Vi and Vim Stack Exchange
Vi and Vim Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [help-system]

Questions about Vim's built-in help system, which is accessible through the :help command

This tag is for questions about how to use Vim's built-in help system.

From Vim, help is available through the :help (or :h for short) command. You can add a subject to search for it: :help subject. Almost any subject will work.

For an overview of the help system, see :help help.

112 questions
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Learning Vim after vimtutor

What should the next steps to learning Vim be, after completing vimtutor? I've watched videos on YouTube, read tutorials online and questions/answers on SE, and am busy reading Practical Vim. Are there any other good resources available? Actually…
SabreWolfy
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How can a complete beginner learn Vim using just Vim itself?

As a complete beginner with no vi experience, how can I learn to use Vim using just Vim itself? Is there a built-in tutorial, and how can I access it? Assume I have a laptop with Linux and Vim installed, and no Internet connection.
200_success
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Generating help tags for packages that are loaded by Vim 8's package management

I have a few packages installed in my ~/.vim/pack/default/start directory, for example Tabular and Unicode. After starting up vim I can use these packages but cannot access their help information. Issuing helptags…
intuited
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12
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1 answer

Accessing references or documentation from within Vim

I assume the only documentation that comes with Vim is about Vim. If I install plugins there will be documentation of the plugins as well. But is there documentation for other languages in Vim? An example would be, say I am coding in Python in Vim,…
Y. Pei
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12
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3 answers

Shadowed terms in help

Occasionally, when I'm searching the help system for a particular topic, it will be shadowed by a different topic. For example, if I do :h display I get help for something involving "GUI Resources", when I wanted help for the "display" setting (as…
xthrd
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9
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1 answer

Prevent vim closing the editor when the last window/splits are help pages

When I am working in vim, I often have a split, or splits, open containing a help files. If I close other windows using :q such that vim would be left in a state with only help windows open, vim closes the entire editor, which causes me to lose my…
the_velour_fog
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7
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How to Interpret Syntax in VIM Help Pages

I have difficulty understanding syntax provided in man pages. I realize that the syntax is trying to tell me the range of things you can do, but I often can't distinguish between characters that are "needed while writing the command" and "characters…
Lonnie Best
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What does `*foo* *[foo]*` mean in the vim help system?

When searching the help for "count", :h count I'm shown the help page: *count* *[count]* [count] An optional number that may precede the command to multiply or iterate the command. If no number is given, a count…
mbigras
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Is there any way to add to the help system without developing a plugin

I have somewhat customised vim to my needs what I would like to do would be to add a cheatsheet, documenting these customisations and other things I often forget to the vim help system. I know that it can be extended by plugins is there another way…
Nick J Adams
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5
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Is it possible to look up a command that takes no arguments?

Is there a way to use :help to find commands that take arguments vs. no arguments? For example: :map (w/o arguments) can list the key mappings for various modes. However, :help :map leads me to :map {lhs} {rhs} (around line 48) instead of line 114…
dgo.a
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How can I quickly convert a Vim help tag to a vimhelp.appspot.com link?

One thing I often do here is to add links to documentation when writing :he foo, and I usually link to http://vimhelp.appspot.com. The problem is, that site's search is about slightly worse than the Stack Exchange sites' search.…
muru
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Opening built-in cheat sheet

Every now and then when I try to quit vim, I incidentally open window with command cheat sheet as in attached picture. How do I do this and how is it called?
Artur Owczarek
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4
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Convert VIM doc (vim help) to Markdown or vice versa

Suppose you are writing a vim plugin hosted on Github (which seems to be a standard for now). You don't want to maintain two help files: README.md (Markdown) and doc/your_plugin.txt (vim help) with quite the same content but different markup…
petRUShka
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Where are the French help files?

Background: I'm an english-speaking, francophone student. In an effort to improve my vocabulary, my MacBook has been running in French since January, when I arrived in France. Incidentally, this means that $LANG=fr_FR.utf-8. I was able to get ahold…
D. Ben Knoble
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3
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How to list all help subjects and help files?

Q1: How can I list all vim help subjects (topics)? i.e., the {subject} argument for :h[elp] {subject} Q2: How can I list all vim help files? My particular use case is that I want to see help for my various vim plugins, and I don't know what the…
Rob Bednark
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