Gangmax Blog

Tabs and split screens in vim

Split Screen

  1. Open/close multiple files in split screens:
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# Open from start.
vi -o file1 file2      # Open split screens horizontally.
vi -O file1 file2      # Open split screens vertically.
vim -d file1 file2     # OPen split screens vertically and compare.
vimdiff file1 file2    # As above.

# Open while in vim.
Ctrl-w s      split the current file horizontally
Ctrl-w v      split the current file vertically
:sp file      open a new file screen horizontally
:vsp file     open a new file screen vertically

# Close.
Ctrl-w c      close current screen
Ctrl-w q      close current screen and if it's the last one exist vim
  1. Cursor movements:
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Ctrl-w h      jump to the left screen
Ctrl-w j      jump to the below screen
Ctrl-w k      jump to the above screen
Ctrl-w l      jump to the right screen
Ctrl-w w      jump to the next screen
  1. Change current screen position:
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Ctrl-w H      move the current screen to left
Ctrl-w J      move the current screen to below
Ctrl-w K      move the current screen to above
Ctrl-w L      move the current screen to right
  1. Change screen size:
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Ctrl-w =      make size equal
Ctrl-w +      increase size
Ctrl-w -      decrease size

tabs

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vim -p file1 file2  # Open files in tabs
:tabnew file        open file in new tab
:tabc               close the current tab
:tabo               close all tabs but the current one
:tabs               view all opened tabs
:tabp               move cursor to the previous tab
:tabn               move cursor to the next tab

vi & shell

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:shell    open shell without leaving vi
exit      exit shell and go back to vi

tab

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:set smarttab        # decide smartly how many spaces for a tab from the content of the file.
:set tabstop=4       # How many spaces is displayed for a tab.
:set softtabstop=4   # ???
:set shiftwidth=4    # How many spaces is inserted for each tab key strike.
:set expandtab       # expandtab/noexpandtab: make tab to space or not.
:retab               # make all tabs to spaces

Refer here, here, here, here, here and here.

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