296 Report this to Bram, so that he can add a link on www.vim.org. 297- Use the |:helptags| command to generate the tags files. It will find all 298 languages in the specified directory. 299 300============================================================================== 3013. Writing help files *help-writing* 302 303For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the 304standard Vim help files. If you are writing a new help file it's best to copy 305one of the existing files and use it as a template. 306 307The first line in a help file should have the following format: 308 309*helpfile_name.txt* For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2010 June 4 310 311The first field is a link to the help file name. The second field describes 312the applicable Vim version. The last field specifies the last modification 313date of the file. Each field is separated by a tab. 314 315At the bottom of the help file, place a Vim modeline to set the 'textwidth' 316and 'tabstop' options and the 'filetype' to "help". Never set a global option 317in such a modeline, that can have consequences undesired by whoever reads that 318help. 319 320 321TAGS 322 323To define a help tag, place the name between asterisks (*tag-name*). The 324tag-name should be different from all the Vim help tag names and ideally 325should begin with the name of the Vim plugin. The tag name is usually right 326aligned on a line. 327 328When referring to an existing help tag and to create a hot-link, place the 329name between two bars (|) eg. |help-writing|. 330 331When referring to a Vim command and to create a hot-link, place the 332name between two backticks, eg. inside `:filetype`. You will see this is 333highlighted as a command, like a code block (see below). 334 335When referring to a Vim option in the help file, place the option name between 336two single quotes, eg. 'statusline' 337 338 339HIGHLIGHTING 340 341To define a column heading, use a tilde character at the end of the line. 342This will highlight the column heading in a different color. E.g. 343 344Column heading~ 345 346To separate sections in a help file, place a series of '=' characters in a 347line starting from the first column. The section separator line is highlighted 348differently. 349 350To quote a block of ex-commands verbatim, place a greater than (>) character 351at the end of the line before the block and a less than (<) character as the 352first non-blank on a line following the block. Any line starting in column 1 353also implicitly stops the block of ex-commands before it. E.g. > 354 function Example_Func() 355 echo "Example" 356 endfunction 357< 358 359The following are highlighted differently in a Vim help file: 360 - a special key name expressed either in <> notation as in <PageDown>, or 361 as a Ctrl character as in CTRL-X 362 - anything between {braces}, e.g. {lhs} and {rhs} 363 364The word "Note", "Notes" and similar automagically receive distinctive 365highlighting. So do these: 366 *Todo something to do 367 *Error something wrong 368 369You can find the details in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/help.vim 370 371 *inclusion* 372Some people make a big deal about using "his" when referring to the user, 373thinking it means we assume the user is male. That is of course not the case, 374it's just a habit of writing help text, which quite often is many years old. 375Also, a lot of the text is written by contributors for who English is not 376their first language. We do not make any assumptions about the gender of the 377user, no matter how the text is phrased. And we do not want to waste time on 378this discussion. The goal is that the reader understands how Vim works, the 379exact wording is secondary. 380 381 382 vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: 383