*gui.txt* For Vim version 8.2. Last change: 2020 Sep 28 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar Vim's Graphical User Interface *gui* *GUI* 1. Starting the GUI |gui-start| 2. Scrollbars |gui-scrollbars| 3. Mouse Control |gui-mouse| 4. Making GUI Selections |gui-selections| 5. Menus |menus| 6. Font |gui-font| 7. Extras |gui-extras| 8. Shell Commands |gui-shell| Other GUI documentation: |gui_x11.txt| For specific items of the X11 GUI. |gui_w32.txt| For specific items of the Win32 GUI. ============================================================================== 1. Starting the GUI *gui-start* *E229* *E233* First you must make sure you actually have a version of Vim with the GUI code included. You can check this with the ":version" command, it says "with xxx GUI", where "xxx" is X11-Motif, X11-Athena, Photon, GTK2, GTK3, etc., or "MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version". How to start the GUI depends on the system used. Mostly you can run the GUI version of Vim with: gvim [options] [files...] The X11 version of Vim can run both in GUI and in non-GUI mode. See |gui-x11-start|. *gui-init* *gvimrc* *.gvimrc* *_gvimrc* *$MYGVIMRC* The gvimrc file is where GUI-specific startup commands should be placed. It is always sourced after the |vimrc| file. If you have one then the $MYGVIMRC environment variable has its name. When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order: - The 'term' option is set to "builtin_gui" and terminal options are reset to their default value for the GUI |terminal-options|. - If the system menu file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is normally "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". You can check this with ":version". Also see |$VIMRUNTIME|. To skip loading the system menu include 'M' in 'guioptions'. *buffers-menu* *no_buffers_menu* The system menu file includes a "Buffers" menu. If you don't want this, set the "no_buffers_menu" variable in your .vimrc (not .gvimrc!): > :let no_buffers_menu = 1 < NOTE: Switching on syntax highlighting also loads the menu file, thus disabling the Buffers menu must be done before ":syntax on". The path names are truncated to 35 characters. You can truncate them at a different length, for example 50, like this: > :let bmenu_max_pathlen = 50 - If the "-U {gvimrc}" command-line option has been used when starting Vim, the {gvimrc} file will be read for initializations. The following initializations are skipped. When {gvimrc} is "NONE" no file will be read for initializations. - For Unix and MS-Windows, if the system gvimrc exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is normally "$VIM/gvimrc". You can check this with ":version". Also see |$VIM|. - The following are tried, and only the first one that exists is used: - If the GVIMINIT environment variable exists and is not empty, it is executed as an Ex command. - If the user gvimrc file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is normally "$HOME/.gvimrc". You can check this with ":version". - For Win32, $HOME is set by Vim if needed, see |$HOME-windows|. - When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too. And vice versa. The name of the first file found is stored in $MYGVIMRC, unless it was already set. - If the 'exrc' option is set (which is NOT the default) the file ./.gvimrc is sourced, if it exists and isn't the same file as the system or user gvimrc file. If this file is not owned by you, some security restrictions apply. When ".gvimrc" is not found, "_gvimrc" is tried too. For Macintosh and DOS/Win32 "_gvimrc" is tried first. NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with "-u NONE" or "-u DEFAULTS" and no "-U" argument was given, or when started with "-U NONE". All this happens AFTER the normal Vim initializations, like reading your .vimrc file. See |initialization|. But the GUI window is only opened after all the initializations have been carried out. If you want some commands to be executed just after opening the GUI window, use the |GUIEnter| autocommand event. Example: > :autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50 You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customized menus (see |:menu|) and initialize other things that you may want to set up differently from the terminal version. Recommended place for your personal GUI initializations: Unix $HOME/.gvimrc or $HOME/.vim/gvimrc Win32 $HOME/_gvimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/gvimrc or $VIM/_gvimrc Amiga s:.gvimrc, home:.gvimrc, home:vimfiles:gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc Haiku $HOME/config/settings/vim/gvimrc The personal initialization files are searched in the order specified above and only the first one that is found is read. There are a number of options which only have meaning in the GUI version of Vim. These are 'guicursor', 'guifont', 'guipty' and 'guioptions'. They are documented in |options.txt| with all the other options. If using the Motif or Athena version of the GUI (but not for the GTK+ or Win32 version), a number of X resources are available. See |gui-resources|. Another way to set the colors for different occasions is with highlight groups. The "Normal" group is used to set the background and foreground colors. Example (which looks nice): > :highlight Normal guibg=grey90 The "guibg" and "guifg" settings override the normal background and foreground settings. The other settings for the Normal highlight group are not used. Use the 'guifont' option to set the font. Also check out the 'guicursor' option, to set the colors for the cursor in various modes. Vim tries to make the window fit on the screen when it starts up. This avoids that you can't see part of it. On the X Window System this requires a bit of guesswork. You can change the height that is used for the window title and a task bar with the 'guiheadroom' option. *:winp* *:winpos* *E188* :winp[os] Display current position of the top left corner of the GUI vim window in pixels. Does not work in all versions. Also see |getwinpos()|, |getwinposx()| and |getwinposy()|. :winp[os] {X} {Y} *E466* Put the GUI vim window at the given {X} and {Y} coordinates. The coordinates should specify the position in pixels of the top left corner of the window. Does not work in all versions. Does work in an (new) xterm |xterm-color|. When the GUI window has not been opened yet, the values are remembered until the window is opened. The position is adjusted to make the window fit on the screen (if possible). *:win* *:winsize* *E465* :win[size] {width} {height} Set the window height to {width} by {height} characters. Obsolete, use ":set lines=11 columns=22". If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom' option. If you are running the X Window System, you can get information about the window Vim is running in with these commands: > :!xwininfo -id $WINDOWID :!xprop -id $WINDOWID :execute '!xwininfo -id ' . v:windowid :execute '!xprop -id ' . v:windowid < *gui-IME* *iBus* Input methods for international characters in X that rely on the XIM framework, most notably iBus, have been known to produce undesirable results in gvim. These may include an inability to enter spaces, or long delays between typing a character and it being recognized by the application. One workaround that has been successful, for unknown reasons, is to prevent gvim from forking into the background by starting it with the |-f| argument. ============================================================================== 2. Scrollbars *gui-scrollbars* There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbar. You may configure which ones appear with the 'guioptions' option. The interface looks like this (with ":set guioptions=mlrb"): +------------------------------+ ` | File Edit Help | <- Menu bar (m) ` +-+--------------------------+-+ ` |^| |^| ` |#| Text area. |#| ` | | | | ` |v|__________________________|v| ` Normal status line -> |-+ File.c 5,2 +-| ` between Vim windows |^|""""""""""""""""""""""""""|^| ` | | | | ` | | Another file buffer. | | ` | | | | ` |#| |#| ` Left scrollbar (l) -> |#| |#| <- Right ` |#| |#| scrollbar (r) ` | | | | ` |v| |v| ` +-+--------------------------+-+ ` | |< #### >| | <- Bottom ` +-+--------------------------+-+ scrollbar (b) ` Any of the scrollbar or menu components may be turned off by not putting the appropriate letter in the 'guioptions' string. The bottom scrollbar is only useful when 'nowrap' is set. VERTICAL SCROLLBARS *gui-vert-scroll* Each Vim window has a scrollbar next to it which may be scrolled up and down to move through the text in that buffer. The size of the scrollbar-thumb indicates the fraction of the buffer which can be seen in the window. When the scrollbar is dragged all the way down, the last line of the file will appear in the top of the window. If a window is shrunk to zero height (by the growth of another window) its scrollbar disappears. It reappears when the window is restored. If a window is vertically split, it will get a scrollbar when it is the current window and when, taking the middle of the current window and drawing a vertical line, this line goes through the window. When there are scrollbars on both sides, and the middle of the current window is on the left half, the right scrollbar column will contain scrollbars for the rightmost windows. The same happens on the other side. HORIZONTAL SCROLLBARS *gui-horiz-scroll* The horizontal scrollbar (at the bottom of the Vim GUI) may be used to scroll text sideways when the 'wrap' option is turned off. The scrollbar-thumb size is such that the text of the longest visible line may be scrolled as far as possible left and right. The cursor is moved when necessary, it must remain on a visible character (unless 'virtualedit' is set). Computing the length of the longest visible line takes quite a bit of computation, and it has to be done every time something changes. If this takes too much time or you don't like the cursor jumping to another line, include the 'h' flag in 'guioptions'. Then the scrolling is limited by the text of the current cursor line. *athena-intellimouse* If you have an Intellimouse and an X server that supports using the wheel, then you can use the wheel to scroll the text up and down in gvim. This works with XFree86 4.0 and later, and with some older versions when you add patches. See |scroll-mouse-wheel|. For older versions of XFree86 you must patch your X server. The following page has a bit of information about using the Intellimouse on Linux as well as links to the patches and X server binaries (may not have the one you need though): http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/ ============================================================================== 3. Mouse Control *gui-mouse* The mouse only works if the appropriate flag in the 'mouse' option is set. When the GUI is switched on, and 'mouse' wasn't set yet, the 'mouse' option is automatically set to "a", enabling it for all modes except for the |hit-enter| prompt. If you don't want this, a good place to change the 'mouse' option is the "gvimrc" file. Other options that are relevant: 'mousefocus' window focus follows mouse pointer |gui-mouse-focus| 'mousemodel' what mouse button does which action 'mousehide' hide mouse pointer while typing text 'selectmode' whether to start Select mode or Visual mode A quick way to set these is with the ":behave" command. *:behave* *:be* :be[have] {model} Set behavior for mouse and selection. Valid arguments are: mswin MS-Windows behavior xterm Xterm behavior Using ":behave" changes these options: option mswin xterm ~ 'selectmode' "mouse,key" "" 'mousemodel' "popup" "extend" 'keymodel' "startsel,stopsel" "" 'selection' "exclusive" "inclusive" In the $VIMRUNTIME directory, there is a script called |mswin.vim|, which will also map a few keys to the MS-Windows cut/copy/paste commands. This is NOT compatible, since it uses the CTRL-V, CTRL-X and CTRL-C keys. If you don't mind, use this command: > :so $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim For scrolling with a wheel on a mouse, see |scroll-mouse-wheel|. 3.1 Moving Cursor with Mouse *gui-mouse-move* Click the left mouse button somewhere in a text buffer where you want the cursor to go, and it does! This works in when 'mouse' contains ~ Normal mode 'n' or 'a' Visual mode 'v' or 'a' Insert mode 'i' or 'a' Select mode is handled like Visual mode. You may use this with an operator such as 'd' to delete text from the current cursor position to the position you point to with the mouse. That is, you hit 'd' and then click the mouse somewhere. *gui-mouse-focus* The 'mousefocus' option can be set to make the keyboard focus follow the mouse pointer. This means that the window where the mouse pointer is, is the active window. Warning: this doesn't work very well when using a menu, because the menu command will always be applied to the top window. If you are on the ':' line (or '/' or '?'), then clicking the left or right mouse button will position the cursor on the ':' line (if 'mouse' contains 'c' or 'a'). In any situation the middle mouse button may be clicked to paste the current selection. 3.2 Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-select* The mouse can be used to start a selection. How depends on the 'mousemodel' option: 'mousemodel' is "extend": use the right mouse button 'mousemodel' is "popup": use the left mouse button, while keeping the Shift key pressed. If there was no selection yet, this starts a selection from the old cursor position to the position pointed to with the mouse. If there already is a selection then the closest end will be extended. If 'selectmode' contains "mouse", then the selection will be in Select mode. This means that typing normal text will replace the selection. See |Select-mode|. Otherwise, the selection will be in Visual mode. Double clicking may be done to make the selection word-wise, triple clicking makes it line-wise, and quadruple clicking makes it rectangular block-wise. See |gui-selections| on how the selection is used. 3.3 Other Text Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-modeless* *modeless-selection* A different kind of selection is used when: - in Command-line mode - in the Command-line window and pointing in another window - at the |hit-enter| prompt - whenever the current mode is not in the 'mouse' option - when holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys in the GUI Since Vim continues like the selection isn't there, and there is no mode associated with the selection, this is called modeless selection. Any text in the Vim window can be selected. Select the text by pressing the left mouse button at the start, drag to the end and release. To extend the selection, use the right mouse button when 'mousemodel' is "extend", or the left mouse button with the shift key pressed when 'mousemodel' is "popup". The selection is removed when the selected text is scrolled or changed. On the command line CTRL-Y can be used to copy the selection into the clipboard. To do this from Insert mode, use CTRL-O : CTRL-Y . When 'guioptions' contains a or A (default on X11), the selection is automatically copied to the "* register. The middle mouse button can then paste the text. On non-X11 systems, you can use CTRL-R +. 3.4 Using Mouse on Status Lines *gui-mouse-status* Clicking the left or right mouse button on the status line below a Vim window makes that window the current window. This actually happens on button release (to be able to distinguish a click from a drag action). With the left mouse button a status line can be dragged up and down, thus resizing the windows above and below it. This does not change window focus. The same can be used on the vertical separator: click to give the window left of it focus, drag left and right to make windows wider and narrower. 3.5 Various Mouse Clicks *gui-mouse-various* Search forward for the word under the mouse click. When 'mousemodel' is "popup" this starts or extends a selection. Search backward for the word under the mouse click. Jump to the tag name under the mouse click. Jump back to position before the previous tag jump (same as "CTRL-T") 3.6 Mouse Mappings *gui-mouse-mapping* The mouse events, complete with modifiers, may be mapped. Eg: > :map :map :map :map <2-S-LeftMouse> <2-RightMouse> :map <2-S-LeftDrag> <2-RightDrag> :map <2-S-LeftRelease> <2-RightRelease> :map <3-S-LeftMouse> <3-RightMouse> :map <3-S-LeftDrag> <3-RightDrag> :map <3-S-LeftRelease> <3-RightRelease> :map <4-S-LeftMouse> <4-RightMouse> :map <4-S-LeftDrag> <4-RightDrag> :map <4-S-LeftRelease> <4-RightRelease> These mappings make selection work the way it probably should in a Motif application, with shift-left mouse allowing for extending the visual area rather than the right mouse button. Mouse mapping with modifiers does not work for modeless selection. 3.7 Drag and drop *drag-n-drop* You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will be opened as if a |:drop| command was used. If you hold down Shift while doing this, Vim changes to the first dropped file's directory. If you hold Ctrl Vim will always split a new window for the file. Otherwise it's only done if the current buffer has been changed. You can also drop a directory on Vim. This starts the explorer plugin for that directory (assuming it was enabled, otherwise you'll get an error message). Keep Shift pressed to change to the directory instead. If Vim happens to be editing a command line, the names of the dropped files and directories will be inserted at the cursor. This allows you to use these names with any Ex command. Special characters (space, tab, double quote and '|'; backslash on non-MS-Windows systems) will be escaped. ============================================================================== 4. Making GUI Selections *gui-selections* *quotestar* You may make selections with the mouse (see |gui-mouse-select|), or by using Vim's Visual mode (see |v|). If 'a' is present in 'guioptions', then whenever a selection is started (Visual or Select mode), or when the selection is changed, Vim becomes the owner of the windowing system's primary selection (on MS-Windows the |gui-clipboard| is used; under X11, the |x11-selection| is used - you should read whichever of these is appropriate now). *clipboard* There is a special register for storing this selection, it is the "* register. Nothing is put in here unless the information about what text is selected is about to change (e.g. with a left mouse click somewhere), or when another application wants to paste the selected text. Then the text is put in the "* register. For example, to cut a line and make it the current selection/put it on the clipboard: > "*dd Similarly, when you want to paste a selection from another application, e.g., by clicking the middle mouse button, the selection is put in the "* register first, and then 'put' like any other register. For example, to put the selection (contents of the clipboard): > "*p When using this register under X11, also see |x11-selection|. This also explains the related "+ register. Note that when pasting text from one Vim into another separate Vim, the type of selection (character, line, or block) will also be copied. For other applications the type is always character. However, if the text gets transferred via the |x11-cut-buffer|, the selection type is ALWAYS lost. When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed register is the same as the "* register. Thus you can yank to and paste the selection without prepending "* to commands. ============================================================================== 5. Menus *menus* For an introduction see |usr_42.txt| in the user manual. 5.1 Using Menus *using-menus* Basically, menus can be used just like mappings. You can define your own menus, as many as you like. Long-time Vim users won't use menus much. But the power is in adding your own menus and menu items. They are most useful for things that you can't remember what the key sequence was. For creating menus in a different language, see |:menutrans|. If you don't want to use menus at all, see |'go-M'|. *menu.vim* The default menus are read from the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". See |$VIMRUNTIME| for where the path comes from. You can set up your own menus. Starting off with the default set is a good idea. You can add more items, or, if you don't like the defaults at all, start with removing all menus |:unmenu-all|. You can also avoid the default menus being loaded by adding this line to your .vimrc file (NOT your .gvimrc file!): > :let did_install_default_menus = 1 If you also want to avoid the Syntax menu: > :let did_install_syntax_menu = 1 The first item in the Syntax menu can be used to show all available filetypes in the menu (which can take a bit of time to load). If you want to have all filetypes already present at startup, add: > :let do_syntax_sel_menu = 1 The following menuitems show all available color schemes, keymaps and compiler settings: Edit > Color Scheme ~ Edit > Keymap ~ Tools > Set Compiler ~ However, they can also take a bit of time to load, because they search all related files from the directories in 'runtimepath'. Therefore they are loaded lazily (by the |CursorHold| event), or you can also load them manually. If you want to have all these items already present at startup, add: > :let do_no_lazyload_menus = 1 Note that the menu.vim is sourced when `:syntax on` or `:filetype on` is executed or after your .vimrc file is sourced. This means that the 'encoding' option and the language of messages (`:language messages`) must be set before that (if you want to change them). *console-menus* Although this documentation is in the GUI section, you can actually use menus in console mode too. You will have to load |menu.vim| explicitly then, it is not done by default. You can use the |:emenu| command and command-line completion with 'wildmenu' to access the menu entries almost like a real menu system. To do this, put these commands in your .vimrc file: > :source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim :set wildmenu :set cpo-=< :set wcm= :map :emenu Pressing will start the menu. You can now use the cursor keys to select a menu entry. Hit to execute it. Hit if you want to cancel. This does require the |+menu| feature enabled at compile time. *tear-off-menus* GTK+ 2 and Motif support Tear-off menus. These are sort of sticky menus or pop-up menus that are present all the time. If the resizing does not work correctly, this may be caused by using something like "Vim*geometry" in the defaults. Use "Vim.geometry" instead. As to GTK+ 3, tear-off menus have been deprecated since GTK+ 3.4. Accordingly, they are disabled if gvim is linked against GTK+ 3.4 or later. The Win32 GUI version emulates Motif's tear-off menus. Actually, a Motif user will spot the differences easily, but hopefully they're just as useful. You can also use the |:tearoff| command together with |hidden-menus| to create floating menus that do not appear on the main menu bar. 5.2 Creating New Menus *creating-menus* *:me* *:menu* *:noreme* *:noremenu* *E330* *E327* *E331* *E336* *E333* *E328* *E329* *E337* *E792* To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are mostly like the ":map" set of commands (see |map-modes|), but the first argument is a menu item name, given as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them, e.g.: > :menu File.Save :w :inoremenu File.Save :w :menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces :%s/[ ^I]//g This last one will create a new item in the menu bar called "Edit", holding the mouse button down on this will pop up a menu containing the item "Big Changes", which is a sub-menu containing the item "Delete All Spaces", which when selected, performs the operation. To create a menu for terminal mode, use |:tlmenu| instead of |:tmenu| unlike key mapping (|:tmap|). This is because |:tmenu| is already used for defining tooltips for menus. See |terminal-typing|. Special characters in a menu name: *menu-shortcut* & The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu. If you want to insert a literal "&" in the menu name use "&&". *menu-text* Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "" can be used here for convenience. If you are using a real tab, don't forget to put a backslash before it! Example: > :amenu &File.&Open:e :browse e [typed literally] With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the key pressed), and then "O", this menu can be used. The second part is shown as "Open :e". The ":e" is right aligned, and the "O" is underlined, to indicate it is the shortcut. *:am* *:amenu* *:an* *:anoremenu* The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once, except for Terminal mode. To make the command work correctly, a character is automatically inserted for some modes: mode inserted appended ~ Normal nothing nothing Visual Insert Cmdline Op-pending Appending CTRL-\ CTRL-G is for going back to insert mode when 'insertmode' is set. |CTRL-\_CTRL-G| Example: > :amenu File.Next :next^M is equal to: > :nmenu File.Next :next^M :vmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G :imenu File.Next ^\^O:next^M :cmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G :omenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G Careful: In Insert mode this only works for a SINGLE Normal mode command, because of the CTRL-O. If you have two or more commands, you will need to use the ":imenu" command. For inserting text in any mode, you can use the expression register: > :amenu Insert.foobar "='foobar'P Note that the '<' and 'k' flags in 'cpoptions' also apply here (when included they make the <> form and raw key codes not being recognized). Note that in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode. *:nme* *:nmenu* *:nnoreme* *:nnoremenu* *:nunme* *:nunmenu* Menu commands starting with "n" work in Normal mode. |mapmode-n| *:ome* *:omenu* *:onoreme* *:onoremenu* *:ounme* *:ounmenu* Menu commands starting with "o" work in Operator-pending mode. |mapmode-o| *:vme* *:vmenu* *:vnoreme* *:vnoremenu* *:vunme* *:vunmenu* Menu commands starting with "v" work in Visual mode. |mapmode-v| *:xme* *:xmenu* *:xnoreme* *:xnoremenu* *:xunme* *:xunmenu* Menu commands starting with "x" work in Visual and Select mode. |mapmode-x| *:sme* *:smenu* *:snoreme* *:snoremenu* *:sunme* *:sunmenu* Menu commands starting with "s" work in Select mode. |mapmode-s| *:ime* *:imenu* *:inoreme* *:inoremenu* *:iunme* *:iunmenu* Menu commands starting with "i" work in Insert mode. |mapmode-i| *:cme* *:cmenu* *:cnoreme* *:cnoremenu* *:cunme* *:cunmenu* Menu commands starting with "c" work in Cmdline mode. |mapmode-c| *:tlm* *:tlmenu* *:tln* *:tlnoremenu* *:tlu* *:tlunmenu* Menu commands starting with "tl" work in Terminal mode. |mapmode-t| *:menu-* *:menu-silent* To define a menu which will not be echoed on the command line, add "" as the first argument. Example: > :menu Settings.Ignore\ case :set ic The ":set ic" will not be echoed when using this menu. Messages from the executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a ":silent" in the executed command: > :menu Search.Header :exe ":silent normal /Header\r" "" may also appear just after "" or "