1*gui.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 May 14 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Vim's Graphical User Interface *gui* *GUI* 8 91. Starting the GUI |gui-start| 102. Scrollbars |gui-scrollbars| 113. Mouse Control |gui-mouse| 124. Making GUI Selections |gui-selections| 135. Menus |menus| 146. Extras |gui-extras| 157. Shell Commands |gui-shell| 16 17Other GUI documentation: 18|gui_x11.txt| For specific items of the X11 GUI. 19|gui_w32.txt| For specific items of the Win32 GUI. 20 21{Vi does not have any of these commands} 22 23============================================================================== 241. Starting the GUI *gui-start* *E229* *E233* 25 26First you must make sure you actually have a version of Vim with the GUI code 27included. You can check this with the ":version" command, it says "with xxx 28GUI", where "xxx" is X11-Motif, X11-Athena, Photon, GTK, GTK2, etc., or 29"MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version". 30 31How to start the GUI depends on the system used. Mostly you can run the 32GUI version of Vim with: 33 gvim [options] [files...] 34 35The X11 version of Vim can run both in GUI and in non-GUI mode. See 36|gui-x11-start|. 37 38 *gui-init* *gvimrc* *.gvimrc* *_gvimrc* *$MYGVIMRC* 39The gvimrc file is where GUI-specific startup commands should be placed. It 40is always sourced after the |vimrc| file. If you have one then the $MYGVIMRC 41environment variable has its name. 42 43When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order: 44- The 'term' option is set to "builtin_gui" and terminal options are reset to 45 their default value for the GUI |terminal-options|. 46- If the system menu file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is 47 normally "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". You can check this with ":version". Also 48 see |$VIMRUNTIME|. To skip loading the system menu include 'M' in 49 'guioptions'. *buffers-menu* *no_buffers_menu* 50 The system menu file includes a "Buffers" menu. If you don't want this, set 51 the "no_buffers_menu" variable in your .vimrc (not .gvimrc!): > 52 :let no_buffers_menu = 1 53< NOTE: Switching on syntax highlighting also loads the menu file, thus 54 disabling the Buffers menu must be done before ":syntax on". 55 The path names are truncated to 35 characters. You can truncate them at a 56 different length, for example 50, like this: > 57 :let bmenu_max_pathlen = 50 58- If the "-U {gvimrc}" command-line option has been used when starting Vim, 59 the {gvimrc} file will be read for initializations. The following 60 initializations are skipped. When {gvimrc} is "NONE" no file will be read 61 for initializations. 62- For Unix and MS-Windows, if the system gvimrc exists, it is sourced. The 63 name of this file is normally "$VIM/gvimrc". You can check this with 64 ":version". Also see |$VIM|. 65- The following are tried, and only the first one that exists is used: 66 - If the GVIMINIT environment variable exists and is not empty, it is 67 executed as an Ex command. 68 - If the user gvimrc file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is 69 normally "$HOME/.gvimrc". You can check this with ":version". 70 - For Win32, when $HOME is not set, "$VIM\_gvimrc" is used. 71 - When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too. And vice 72 versa. 73 The name of the first file found is stored in $MYGVIMRC, unless it was 74 already set. 75- If the 'exrc' option is set (which is NOT the default) the file ./.gvimrc 76 is sourced, if it exists and isn't the same file as the system or user 77 gvimrc file. If this file is not owned by you, some security restrictions 78 apply. When ".gvimrc" is not found, "_gvimrc" is tried too. For Macintosh 79 and DOS/Win32 "_gvimrc" is tried first. 80 81NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with 82"-u NONE" and no "-U" argument was given, or when started with "-U NONE". 83 84All this happens AFTER the normal Vim initializations, like reading your 85.vimrc file. See |initialization|. 86But the GUI window is only opened after all the initializations have been 87carried out. If you want some commands to be executed just after opening the 88GUI window, use the |GUIEnter| autocommand event. Example: > 89 :autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50 90 91You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customized menus (see |:menu|) 92and initialize other things that you may want to set up differently from the 93terminal version. 94 95Recommended place for your personal GUI initializations: 96 Unix $HOME/.gvimrc 97 OS/2 $HOME/.gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc 98 MS-DOS and Win32 $HOME/_gvimrc or $VIM/_gvimrc 99 Amiga s:.gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc 100 101There are a number of options which only have meaning in the GUI version of 102Vim. These are 'guicursor', 'guifont', 'guipty' and 'guioptions'. They are 103documented in |options.txt| with all the other options. 104 105If using the Motif or Athena version of the GUI (but not for the GTK+ or 106Win32 version), a number of X resources are available. See |gui-resources|. 107 108Another way to set the colors for different occasions is with highlight 109groups. The "Normal" group is used to set the background and foreground 110colors. Example (which looks nice): > 111 112 :highlight Normal guibg=grey90 113 114The "guibg" and "guifg" settings override the normal background and 115foreground settings. The other settings for the Normal highlight group are 116not used. Use the 'guifont' option to set the font. 117 118Also check out the 'guicursor' option, to set the colors for the cursor in 119various modes. 120 121Vim tries to make the window fit on the screen when it starts up. This avoids 122that you can't see part of it. On the X Window System this requires a bit of 123guesswork. You can change the height that is used for the window title and a 124task bar with the 'guiheadroom' option. 125 126 *:winp* *:winpos* *E188* 127:winp[os] 128 Display current position of the top left corner of the GUI vim 129 window in pixels. Does not work in all versions. 130 131:winp[os] {X} {Y} *E466* 132 Put the GUI vim window at the given {X} and {Y} coordinates. 133 The coordinates should specify the position in pixels of the 134 top left corner of the window. Does not work in all versions. 135 Does work in an (new) xterm |xterm-color|. 136 When the GUI window has not been opened yet, the values are 137 remembered until the window is opened. The position is 138 adjusted to make the window fit on the screen (if possible). 139 140 *:win* *:winsize* *E465* 141:win[size] {width} {height} 142 Set the window height to {width} by {height} characters. 143 Obsolete, use ":set lines=11 columns=22". 144 If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom' 145 option. 146 147If you are running the X Window System, you can get information about the 148window Vim is running in with this command: > 149 :!xwininfo -id $WINDOWID 150 151============================================================================== 1522. Scrollbars *gui-scrollbars* 153 154There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbar. You may 155configure which ones appear with the 'guioptions' option. 156 157The interface looks like this (with ":set guioptions=mlrb"): 158 159 +------------------------------+ 160 | File Edit Help | <- Menu bar (m) 161 +-+--------------------------+-+ 162 |^| |^| 163 |#| Text area. |#| 164 | | | | 165 |v|__________________________|v| 166 Normal status line -> |-+ File.c 5,2 +-| 167 between Vim windows |^|""""""""""""""""""""""""""|^| 168 | | | | 169 | | Another file buffer. | | 170 | | | | 171 |#| |#| 172 Left scrollbar (l) -> |#| |#| <- Right 173 |#| |#| scrollbar (r) 174 | | | | 175 |v| |v| 176 +-+--------------------------+-+ 177 | |< #### >| | <- Bottom 178 +-+--------------------------+-+ scrollbar (b) 179 180Any of the scrollbar or menu components may be turned off by not putting the 181appropriate letter in the 'guioptions' string. The bottom scrollbar is 182only useful when 'nowrap' is set. 183 184 185VERTICAL SCROLLBARS *gui-vert-scroll* 186 187Each Vim window has a scrollbar next to it which may be scrolled up and down 188to move through the text in that buffer. The size of the scrollbar-thumb 189indicates the fraction of the buffer which can be seen in the window. 190When the scrollbar is dragged all the way down, the last line of the file 191will appear in the top of the window. 192 193If a window is shrunk to zero height (by the growth of another window) its 194scrollbar disappears. It reappears when the window is restored. 195 196If a window is vertically split, it will get a scrollbar when it is the 197current window and when, taking the middle of the current window and drawing a 198vertical line, this line goes through the window. 199When there are scrollbars on both sides, and the middle of the current window 200is on the left half, the right scrollbar column will contain scrollbars for 201the rightmost windows. The same happens on the other side. 202 203 204HORIZONTAL SCROLLBARS *gui-horiz-scroll* 205 206The horizontal scrollbar (at the bottom of the Vim GUI) may be used to 207scroll text sideways when the 'wrap' option is turned off. The 208scrollbar-thumb size is such that the text of the longest visible line may be 209scrolled as far as possible left and right. The cursor is moved when 210necessary, it must remain on a visible character (unless 'virtualedit' is 211set). 212 213Computing the length of the longest visible line takes quite a bit of 214computation, and it has to be done every time something changes. If this 215takes too much time or you don't like the cursor jumping to another line, 216include the 'h' flag in 'guioptions'. Then the scrolling is limited by the 217text of the current cursor line. 218 219 *athena-intellimouse* 220If you have an Intellimouse and an X server that supports using the wheel, 221then you can use the wheel to scroll the text up and down in gvim. This works 222with XFree86 4.0 and later, and with some older versions when you add patches. 223See |scroll-mouse-wheel|. 224 225For older versions of XFree86 you must patch your X server. The following 226page has a bit of information about using the Intellimouse on Linux as well as 227links to the patches and X server binaries (may not have the one you need 228though): 229 http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/ 230 231============================================================================== 2323. Mouse Control *gui-mouse* 233 234The mouse only works if the appropriate flag in the 'mouse' option is set. 235When the GUI is switched on, and 'mouse' wasn't set yet, the 'mouse' option is 236automatically set to "a", enabling it for all modes except for the 237|hit-enter| prompt. If you don't want this, a good place to change the 238'mouse' option is the "gvimrc" file. 239 240Other options that are relevant: 241'mousefocus' window focus follows mouse pointer |gui-mouse-focus| 242'mousemodel' what mouse button does which action 243'mousehide' hide mouse pointer while typing text 244'selectmode' whether to start Select mode or Visual mode 245 246A quick way to set these is with the ":behave" command. 247 *:behave* *:be* 248:be[have] {model} Set behavior for mouse and selection. Valid 249 arguments are: 250 mswin MS-Windows behavior 251 xterm Xterm behavior 252 253 Using ":behave" changes these options: 254 option mswin xterm ~ 255 'selectmode' "mouse,key" "" 256 'mousemodel' "popup" "extend" 257 'keymodel' "startsel,stopsel" "" 258 'selection' "exclusive" "inclusive" 259 260In the $VIMRUNTIME directory, there is a script called |mswin.vim|, which will 261also map a few keys to the MS-Windows cut/copy/paste commands. This is NOT 262compatible, since it uses the CTRL-V, CTRL-X and CTRL-C keys. If you don't 263mind, use this command: > 264 :so $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim 265 266For scrolling with a wheel on a mouse, see |scroll-mouse-wheel|. 267 268 2693.1 Moving Cursor with Mouse *gui-mouse-move* 270 271Click the left mouse button somewhere in a text buffer where you want the 272cursor to go, and it does! 273This works in when 'mouse' contains ~ 274Normal mode 'n' or 'a' 275Visual mode 'v' or 'a' 276Insert mode 'i' or 'a' 277 278Select mode is handled like Visual mode. 279 280You may use this with an operator such as 'd' to delete text from the current 281cursor position to the position you point to with the mouse. That is, you hit 282'd' and then click the mouse somewhere. 283 284 *gui-mouse-focus* 285The 'mousefocus' option can be set to make the keyboard focus follow the 286mouse pointer. This means that the window where the mouse pointer is, is the 287active window. Warning: this doesn't work very well when using a menu, 288because the menu command will always be applied to the top window. 289 290If you are on the ':' line (or '/' or '?'), then clicking the left or right 291mouse button will position the cursor on the ':' line (if 'mouse' contains 292'c', 'a' or 'A'). 293 294In any situation the middle mouse button may be clicked to paste the current 295selection. 296 297 2983.2 Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-select* 299 300The mouse can be used to start a selection. How depends on the 'mousemodel' 301option: 302'mousemodel' is "extend": use the right mouse button 303'mousemodel' is "popup": use the left mouse button, while keeping the Shift 304key pressed. 305 306If there was no selection yet, this starts a selection from the old cursor 307position to the position pointed to with the mouse. If there already is a 308selection then the closest end will be extended. 309 310If 'selectmode' contains "mouse", then the selection will be in Select mode. 311This means that typing normal text will replace the selection. See 312|Select-mode|. Otherwise, the selection will be in Visual mode. 313 314Double clicking may be done to make the selection word-wise, triple clicking 315makes it line-wise, and quadruple clicking makes it rectangular block-wise. 316 317See |gui-selections| on how the selection is used. 318 319 3203.3 Other Text Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-modeless* 321 *modeless-selection* 322A different kind of selection is used when: 323- in Command-line mode 324- in the Command-line window and pointing in another window 325- at the |hit-enter| prompt 326- whenever the current mode is not in the 'mouse' option 327- when holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys in the GUI 328 329Since Vim continues like the selection isn't there, and there is no mode 330associated with the selection, this is called modeless selection. Any text in 331the Vim window can be selected. Select the text by pressing the left mouse 332button at the start, drag to the end and release. To extend the selection, 333use the right mouse button when 'mousemodel' is "extend", or the left mouse 334button with the shift key pressed when 'mousemodel' is "popup". 335The selection is removed when the selected text is scrolled or changed. 336 337On the command line CTRL-Y can be used to copy the selection into the 338clipboard. To do this from Insert mode, use CTRL-O : CTRL-Y <CR>. When 339'guioptions' contains a or A (default on X11), the selection is automatically 340copied to the "* register. 341 342The middle mouse button can then paste the text. On non-X11 systems, you can 343use CTRL-R +. 344 345 3463.4 Using Mouse on Status Lines *gui-mouse-status* 347 348Clicking the left or right mouse button on the status line below a Vim 349window makes that window the current window. This actually happens on button 350release (to be able to distinguish a click from a drag action). 351 352With the left mouse button a status line can be dragged up and down, thus 353resizing the windows above and below it. This does not change window focus. 354 355The same can be used on the vertical separator: click to give the window left 356of it focus, drag left and right to make windows wider and narrower. 357 358 3593.5 Various Mouse Clicks *gui-mouse-various* 360 361 <S-LeftMouse> Search forward for the word under the mouse click. 362 When 'mousemodel' is "popup" this starts or extends a 363 selection. 364 <S-RightMouse> Search backward for the word under the mouse click. 365 <C-LeftMouse> Jump to the tag name under the mouse click. 366 <C-RightMouse> Jump back to position before the previous tag jump 367 (same as "CTRL-T") 368 369 3703.6 Mouse Mappings *gui-mouse-mapping* 371 372The mouse events, complete with modifiers, may be mapped. Eg: > 373 :map <S-LeftMouse> <RightMouse> 374 :map <S-LeftDrag> <RightDrag> 375 :map <S-LeftRelease> <RightRelease> 376 :map <2-S-LeftMouse> <2-RightMouse> 377 :map <2-S-LeftDrag> <2-RightDrag> 378 :map <2-S-LeftRelease> <2-RightRelease> 379 :map <3-S-LeftMouse> <3-RightMouse> 380 :map <3-S-LeftDrag> <3-RightDrag> 381 :map <3-S-LeftRelease> <3-RightRelease> 382 :map <4-S-LeftMouse> <4-RightMouse> 383 :map <4-S-LeftDrag> <4-RightDrag> 384 :map <4-S-LeftRelease> <4-RightRelease> 385These mappings make selection work the way it probably should in a Motif 386application, with shift-left mouse allowing for extending the visual area 387rather than the right mouse button. 388 389Mouse mapping with modifiers does not work for modeless selection. 390 391 3923.7 Drag and drop *drag-n-drop* 393 394You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will 395be opened as if a |:drop| command was used. 396 397If you hold down Shift while doing this, Vim changes to the first dropped 398file's directory. If you hold Ctrl Vim will always split a new window for the 399file. Otherwise it's only done if the current buffer has been changed. 400 401You can also drop a directory on Vim. This starts the explorer plugin for 402that directory (assuming it was enabled, otherwise you'll get an error 403message). Keep Shift pressed to change to the directory instead. 404 405If Vim happens to be editing a command line, the names of the dropped files 406and directories will be inserted at the cursor. This allows you to use these 407names with any Ex command. Special characters (space, tab, double quote and 408'|'; backslash on non-MS-Windows systems) will be escaped. 409 410============================================================================== 4114. Making GUI Selections *gui-selections* 412 413 *quotestar* 414You may make selections with the mouse (see |gui-mouse-select|), or by using 415Vim's Visual mode (see |v|). If 'a' is present in 'guioptions', then 416whenever a selection is started (Visual or Select mode), or when the selection 417is changed, Vim becomes the owner of the windowing system's primary selection 418(on MS-Windows the |gui-clipboard| is used; under X11, the |x11-selection| is 419used - you should read whichever of these is appropriate now). 420 421 *clipboard* 422There is a special register for storing this selection, it is the "* 423register. Nothing is put in here unless the information about what text is 424selected is about to change (e.g. with a left mouse click somewhere), or when 425another application wants to paste the selected text. Then the text is put 426in the "* register. For example, to cut a line and make it the current 427selection/put it on the clipboard: > 428 429 "*dd 430 431Similarly, when you want to paste a selection from another application, e.g., 432by clicking the middle mouse button, the selection is put in the "* register 433first, and then 'put' like any other register. For example, to put the 434selection (contents of the clipboard): > 435 436 "*p 437 438When using this register under X11, also see |x11-selection|. This also 439explains the related "+ register. 440 441Note that when pasting text from one Vim into another separate Vim, the type 442of selection (character, line, or block) will also be copied. For other 443applications the type is always character. However, if the text gets 444transferred via the |x11-cut-buffer|, the selection type is ALWAYS lost. 445 446When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed 447register is the same as the "* register. Thus you can yank to and paste the 448selection without prepending "* to commands. 449 450============================================================================== 4515. Menus *menus* 452 453For an introduction see |usr_42.txt| in the user manual. 454 455 4565.1 Using Menus *using-menus* 457 458Basically, menus can be used just like mappings. You can define your own 459menus, as many as you like. 460Long-time Vim users won't use menus much. But the power is in adding your own 461menus and menu items. They are most useful for things that you can't remember 462what the key sequence was. 463 464For creating menus in a different language, see |:menutrans|. 465 466 *menu.vim* 467The default menus are read from the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". See 468|$VIMRUNTIME| for where the path comes from. You can set up your own menus. 469Starting off with the default set is a good idea. You can add more items, or, 470if you don't like the defaults at all, start with removing all menus 471|:unmenu-all|. You can also avoid the default menus being loaded by adding 472this line to your .vimrc file (NOT your .gvimrc file!): > 473 :let did_install_default_menus = 1 474If you also want to avoid the Syntax menu: > 475 :let did_install_syntax_menu = 1 476The first item in the Syntax menu can be used to show all available filetypes 477in the menu (which can take a bit of time to load). If you want to have all 478filetypes already present at startup, add: > 479 :let do_syntax_sel_menu = 1 480 481< 482 *console-menus* 483Although this documentation is in the GUI section, you can actually use menus 484in console mode too. You will have to load |menu.vim| explicitly then, it is 485not done by default. You can use the |:emenu| command and command-line 486completion with 'wildmenu' to access the menu entries almost like a real menu 487system. To do this, put these commands in your .vimrc file: > 488 :source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim 489 :set wildmenu 490 :set cpo-=< 491 :set wcm=<C-Z> 492 :map <F4> :emenu <C-Z> 493Pressing <F4> will start the menu. You can now use the cursor keys to select 494a menu entry. Hit <Enter> to execute it. Hit <Esc> if you want to cancel. 495This does require the |+menu| feature enabled at compile time. 496 497 *tear-off-menus* 498GTK+ and Motif support Tear-off menus. These are sort of sticky menus or 499pop-up menus that are present all the time. If the resizing does not work 500correctly, this may be caused by using something like "Vim*geometry" in the 501defaults. Use "Vim.geometry" instead. 502 503The Win32 GUI version emulates Motif's tear-off menus. Actually, a Motif user 504will spot the differences easily, but hopefully they're just as useful. You 505can also use the |:tearoff| command together with |hidden-menus| to create 506floating menus that do not appear on the main menu bar. 507 508 5095.2 Creating New Menus *creating-menus* 510 511 *:me* *:menu* *:noreme* *:noremenu* 512 *:am* *:amenu* *:an* *:anoremenu* 513 *:nme* *:nmenu* *:nnoreme* *:nnoremenu* 514 *:ome* *:omenu* *:onoreme* *:onoremenu* 515 *:vme* *:vmenu* *:vnoreme* *:vnoremenu* 516 *:xme* *:xmenu* *:xnoreme* *:xnoremenu* 517 *:sme* *:smenu* *:snoreme* *:snoremenu* 518 *:ime* *:imenu* *:inoreme* *:inoremenu* 519 *:cme* *:cmenu* *:cnoreme* *:cnoremenu* 520 *E330* *E327* *E331* *E336* *E333* 521 *E328* *E329* *E337* *E792* 522To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are mostly like 523the ":map" set of commands but the first argument is a menu item name, given 524as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them, e.g.: > 525 526 :menu File.Save :w<CR> 527 :inoremenu File.Save <C-O>:w<CR> 528 :menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces :%s/[ ^I]//g<CR> 529 530This last one will create a new item in the menu bar called "Edit", holding 531the mouse button down on this will pop up a menu containing the item 532"Big Changes", which is a sub-menu containing the item "Delete All Spaces", 533which when selected, performs the operation. 534 535Special characters in a menu name: 536 537 & The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each 538 shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu. If you want to 539 insert a literal "&" in the menu name use "&&". 540 <Tab> Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be 541 used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "<Tab>" 542 can be used here for convenience. If you are using a real 543 tab, don't forget to put a backslash before it! 544Example: > 545 546 :amenu &File.&Open<Tab>:e :browse e<CR> 547 548[typed literally] 549With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the <Alt> key pressed), and then "O", 550this menu can be used. The second part is shown as "Open :e". The ":e" 551is right aligned, and the "O" is underlined, to indicate it is the shortcut. 552 553The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once. 554To make the command work correctly, a character is automatically inserted for 555some modes: 556 mode inserted appended ~ 557 Normal nothing nothing 558 Visual <C-C> <C-\><C-G> 559 Insert <C-\><C-O> 560 Cmdline <C-C> <C-\><C-G> 561 Op-pending <C-C> <C-\><C-G> 562 563Appending CTRL-\ CTRL-G is for going back to insert mode when 'insertmode' is 564set. |CTRL-\_CTRL-G| 565 566Example: > 567 568 :amenu File.Next :next^M 569 570is equal to: > 571 572 :nmenu File.Next :next^M 573 :vmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G 574 :imenu File.Next ^\^O:next^M 575 :cmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G 576 :omenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G 577 578Careful: In Insert mode this only works for a SINGLE Normal mode command, 579because of the CTRL-O. If you have two or more commands, you will need to use 580the ":imenu" command. For inserting text in any mode, you can use the 581expression register: > 582 583 :amenu Insert.foobar "='foobar'<CR>P 584 585Note that the '<' and 'k' flags in 'cpoptions' also apply here (when 586included they make the <> form and raw key codes not being recognized). 587 588Note that <Esc> in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This 589is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode. 590 591 *:menu-<silent>* *:menu-silent* 592To define a menu which will not be echoed on the command line, add 593"<silent>" as the first argument. Example: > 594 :menu <silent> Settings.Ignore\ case :set ic<CR> 595The ":set ic" will not be echoed when using this menu. Messages from the 596executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a ":silent" 597in the executed command: > 598 :menu <silent> Search.Header :exe ":silent normal /Header\r"<CR> 599"<silent>" may also appear just after "<special>" or "<script>". 600 601 *:menu-<special>* *:menu-special* 602Define a menu with <> notation for special keys, even though the "<" flag 603may appear in 'cpoptions'. This is useful if the side effect of setting 604'cpoptions' is not desired. Example: > 605 :menu <special> Search.Header /Header<CR> 606"<special>" must appear as the very first argument to the ":menu" command or 607just after "<silent>" or "<script>". 608 609 *:menu-<script>* *:menu-script* 610The "to" part of the menu will be inspected for mappings. If you don't want 611this, use the ":noremenu" command (or the similar one for a specific mode). 612If you do want to use script-local mappings, add "<script>" as the very first 613argument to the ":menu" command or just after "<silent>" or "<special>". 614 615 *menu-priority* 616You can give a priority to a menu. Menus with a higher priority go more to 617the right. The priority is given as a number before the ":menu" command. 618Example: > 619 :80menu Buffer.next :bn<CR> 620 621The default menus have these priorities: 622 File 10 623 Edit 20 624 Tools 40 625 Syntax 50 626 Buffers 60 627 Window 70 628 Help 9999 629 630When no or zero priority is given, 500 is used. 631The priority for the PopUp menu is not used. 632 633The Help menu will be placed on the far right side of the menu bar on systems 634which support this (Motif and GTK+). For GTK+ 2, this is not done anymore 635because right-aligning the Help menu is now discouraged UI design. 636 637You can use a priority higher than 9999, to make it go after the Help menu, 638but that is non-standard and is discouraged. The highest possible priority is 639about 32000. The lowest is 1. 640 641 *sub-menu-priority* 642The same mechanism can be used to position a sub-menu. The priority is then 643given as a dot-separated list of priorities, before the menu name: > 644 :menu 80.500 Buffer.next :bn<CR> 645Giving the sub-menu priority is only needed when the item is not to be put 646in a normal position. For example, to put a sub-menu before the other items: > 647 :menu 80.100 Buffer.first :brew<CR> 648Or to put a sub-menu after the other items, and further items with default 649priority will be put before it: > 650 :menu 80.900 Buffer.last :blast<CR> 651When a number is missing, the default value 500 will be used: > 652 :menu .900 myMenu.test :echo "text"<CR> 653The menu priority is only used when creating a new menu. When it already 654existed, e.g., in another mode, the priority will not change. Thus, the 655priority only needs to be given the first time a menu is used. 656An exception is the PopUp menu. There is a separate menu for each mode 657(Normal, Op-pending, Visual, Insert, Cmdline). The order in each of these 658menus can be different. This is different from menu-bar menus, which have 659the same order for all modes. 660NOTE: sub-menu priorities currently don't work for all versions of the GUI. 661 662 *menu-separator* *E332* 663Menu items can be separated by a special item that inserts some space between 664items. Depending on the system this is displayed as a line or a dotted line. 665These items must start with a '-' and end in a '-'. The part in between is 666used to give it a unique name. Priorities can be used as with normal items. 667Example: > 668 :menu Example.item1 :do something 669 :menu Example.-Sep- : 670 :menu Example.item2 :do something different 671Note that the separator also requires a rhs. It doesn't matter what it is, 672because the item will never be selected. Use a single colon to keep it 673simple. 674 675 *gui-toolbar* 676The toolbar is currently available in the Win32, Athena, Motif, GTK+ (X11), 677and Photon GUI. It should turn up in other GUIs in due course. The 678default toolbar is setup in menu.vim. 679The display of the toolbar is controlled by the 'guioptions' letter 'T'. You 680can thus have menu & toolbar together, or either on its own, or neither. 681The appearance is controlled by the 'toolbar' option. You can choose between 682an image, text or both. 683 684 *toolbar-icon* 685The toolbar is defined as a special menu called ToolBar, which only has one 686level. Vim interprets the items in this menu as follows: 6871) If an "icon=" argument was specified, the file with this name is used. 688 The file can either be specified with the full path or with the base name. 689 In the last case it is searched for in the "bitmaps" directory in 690 'runtimepath', like in point 3. Examples: > 691 :amenu icon=/usr/local/pixmaps/foo_icon.xpm ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR> 692 :amenu icon=FooIcon ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR> 693< Note that in the first case the extension is included, while in the second 694 case it is omitted. 695 If the file cannot be opened the next points are tried. 696 A space in the file name must be escaped with a backslash. 697 A menu priority must come _after_ the icon argument: > 698 :amenu icon=foo 1.42 ToolBar.Foo :echo "42!"<CR> 6992) An item called 'BuiltIn##', where ## is a number, is taken as number ## of 700 the built-in bitmaps available in Vim. Currently there are 31 numbered 701 from 0 to 30 which cover most common editing operations |builtin-tools|. > 702 :amenu ToolBar.BuiltIn22 :call SearchNext("back")<CR> 7033) An item with another name is first searched for in the directory 704 "bitmaps" in 'runtimepath'. If found, the bitmap file is used as the 705 toolbar button image. Note that the exact filename is OS-specific: For 706 example, under Win32 the command > 707 :amenu ToolBar.Hello :echo "hello"<CR> 708< would find the file 'hello.bmp'. Under GTK+/X11 it is 'Hello.xpm'. With 709 GTK+ 2 the files 'Hello.png', 'Hello.xpm' and 'Hello.bmp' are checked for 710 existence, and the first one found would be used. 711 For MS-Windows and GTK+ 2 the bitmap is scaled to fit the button. For 712 MS-Windows a size of 18 by 18 pixels works best. 713 For MS-Windows the bitmap should have 16 colors with the standard palette. 714 The light grey pixels will be changed to the Window frame color and the 715 dark grey pixels to the window shadow color. More colors might also work, 716 depending on your system. 7174) If the bitmap is still not found, Vim checks for a match against its list 718 of built-in names. Each built-in button image has a name. 719 So the command > 720 :amenu ToolBar.Open :e 721< will show the built-in "open a file" button image if no open.bmp exists. 722 All the built-in names can be seen used in menu.vim. 7235) If all else fails, a blank, but functioning, button is displayed. 724 725 *builtin-tools* 726nr Name Normal action ~ 72700 New open new window 72801 Open browse for file to open in current window 72902 Save write buffer to file 73003 Undo undo last change 73104 Redo redo last undone change 73205 Cut delete selected text to clipboard 73306 Copy copy selected text to clipboard 73407 Paste paste text from clipboard 73508 Print print current buffer 73609 Help open a buffer on Vim's builtin help 73710 Find start a search command 73811 SaveAll write all modified buffers to file 73912 SaveSesn write session file for current situation 74013 NewSesn write new session file 74114 LoadSesn load session file 74215 RunScript browse for file to run as a Vim script 74316 Replace prompt for substitute command 74417 WinClose close current window 74518 WinMax make current window use many lines 74619 WinMin make current window use few lines 74720 WinSplit split current window 74821 Shell start a shell 74922 FindPrev search again, backward 75023 FindNext search again, forward 75124 FindHelp prompt for word to search help for 75225 Make run make and jump to first error 75326 TagJump jump to tag under the cursor 75427 RunCtags build tags for files in current directory 75528 WinVSplit split current window vertically 75629 WinMaxWidth make current window use many columns 75730 WinMinWidth make current window use few columns 758 759 *hidden-menus* *win32-hidden-menus* 760In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, starting a menu name with ']' excludes that menu 761from the main menu bar. You must then use the |:popup| or |:tearoff| command 762to display it. 763 764 *popup-menu* 765In the Win32, GTK+, Motif, Athena and Photon GUI, you can define the 766special menu "PopUp". This is the menu that is displayed when the right mouse 767button is pressed, if 'mousemodel' is set to popup or popup_setpos. 768 769 7705.3 Showing What Menus Are Mapped To *showing-menus* 771 772To see what an existing menu is mapped to, use just one argument after the 773menu commands (just like you would with the ":map" commands). If the menu 774specified is a submenu, then all menus under that hierarchy will be shown. 775If no argument is given after :menu at all, then ALL menu items are shown 776for the appropriate mode (e.g., Command-line mode for :cmenu). 777 778Special characters in the list, just before the rhs: 779* The menu was defined with "nore" to disallow remapping. 780& The menu was defined with "<script>" to allow remapping script-local 781 mappings only. 782- The menu was disabled. 783 784Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after a menu command may 785be used to complete the name of the menu item. 786 787 7885.4 Executing Menus *execute-menus* 789 790 *:em* *:emenu* *E334* *E335* 791:[range]em[enu] {menu} Execute {menu} from the command line. 792 The default is to execute the Normal mode 793 menu. If a range is specified, it executes 794 the Visual mode menu. 795 If used from <c-o>, it executes the 796 insert-mode menu Eg: > 797 :emenu File.Exit 798 799If the console-mode vim has been compiled with WANT_MENU defined, you can 800use :emenu to access useful menu items you may have got used to from GUI 801mode. See 'wildmenu' for an option that works well with this. See 802|console-menus| for an example. 803 804When using a range, if the lines match with '<,'>, then the menu is executed 805using the last visual selection. 806 807 8085.5 Deleting Menus *delete-menus* 809 810 *:unme* *:unmenu* 811 *:aun* *:aunmenu* 812 *:nunme* *:nunmenu* 813 *:ounme* *:ounmenu* 814 *:vunme* *:vunmenu* 815 *:xunme* *:xunmenu* 816 *:sunme* *:sunmenu* 817 *:iunme* *:iunmenu* 818 *:cunme* *:cunmenu* 819To delete a menu item or a whole submenu, use the unmenu commands, which are 820analogous to the unmap commands. Eg: > 821 :unmenu! Edit.Paste 822 823This will remove the Paste item from the Edit menu for Insert and 824Command-line modes. 825 826Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after an umenu command 827may be used to complete the name of the menu item for the appropriate mode. 828 829To remove all menus use: *:unmenu-all* > 830 :unmenu * " remove all menus in Normal and visual mode 831 :unmenu! * " remove all menus in Insert and Command-line mode 832 :aunmenu * " remove all menus in all modes 833 834If you want to get rid of the menu bar: > 835 :set guioptions-=m 836 837 8385.6 Disabling Menus *disable-menus* 839 840 *:menu-disable* *:menu-enable* 841If you do not want to remove a menu, but disable it for a moment, this can be 842done by adding the "enable" or "disable" keyword to a ":menu" command. 843Examples: > 844 :menu disable &File.&Open\.\.\. 845 :amenu enable * 846 :amenu disable &Tools.* 847 848The command applies to the modes as used with all menu commands. Note that 849characters like "&" need to be included for translated names to be found. 850When the argument is "*", all menus are affected. Otherwise the given menu 851name and all existing submenus below it are affected. 852 853 8545.7 Examples for Menus *menu-examples* 855 856Here is an example on how to add menu items with menu's! You can add a menu 857item for the keyword under the cursor. The register "z" is used. > 858 859 :nmenu Words.Add\ Var wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR> 860 :nmenu Words.Remove\ Var wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR> 861 :vmenu Words.Add\ Var "zy:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z <CR> 862 :vmenu Words.Remove\ Var "zy:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR> 863 :imenu Words.Add\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>a 864 :imenu Words.Remove\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>a 865 866(the rhs is in <> notation, you can copy/paste this text to try out the 867mappings, or put these lines in your gvimrc; "<C-R>" is CTRL-R, "<CR>" is 868the <CR> key. |<>|) 869 870 8715.8 Tooltips & Menu tips 872 873See section |42.4| in the user manual. 874 875 *:tmenu* *:tm* 876:tm[enu] {menupath} {rhs} Define a tip for a menu or tool. {only in 877 X11 and Win32 GUI} 878 879:tm[enu] [menupath] List menu tips. {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} 880 881 *:tunmenu* *:tu* 882:tu[nmenu] {menupath} Remove a tip for a menu or tool. 883 {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} 884 885When a tip is defined for a menu item, it appears in the command-line area 886when the mouse is over that item, much like a standard Windows menu hint in 887the status bar. (Except when Vim is in Command-line mode, when of course 888nothing is displayed.) 889When a tip is defined for a ToolBar item, it appears as a tooltip when the 890mouse pauses over that button, in the usual fashion. Use the |hl-Tooltip| 891highlight group to change its colors. 892 893A "tip" can be defined for each menu item. For example, when defining a menu 894item like this: > 895 :amenu MyMenu.Hello :echo "Hello"<CR> 896The tip is defined like this: > 897 :tmenu MyMenu.Hello Displays a greeting. 898And delete it with: > 899 :tunmenu MyMenu.Hello 900 901Tooltips are currently only supported for the X11 and Win32 GUI. However, they 902should appear for the other gui platforms in the not too distant future. 903 904The ":tmenu" command works just like other menu commands, it uses the same 905arguments. ":tunmenu" deletes an existing menu tip, in the same way as the 906other unmenu commands. 907 908If a menu item becomes invalid (i.e. its actions in all modes are deleted) Vim 909deletes the menu tip (and the item) for you. This means that :aunmenu deletes 910a menu item - you don't need to do a :tunmenu as well. 911 912 9135.9 Popup Menus 914 915In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, you can cause a menu to popup at the cursor. 916This behaves similarly to the PopUp menus except that any menu tree can 917be popped up. 918 919This command is for backwards compatibility, using it is discouraged, because 920it behaves in a strange way. 921 922 *:popup* *:popu* 923:popu[p] {name} Popup the menu {name}. The menu named must 924 have at least one subentry, but need not 925 appear on the menu-bar (see |hidden-menus|). 926 {only available for Win32 and GTK GUI} 927 928:popu[p]! {name} Like above, but use the position of the mouse 929 pointer instead of the cursor. 930 931Example: > 932 :popup File 933will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear at the text cursor (mouse 934pointer if ! was used). > 935 936 :amenu ]Toolbar.Make :make<CR> 937 :popup ]Toolbar 938This creates a popup menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar. 939 940Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed. 941 942============================================================================== 9436. Extras *gui-extras* 944 945This section describes other features which are related to the GUI. 946 947- With the GUI, there is no wait for one second after hitting escape, because 948 the key codes don't start with <Esc>. 949 950- Typing ^V followed by a special key in the GUI will insert "<Key>", since 951 the internal string used is meaningless. Modifiers may also be held down to 952 get "<Modifiers-Key>". 953 954- In the GUI, the modifiers SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT (or META) may be used within 955 mappings of special keys and mouse events. E.g.: :map <M-LeftDrag> <LeftDrag> 956 957- In the GUI, several normal keys may have modifiers in mappings etc, these 958 are <Space>, <Tab>, <NL>, <CR>, <Esc>. 959 960- To check in a Vim script if the GUI is being used, you can use something 961 like this: > 962 963 if has("gui_running") 964 echo "yes, we have a GUI" 965 else 966 echo "Boring old console" 967 endif 968< *setting-guifont* 969- When you use the same vimrc file on various systems, you can use something 970 like this to set options specifically for each type of GUI: > 971 972 if has("gui_running") 973 if has("gui_gtk2") 974 :set guifont=Luxi\ Mono\ 12 975 elseif has("x11") 976 " Also for GTK 1 977 :set guifont=*-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-*-*-180-*-*-m-*-* 978 elseif has("gui_win32") 979 :set guifont=Luxi_Mono:h12:cANSI 980 endif 981 endif 982 983A recommended Japanese font is MS Mincho. You can find info here: 984http://www.lexikan.com/mincho.htm 985 986============================================================================== 9877. Shell Commands *gui-shell* 988 989For the X11 GUI the external commands are executed inside the gvim window. 990See |gui-pty|. 991 992WARNING: Executing an external command from the X11 GUI will not always 993work. "normal" commands like "ls", "grep" and "make" mostly work fine. 994Commands that require an intelligent terminal like "less" and "ispell" won't 995work. Some may even hang and need to be killed from another terminal. So be 996careful! 997 998For the Win32 GUI the external commands are executed in a separate window. 999See |gui-shell-win32|. 1000 1001 vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 1002
