help.txt For Vim version 9.2. Last change: 2026 Feb 14 VIM - main help file k Move around: Use the cursor keys, or "h" to go left, h l "j" to go down, "k" to go up, "l" to go right. j Close this window: Use ":q<Enter>". Get out of Vim: Use ":qa!<Enter>" (careful, all changes are lost!). Jump to a subject: Position the cursor on a tag (e.g. bars ) and hit CTRL-]. With the mouse: ":set mouse=a" to enable the mouse (in xterm or GUI). Double-click the left mouse button on a tag, e.g. bars . Jump back: Type CTRL-O. Repeat to go further back. Get specific help: It is possible to go directly to whatever you want help on, by giving an argument to the :help command. Prepend something to specify the context: help-context WHAT PREPEND EXAMPLE Normal mode command :help x Visual mode command v_ :help v_u Insert mode command i_ :help i_<Esc> Command-line command : :help :quit Command-line editing c_ :help c_<Del> Vim command argument - :help -r Option ' :help 'textwidth' Regular expression / :help /[ See help-summary for more contexts and an explanation. See notation for an explanation of the help syntax. Search for help: Type ":help word", then hit CTRL-D to see matching help entries for "word". Or use ":helpgrep word". :helpgrep Getting started: Do the Vim tutor, a 30-minute interactive course for the basic commands, see vimtutor . Read the user manual from start to end: usr_01.txt Vim stands for Vi IMproved. Most of Vim was made by Bram Moolenaar, but only through the help of many others. See credits . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ doc-file-list Q_ct BASIC: quickref Overview of the most common commands you will use tutor 30-minute interactive course for beginners copying About copyrights Kuwasha Helping poor children in Uganda sponsor Sponsor Vim development, become a registered Vim user www Vim on the World Wide Web bugs Where to send bug reports USER MANUAL: These files explain how to accomplish an editing task. usr_toc.txt Table Of Contents Getting Started usr_01.txt About the manuals usr_02.txt The first steps in Vim usr_03.txt Moving around usr_04.txt Making small changes usr_05.txt Set your settings usr_06.txt Using syntax highlighting usr_07.txt Editing more than one file usr_08.txt Splitting windows usr_09.txt Using the GUI usr_10.txt Making big changes usr_11.txt Recovering from a crash usr_12.txt Clever tricks Editing Effectively usr_20.txt Typing command-line commands quickly usr_21.txt Go away and come back usr_22.txt Finding the file to edit usr_23.txt Editing other files usr_24.txt Inserting quickly usr_25.txt Editing formatted text usr_26.txt Repeating usr_27.txt Search commands and patterns usr_28.txt Folding usr_29.txt Moving through programs usr_30.txt Editing programs usr_31.txt Exploiting the GUI usr_32.txt The undo tree Tuning Vim usr_40.txt Make new commands usr_41.txt Write a Vim script usr_42.txt Add new menus usr_43.txt Using filetypes usr_44.txt Your own syntax highlighted usr_45.txt Select your language Writing Vim scripts usr_50.txt Advanced Vim script writing usr_51.txt Create a plugin usr_52.txt Write plugins using Vim9 script Making Vim Run usr_90.txt Installing Vim REFERENCE MANUAL: These files explain every detail of Vim. reference_toc General subjects intro.txt general introduction to Vim; notation used in help files help.txt overview and quick reference (this file) helphelp.txt about using the help files index.txt alphabetical index of all commands help-tags all the tags you can jump to (index of tags) howto.txt how to do the most common editing tasks tips.txt various tips on using Vim message.txt (error) messages and explanations quotes.txt remarks from users of Vim todo.txt known problems and desired extensions develop.txt development of Vim debug.txt debugging Vim itself uganda.txt Vim distribution conditions and what to do with your money Basic editing starting.txt starting Vim, Vim command arguments, initialisation editing.txt editing and writing files motion.txt commands for moving around scroll.txt scrolling the text in the window insert.txt Insert and Replace mode change.txt deleting and replacing text undo.txt Undo and Redo repeat.txt repeating commands, Vim scripts and debugging visual.txt using the Visual mode (selecting a text area) various.txt various remaining commands recover.txt recovering from a crash Advanced editing cmdline.txt Command-line editing options.txt description of all options pattern.txt regexp patterns and search commands map.txt key mapping and abbreviations tagsrch.txt tags and special searches windows.txt commands for using multiple windows and buffers tabpage.txt commands for using multiple tab pages spell.txt spell checking diff.txt working with two to eight versions of the same file autocmd.txt automatically executing commands on an event eval.txt expression evaluation, conditional commands builtin.txt builtin functions userfunc.txt defining user functions channel.txt Jobs, Channels, inter-process communication fold.txt hide (fold) ranges of lines Special issues testing.txt testing Vim and Vim scripts print.txt printing remote.txt using Vim as a server or client term.txt using different terminals and mice terminal.txt Terminal window support popup.txt popup window support vim9.txt using Vim9 script vim9class.txt using Vim9 script classes Programming language support indent.txt automatic indenting for C and other languages syntax.txt syntax highlighting textprop.txt Attaching properties to text for highlighting or other filetype.txt settings done specifically for a type of file quickfix.txt commands for a quick edit-compile-fix cycle ft_ada.txt Ada (the programming language) support ft_context.txt Filetype plugin for ConTeXt ft_hare.txt Filetype plugin for Hare ft_mp.txt Filetype plugin for METAFONT and MetaPost ft_ps1.txt Filetype plugin for Windows PowerShell ft_raku.txt Filetype plugin for Raku ft_rust.txt Filetype plugin for Rust ft_sql.txt about the SQL filetype plugin Language support digraph.txt list of available digraphs mbyte.txt multibyte text support mlang.txt non-English language support rileft.txt right-to-left editing mode arabic.txt Arabic language support and editing farsi.txt Farsi (Persian) editing hebrew.txt Hebrew language support and editing russian.txt Russian language support and editing hangulin.txt Hangul (Korean) input mode vietnamese.txt Vietnamese language support and editing GUI gui.txt Graphical User Interface (GUI) gui_w32.txt Win32 GUI gui_x11.txt X11 GUI System Integration wayland.txt Wayland protocol support Interfaces if_cscop.txt using Cscope with Vim if_lua.txt Lua interface if_mzsch.txt MzScheme interface if_perl.txt Perl interface if_pyth.txt Python interface if_tcl.txt Tcl interface if_ole.txt OLE automation interface for Win32 if_ruby.txt Ruby interface debugger.txt Interface with a debugger netbeans.txt NetBeans External Editor interface sign.txt debugging signs Versions vi_diff.txt Main differences between Vim and Vi version4.txt Differences between Vim version 3.0 and 4.x version5.txt Differences between Vim version 4.6 and 5.x version6.txt Differences between Vim version 5.7 and 6.x version7.txt Differences between Vim version 6.4 and 7.x version8.txt Differences between Vim version 7.4 and 8.x version9.txt Differences between Vim version 8.2 and 9.0 sys-file-list Remarks about specific systems os_390.txt OS/390 Unix os_amiga.txt Amiga os_beos.txt BeOS and BeBox os_dos.txt MS-DOS and MS-Windows common items os_haiku.txt Haiku os_mac.txt Macintosh os_mint.txt Atari MiNT os_msdos.txt MS-DOS (plain DOS and DOS box under Windows) os_os2.txt OS/2 os_qnx.txt QNX os_risc.txt RISC-OS os_unix.txt Unix os_vms.txt VMS os_win32.txt MS-Windows standard-plugin-list Standard plugins pi_getscript.txt Downloading latest version of Vim scripts pi_gzip.txt Reading and writing compressed files pi_logipat.txt Logical operators on patterns pi_netrw.txt Reading and writing files over a network pi_paren.txt Highlight matching parens pi_spec.txt Filetype plugin to work with rpm spec files pi_tar.txt Tar file explorer pi_tutor.txt Interactive tutorial for Vim pi_vimball.txt Create a self-installing Vim script pi_zip.txt Zip archive explorer LOCAL ADDITIONS: local-additions matchit.txt Extended "%" matching editorconfig.txt EditorConfig plugin for vim. vim_faq.txt Frequently Asked Questions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ bars Bars example Now that you've jumped here with CTRL-] or a double mouse click, you can use CTRL-T, CTRL-O, g<RightMouse>, or <C-RightMouse> to go back to where you were. Note that tags are within | characters, but when highlighting is enabled these characters are hidden. That makes it easier to read a command. Anyway, you can use CTRL-] on any word, also when it is not within |, and Vim will try to find help for it. Especially for options in single quotes, e.g. 'compatible'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ vim:tw=78:isk=!-~,^*,^\|,^\":ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: