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So I want to be able to automatically open help files in a new tab.

I saw a question on this SE that pretty much solved my problem.

I wanted to make just one change: center the screen.

"That will be easy," I thought....

"Only apply to .txt files...
augroup HelpInTabs
    autocmd!
    autocmd BufEnter  *.txt   call HelpInNewTab()
augroup END

let g:help_in_tabs = 1


"Only apply to help files...
function! HelpInNewTab ()
    if &buftype == 'help' && g:help_in_tabs
        "Convert the help window to a tab...
        execute "normal <C-W>T"
        " THIS IS MY CHANGE:
        execute "normal zz"
    endif
endfunction

quite unexpectedly, there is no difference. ☁️

Dominik Teiml
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    Do you have zz mapped to anything? Just in case, use normal! zz (I'm pretty sure you don't need the execute statement either. Also, you can just do :tab help <topic> to open a help page in a new tab. – mattb Sep 15 '22 at 19:23
  • Yes I use nescroll.nvim which maps zz. But I just tried it with normal! zz and also before with gg to no avail – Dominik Teiml Sep 16 '22 at 08:15
  • I prefer to open help in a split window, and possibly on the right (with wide screens there is enough room to keep help and text open at the same time). I created a mapping:

    map <Leader>ve :vertical botright help<CR>

     – Antonio Sep 16 '22 at 15:59
  • I tried your code. Manually calling HelpInNewTab() gives the desired result. Even running :doautocmd works. But when firing automatically, there is no change, as you mentioned. In addition, I found that after switching to another tab and back, the screen is centered! I think this might be a bug. – husB Sep 28 '22 at 16:26

1 Answers1

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I tried your code, and indeed, zz has no effect. In fact, reducing the function to contain only normal zz did not center the help window automatically.

A workaround is to use a timer. That is, in your function, replace execute "normal zz" with

call timer_start(0, {-> feedkeys("zz")})

Let's break it down:

  • timer_start creates a timer, that executes a function after some time specified by the first argument, which is...
  • 0, that is, execute the following function immediately
  • {-> feedkeys("zz")}: a lambda expression (anonymous function), which behaves as though the user entered zz.

Basically, after waiting (albeit for 0 seconds), press zz.

For more, see

  • :h timer,
  • :h expr-lambda,
  • :h feedkeys().
husB
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