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259 lines
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Plaintext
259 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
*usr_09.txt* Nvim
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VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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Using the GUI
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Vim works in an ordinary terminal, while gVim has a Graphical User Interface
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(GUI). It can do the same things and a few more. The GUI offers menus, a
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toolbar, scrollbars and other items. This chapter is about these extra things
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that the GUI offers.
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|09.1| Parts of the GUI
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|09.2| Using the mouse
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|09.3| The clipboard
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|09.4| Select mode
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Next chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
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Previous chapter: |usr_08.txt| Splitting windows
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Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
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==============================================================================
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*09.1* Parts of the GUI
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You might have an icon on your desktop that starts gvim. Otherwise, one of
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these commands should do it: >
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gvim file.txt
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vim -g file.txt
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If this doesn't work you don't have a version of Vim with GUI support. You
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will have to install one first.
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Vim will open a window and display "file.txt" in it. What the window looks
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like depends on the version of Vim. It should resemble the following picture
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(for as far as this can be shown in ASCII!).
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+----------------------------------------------------+
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| file.txt + (~/dir) - VIM X | <- window title
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+----------------------------------------------------+
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| File Edit Tools Syntax Buffers Window Help | <- menubar
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+----------------------------------------------------+
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| aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj | <- toolbar
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| aaa bbb ccc ddd eee fff ggg hhh iii jjj |
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+----------------------------------------------------+
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| file text | ^ |
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| ~ | # |
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| ~ | # | <- scrollbar
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| ~ | # |
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| ~ | # |
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| ~ | # |
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| | V |
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+----------------------------------------------------+
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The largest space is occupied by the file text. This shows the file in the
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same way as in a terminal. With some different colors and another font
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perhaps.
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THE WINDOW TITLE
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At the very top is the window title. This is drawn by your window system.
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Vim will set the title to show the name of the current file. First comes the
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name of the file. Then some special characters and the directory of the file
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in parens. These special characters can be present:
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• - The file cannot be modified (e.g., a help file)
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• + The file contains changes
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• = The file is read-only
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• =+ The file is read-only, contains changes anyway
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If nothing is shown you have an ordinary, unchanged file.
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THE MENUBAR
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You know how menus work, right? Vim has the usual items, plus a few more.
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Browse them to get an idea of what you can use them for. A relevant submenu
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is Edit/Global Settings. You will find these entries:
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Toggle Toolbar make the toolbar appear/disappear
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Toggle Bottom Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the bottom
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Toggle Left Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the left
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Toggle Right Scrollbar make a scrollbar appear/disappear at the right
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THE TOOLBAR
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This contains icons for the most often used actions. Hopefully the icons are
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self-explanatory. There are tooltips to get an extra hint (move the mouse
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pointer to the icon without clicking and don't move it for a second).
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The "Edit/Global Settings/Toggle Toolbar" menu item can be used to make the
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toolbar disappear. If you never want a toolbar, use this command in your
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vimrc file: >
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:set guioptions-=T
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This removes the 'T' flag from the 'guioptions' option. Other parts of the
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GUI can also be enabled or disabled with this option. See the help for it.
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THE SCROLLBARS
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By default there is one scrollbar on the right. It does the obvious thing.
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When you split the window, each window will get its own scrollbar.
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You can make a horizontal scrollbar appear with the menu item
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Edit/Global Settings/Toggle Bottom Scrollbar. This is useful in diff mode, or
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when the 'wrap' option has been reset (more about that later).
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When there are vertically split windows, only the windows on the right side
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will have a scrollbar. However, when you move the cursor to a window on the
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left, it will be this one that the scrollbar controls. This takes a bit of
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time to get used to.
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When you work with vertically split windows, consider adding a scrollbar on
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the left. This can be done with a menu item, or with the 'guioptions' option:
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>
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:set guioptions+=l
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This adds the 'l' flag to 'guioptions'.
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==============================================================================
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*09.2* Using the mouse
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Standards are wonderful. In Microsoft Windows, you can use the mouse to
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select text in a standard manner. The X Window system also has a standard
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system for using the mouse. Unfortunately, these two standards are not the
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same. Fortunately, you can customize Vim.
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The following commands makes the mouse work more like a Microsoft Windows mouse: >
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set selection=exclusive
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set selectmode=mouse,key
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set keymodel=startsel,stopsel
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The mouse can be further tuned. Check out these options if you want to change
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the way how the mouse works:
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'mouse' in which mode the mouse is used by Vim
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'mousemodel' what effect a mouse click has
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'mousetime' time between clicks for a double-click
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'mousehide' hide the mouse while typing
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'selectmode' whether the mouse starts Visual or Select mode
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==============================================================================
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*09.3* The clipboard
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In section |04.7| the basic use of the clipboard was explained. There is one
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essential thing to explain about X-windows: There are actually two places to
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exchange text between programs. MS-Windows doesn't have this.
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In X-Windows there is the "current selection". This is the text that is
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currently highlighted. In Vim this is the Visual area (this assumes you are
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using the default option settings). You can paste this selection in another
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application without any further action.
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For example, in this text select a few words with the mouse. Vim will
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switch to Visual mode and highlight the text. Now start another gvim, without
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a file name argument, so that it displays an empty window. Click the middle
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mouse button. The selected text will be inserted.
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The "current selection" will only remain valid until some other text is
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selected. After doing the paste in the other gvim, now select some characters
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in that window. You will notice that the words that were previously selected
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in the other gvim window are displayed differently. This means that it no
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longer is the current selection.
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You don't need to select text with the mouse, using the keyboard commands for
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Visual mode works just as well.
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THE REAL CLIPBOARD
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Now for the other place with which text can be exchanged. We call this the
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"real clipboard", to avoid confusion. Often both the "current selection" and
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the "real clipboard" are called clipboard, you'll have to get used to that.
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To put text on the real clipboard, select a few different words in one of
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the gvims you have running. Then use the Edit/Copy menu entry. Now the text
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has been copied to the real clipboard. You can't see this, unless you have
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some application that shows the clipboard contents (e.g., KDE's Klipper).
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Now select the other gvim, position the cursor somewhere and use the
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Edit/Paste menu. You will see the text from the real clipboard is inserted.
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USING BOTH
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This use of both the "current selection" and the "real clipboard" might sound
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a bit confusing. But it is very useful. Let's show this with an example.
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Use one gvim with a text file and perform these actions:
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- Select two words in Visual mode.
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- Use the Edit/Copy menu to get these words onto the clipboard.
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- Select one other word in Visual mode.
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- Use the Edit/Paste menu item. What will happen is that the single selected
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word is replaced with the two words from the clipboard.
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- Move the mouse pointer somewhere else and click the middle button. You
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will see that the word you just overwrote with the clipboard is inserted
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here.
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If you use the "current selection" and the "real clipboard" with care, you can
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do a lot of useful editing with them.
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USING THE KEYBOARD
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If you don't like using the mouse, you can access the current selection and
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the real clipboard with two registers. The "* register is for the current
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selection.
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To make text become the current selection, use Visual mode. For example,
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to select a whole line just press "V".
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To insert the current selection before the cursor: >
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"*P
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Notice the uppercase "P". The lowercase "p" puts the text after the cursor.
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The "+ register is used for the real clipboard. For example, to copy the text
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from the cursor position until the end of the line to the clipboard: >
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"+y$
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Remember, "y" is yank, which is Vim's copy command.
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To insert the contents of the real clipboard before the cursor: >
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"+P
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It's the same as for the current selection, but uses the plus (+) register
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instead of the star "*" register.
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==============================================================================
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*09.4* Select mode
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And now something that is used more often on MS-Windows than on X-Windows.
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But both can do it. You already know about Visual mode. Select mode is like
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Visual mode, because it is also used to select text. But there is an obvious
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difference: When typing text, the selected text is deleted and the typed text
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replaces it.
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To start working with Select mode, you must first enable it (for MS-Windows
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it is probably already enabled, but you can do this anyway): >
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:set selectmode+=mouse
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Now use the mouse to select some text. It is highlighted like in Visual mode.
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Now press a letter. The selected text is deleted, and the single letter
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replaces it. You are in Insert mode now, thus you can continue typing.
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Since typing normal text causes the selected text to be deleted, you can not
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use the normal movement commands "hjkl", "w", etc. Instead, use the shifted
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function keys. <S-Left> (shifted cursor left key) moves the cursor left. The
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selected text is changed like in Visual mode. The other shifted cursor keys
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do what you expect. <S-End> and <S-Home> also work.
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You can tune the way Select mode works with the 'selectmode' option.
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==============================================================================
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Next chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
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Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:
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