gui.txt - html version
gui.txt - html version
*gui.txt* For Vim version 5.3. Last modification: 1998 Aug 24
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 |gui-menus|
6. Extras |gui-extras|
7. 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.
{Vi does not have any of these commands}
1. Starting the GUI *gui-start*
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 should include
"+GUI_Motif", "+GUI_Athena" or "+GUI_win32".
How to start the GUI depends on the system used. Mostly you can 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*
When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order:
- If the system menu file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is
normally "$VIM/menu.vim". You can check this with ":version". Also
see |$VIM|.
- 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.
- For Unix, 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, when $HOME is not set, "$VIM\_gvimrc" is used.
- When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too. And vice
versa.
- 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.
NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with
"-u NONE" 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|.
You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customised menus (see |:menu|)
and initialise other things that you may want to set up differently from the
terminal version.
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 (not for the 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 ovverride 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.
2. Scrollbars *gui-scrollbars*
There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbars. 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.
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 current cursor line may be
scrolled as far as possible left and right.
*athena-intellimouse*
If you have an Intellimouse and are running Linux and have the proper
patches in your X server to use the wheel, then to can use the wheel to scroll
the text up and down in gvim. At the moment, it only works with the athena
version.
In order to use this you must have a patched 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/
To use the wheel, put the cursor in the scrollbar area and move the wheel up
or down. This will scroll the text one line up or down. If you hold down the
shift key, it will scroll a page at a time.
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-return| 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 behaviour for mouse and selection. Valid
arguments are:
mswin MS-Windows behaviour
xterm Xterm behaviour
Using ":behave" changes these options:
option mswin xterm
'selectmode' "mouse,key" ""
'mousemodel' "popup" "extend"
'keymodel' "startsel,stopsel" ""
'selection' "exclusive" "inclusive"
In the $VIM 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 $VIM/mswin.vim
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', 'a' 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*
When in Command-line mode, at the |hit-return| prompt or whenever the current
mode is not in the 'mouse' option, a different kind of selection is used.
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 middle mouse button pasts the text.
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. The mouse may then be dragged
up and down to move the status line, thus resizing the windows above and
below it.
3.5 Various Mouse Clicks *gui-mouse-various*
<S-LeftMouse> Search forward for the word under the mouse click.
When 'mousemodel' is "popup" this starts or extends a
selection.
<S-RightMouse> Search backward for the word under the mouse click.
<C-LeftMouse> Jump to the tag name under the mouse click.
<C-RightMouse> 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 <S-LeftMouse> <RightMouse>
:map <S-LeftDrag> <RightDrag>
:map <S-LeftRelease> <RightRelease>
: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.
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).
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 (eg 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
Note that when pasting text from one Vim into another separate Vim, the type
of selection (character, line, or block) will also be copied.
5. Menus *gui-menus*
5.1 Using Menus *gui-using-menus*
The default menus are quite simple at the moment. Long-time Vim users won't
use them 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.
Motif supports 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 de defaults. Use
"Vim.geometry" instead.
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 |win32-hidden-menus| to
create floating menus that do not appear on the main menu bar.
*menu.vim*
The default menus are read from the file "$VIM/menu.vim". See |$VIM| 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|.
5.2 Creating New Menus *gui-creating-menus*
*:me* *:menu* *:noreme* *:noremenu*
*:am* *:amenu* *:an* *:anoremenu*
*:nme* *:nmenu* *:nnoreme* *:nnoremenu*
*:ome* *:omenu* *:onoreme* *:onoremenu*
*:vme* *:vmenu* *:vnoreme* *:vnoremenu*
*:ime* *:imenu* *:inoreme* *:inoremenu*
*:cme* *:cmenu* *:cnoreme* *:cnoremenu*
To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are exactly like
the ":map" set of commands but the first argument is a menu item name, given
as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them. eg:
:menu File.Save :w^M
:inoremenu File.Save ^O:w^M
:menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces :%s/[ ^I]//g^M
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.
Special characters in a menu name:
& The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each
shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu.
<Tab> Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be
used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "<Tab>"
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<Tab>:e :browse e<CR>
[typed literally]
With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the <Alt> 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.
The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once.
To make the command work correctly, a character is automatically inserted for
some modes:
mode inserted
Normal nothing
Visual <Esc>
Insert <C-O>
Cmdline <C-C>
Op-pending <Esc>
Example:
:amenu File.Exit :qa!^M
is equal to:
:nmenu File.Exit :qa!^M
:vmenu File.Exit ^[:qa!^M
:imenu File.Exit ^O:qa!^M
:cmenu File.Exit ^C:qa!^M
:omenu File.Exit ^[:qa!^M
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'<CR>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 <Esc> in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This
is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode.
*menu-priority*
You can give a priority to a menu. Menus with a higher priority go more to
the right. The priority is given as a number before the ":menu" command.
Example:
:70menu Buffer.next :bn<CR>
The default menus have these priorities:
File 10
Edit 20
Syntax 50
Help 9999
When no priority is given, 500 is used.
You can use a priority higher than 9999, to make it go after the Help menu,
but that is non-standard and is discouraged. The highest possible priority is
about 32000.
*sub-menu-priority*
The same mechanism can be used to position a sub-menu. The priority is then
given as a dot-separated list of priorities, before the menu name:
:menu 70.500 Buffer.next :bn<CR>
Giving the sub-menu priority is only needed when the item is not to be put
in a normal position. For example, to put a sub-menu before the other items:
:menu 70.100 Buffer.first :brew<CR>
Or to put a sub-menu after the other items, and furter items with default
priority will be put before it:
:menu 70.900 Buffer.last :blast<CR>
When a number is missing, the default value 500 will be used:
:menu .900 myMenu.test :echo "text"<CR>
The menu priority is only used when creating a new menu. When it already
existed, the priority will not change. Thus, the priority only needs to be
given the first time a menu is used.
NOTE: sub-menu priorities currently don't work for all versions of the GUI.
*gui-toolbar*
Currently, the toolbar is only available in the Win32 GUI. It should turn up
in other GUIs in due course. Sample toolbar definitions are given in menu.vim.
The display of the toolbar is controlled by the 'guioptions' letter 'T'. You
can thus have menu & toolbar together, or either on its own, or neither.
The toolbar is defined as a special menu called ToolBar, which only has one
level. Vim interprets the items in this menu as follows:
1) An item called 'BuiltIn##', where ## is a number, is taken as number ## of
the built-in bitmaps available in Vim. Currently there are 28, numbered
from 0 to 27, which cover most common editing operations |builtin-tools|.
2) An item with another name is first searched for in the directory
$VIM/bitmaps. If found, the bitmaps file is used as the toolbar button
image. Note that the exact filename is OS-specific: For example, under
Win32 the command
:amenu ToolBar.Hello :echo "hello"<CR>
would search for the file 'hello.bmp'. Under X11 it might be 'Hello.xpm'.
Loading a custom bitmap is only supported on W95 and NT4. The bitmap is
scaled to fit the button.
3) If the bitmap is not found in $VIM/bitmaps, Vim checks for a match against
its list of built-in names. Each built-in button image has a name. So the
command
:amenu ToolBar.Open :e
will show the built in "open a file" button image if no open.bmp exists.
All the built-in names can be seen used in menu.vim.
4) If all else fails, a blank, but functioning, button is displayed.
*builtin-tools*
nr Name Normal action
00 New open new window
01 Open browse for file to open in current window
02 Save write buffer to file
03 Undo undo last change
04 Redo redo last undone change
05 Cut delete selected text to clipboard
06 Copy copy selected text to clipboard
07 Paste paste text from clipboard
08 Print print current buffer
09 Help open a buffer on Vim's builtin help
10 Find start a search command
11 SaveAll write all modified buffers to file
12 SaveSession write session file for current situation
13 NewSession write new session file
14 LoadSession load session file
15 RunMacro browse for file to run
16 Replace prompt for substitute command
17 WinClose close current window
18 WinZoom make current window use many lines
19 WinMin make current window use few lines
20 WinSplit split current window
21 Shell start a shell
22 FindPrev search again, backward
23 FindNext search again, forward
24 FindHelp prompt for word to search help for
25 Make run make and jump to first error
26 TagsJump jump to tag under the cursor
27 TagsBuild build tags for files in current directory
*win32-hidden-menus*
In the Win32 GUI, starting a menu name with ']' excludes that menu from the
main menu bar. You must then use the |:tearoff| command to display it.
*win32-popup-menu*
Also in the Win32 GUI, you can define the special menu "PopUp". This is the
menu that is displayed when the right mouse button is pressed, if 'M' is
present in the 'mouse' option.
5.3 Showing What Menus Are Mapped To *gui-showing-menus*
To see what an existing menu is mapped to, use just one argument after the
menu commands (just like you would with the ":map" commands). If the menu
specified is a submenu, then all menus under that hierarchy will be shown.
If no argument is given after :menu at all, then ALL menu items are shown
for the appropriate mode (eg, Command-line mode for :cmenu).
Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after a menu command may
be used to complete the name of the menu item.
5.4 Deleting Menus *gui-delete-menus*
*:unme* *:unmenu*
*:aun* *:aunmenu*
*:nunme* *:nunmenu*
*:ounme* *:ounmenu*
*:vunme* *:vunmenu*
*:iunme* *:iunmenu*
*:cunme* *:cunmenu*
To delete a menu item or a whole submenu, use the unmenu commands, which are
analogous to the unmap commands. Eg:
:unmenu! Edit.Paste
This will remove the Paste item from the Edit menu for Insert and
Command-line modes.
Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after an umenu command
may be used to complete the name of the menu item for the appropriate mode.
To remove all menus use: *:unmenu-all*
:unmenu * " remove all menus in Normal and visual mode
:unmenu! * " remove all menus in Insert and Command-line mode
5.5 Examples for Menus
Here is an example on how to add menu items with menu's! You can add a menu
item for the keyword under the cursor. The register "z" is used.
:nmenu Words.Add\ Var wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>
:nmenu Words.Remove\ Var wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>
:vmenu Words.Add\ Var "zy:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z <CR>
:vmenu Words.Remove\ Var "zy:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>
:imenu Words.Add\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>a
:imenu Words.Remove\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>a
(the rhs is in <> notation, you can copy/paste this text to try out the
mappings, or put these lines in your gvimrc; "<C-R>" is CTRL-R, "<CR>" is
the <CR> key. |<>|)
Tooltips & Menu tips
These are currently only supported for the Win32 GUI. However, they should
appear for the other gui platforms in the not too distant future.
*:tmenu* *:tm*
:tm[enu] {menupath} {rhs} Define a tip for a menu or tool. {only in
Win32 GUI}
:tm[enu] [menupath] List menu tips. {only in Win32 GUI}
A "tip" can be defined for each menu item. For example, after defining an item
like this:
:amenu MyMenu.Hello :echo "Hello"<CR>
The tip is defined like this:
:tmenu MyMenu.Hello Displays a greeting.
When a tip is defined for a menu item, it appears in the command-line area
when the mouse is over that item, much like a standard Windows menu hint in
the status bar. (Except when Vim is in command-line mode, when of course
nothing is displayed.)
When a tip is defined for a toolbar item, it appears as a tooltip when the
mouse pauses over that button, in the usual fashion.
The ":tmenu" command works just like other menu commands, it uses the same
arguments.
*:tunmenu* *:tu*
:tu[nmenu] {menupath} Remove a tip for a menu or tool. {only in
Win32 GUI}
:tunmenu deletes an existing menu tip, in the same way as the other unmenu
commands. Example:
:tunmenu MyMenu.Hello
If a menu item becomes invalid (i.e. its actions in all modes are deleted) Vim
deletes the menu tip (and the item) for you. This means that :aunmenu deletes
a menu item - you don't need to do a :tunmenu as well.
6. Extras *gui-extras*
This section describes other features which are related to the GUI.
- With the GUI, there is no wait for one second after hitting escape, because
the key codes don't start with <Esc>.
- Typing ^V followed by a special key in the GUI will insert "<Key>", since
the internal string used is meaningless. Modifiers may also be held down to
get "<Modifiers-Key>".
- In the GUI, the modifiers SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT (or META) may be used within
mappings of special keys and mouse events. eg: :map <M-LeftDrag> <LeftDrag>
- In the GUI, several normal keys may have modifiers in mappings etc, these
are <Space>, <Tab>, <NL>, <CR>, <Esc>.
7. Shell Commands *gui-shell*
WARNING: Executing an external command from the GUI will not always work.
"normal" commands like "ls", "grep" and "make" mostly work fine. Commands
that require an intelligent terminal like "less" and "ispell" won't work.
Some may even hang and need to be killed from another terminal. So be
careful!
For the X11 GUI the external commands are executed inside the gvim window.
See |gui-pty|.
For the Win32 GUI the external commands are executed in a separate window.
See |gui-shell-win32|.
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