Vim documentation: gui
main help file*gui.txt* For Vim version 7.2. Last change: 2008 Jun 14 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar Vim's Graphical User Interface *gui* *GUI* 1. Starting the GUI |gui-start| 2. Scrollbars |gui-scrollbars| 3. Mouse Control |gui-mouse| 4. Making GUI Selections |gui-selections| 5. Menus |menus| 6. Extras |gui-extras| 7. Shell Commands |gui-shell| Other GUI documentation: |gui_x11.txt| For specific items of the X11 GUI. |gui_w32.txt| For specific items of the Win32 GUI. {Vi does not have any of these commands}
1. Starting the GUI *gui-start* *E229* *E233* First you must make sure you actually have a version of Vim with the GUI code included. You can check this with the ":version" command, it says "with xxx GUI", where "xxx" is X11-Motif, X11-Athena, Photon, GTK, GTK2, etc., or "MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version". How to start the GUI depends on the system used. Mostly you can run the GUI version of Vim with: gvim [options] [files...] The X11 version of Vim can run both in GUI and in non-GUI mode. See |gui-x11-start|. *gui-init* *gvimrc* *.gvimrc* *_gvimrc* The gvimrc file is where GUI-specific startup commands should be placed. It is always sourced after the |vimrc| file. If you have one then the $MYGVIMRC environment variable has its name. When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order: - The 'term' option is set to "builgin_gui" and terminal options are reset to their default value for the GUI |terminal-options|. - If the system menu file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is normally "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". You can check this with ":version". Also see |$VIMRUNTIME|. To skip loading the system menu include 'M' in 'guioptions'. *buffers-menu* *no_buffers_menu* The system menu file includes a "Buffers" menu. If you don't want this, set the "no_buffers_menu" variable in your .vimrc (not .gvimrc!): :let no_buffers_menu = 1 NOTE: Switching on syntax highlighting also loads the menu file, thus disabling the Buffers menu must be done before ":syntax on". The path names are truncated to 35 characters. You can truncate them at a different length, for example 50, like this: :let bmenu_max_pathlen = 50 - If the "-U {gvimrc}" command-line option has been used when starting Vim, the {gvimrc} file will be read for initializations. The following initializations are skipped. When {gvimrc} is "NONE" no file will be read for initializations. - For Unix and MS-Windows, if the system gvimrc exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is normally "$VIM/gvimrc". You can check this with ":version". Also see |$VIM|. - The following are tried, and only the first one that exists is used: - If the GVIMINIT environment variable exists and is not empty, it is executed as an Ex command. - If the user gvimrc file exists, it is sourced. The name of this file is normally "$HOME/.gvimrc". You can check this with ":version". - For Win32, when $HOME is not set, "$VIM\_gvimrc" is used. - When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too. And vice versa. The name of the first file found is stored in $MYGVIMRC, unless it was already set. - If the 'exrc' option is set (which is NOT the default) the file ./.gvimrc is sourced, if it exists and isn't the same file as the system or user gvimrc file. If this file is not owned by you, some security restrictions apply. When ".gvimrc" is not found, "_gvimrc" is tried too. For Macintosh and DOS/Win32 "_gvimrc" is tried first. NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with "-u NONE" and no "-U" argument was given, or when started with "-U NONE". All this happens AFTER the normal Vim initializations, like reading your .vimrc file. See |initialization|. But the GUI window is only opened after all the initializations have been carried out. If you want some commands to be executed just after opening the GUI window, use the |GUIEnter| autocommand event. Example: :autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50 You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customized menus (see |:menu|) and initialize other things that you may want to set up differently from the terminal version. Recommended place for your personal GUI initializations: Unix $HOME/.gvimrc OS/2 $HOME/.gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc MS-DOS and Win32 $HOME/_gvimrc or $VIM/_gvimrc Amiga s:.gvimrc or $VIM/.gvimrc There are a number of options which only have meaning in the GUI version of Vim. These are 'guicursor', 'guifont', 'guipty' and 'guioptions'. They are documented in |options.txt| with all the other options. If using the Motif or Athena version of the GUI (but not for the GTK+ or Win32 version), a number of X resources are available. See |gui-resources|. Another way to set the colors for different occasions is with highlight groups. The "Normal" group is used to set the background and foreground colors. Example (which looks nice): :highlight Normal guibg=grey90 The "guibg" and "guifg" settings override the normal background and foreground settings. The other settings for the Normal highlight group are not used. Use the 'guifont' option to set the font. Also check out the 'guicursor' option, to set the colors for the cursor in various modes. Vim tries to make the window fit on the screen when it starts up. This avoids that you can't see part of it. On the X Window System this requires a bit of guesswork. You can change the height that is used for the window title and a task bar with the 'guiheadroom' option. *:winp* *:winpos* *E188* :winp[os] Display current position of the top left corner of the GUI vim window in pixels. Does not work in all versions. :winp[os] {X} {Y} *E466* Put the GUI vim window at the given {X} and {Y} coordinates. The coordinates should specify the position in pixels of the top left corner of the window. Does not work in all versions. Does work in an (new) xterm |xterm-color|. When the GUI window has not been opened yet, the values are remembered until the window is opened. The position is adjusted to make the window fit on the screen (if possible). *:win* *:winsize* *E465* :win[size] {width} {height} Set the window height to {width} by {height} characters. Obsolete, use ":set lines=11 columns=22". If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom' option. If you are running the X Window System, you can get information about the window Vim is running in with this command: :!xwininfo -id $WINDOWID
2. Scrollbars *gui-scrollbars* There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbar. You may configure which ones appear with the 'guioptions' option. The interface looks like this (with ":set guioptions=mlrb"): +------------------------------+ | File Edit Help | <- Menu bar (m) +-+--------------------------+-+ |^| |^| |#| Text area. |#| | | | | |v|__________________________|v| Normal status line -> |-+ File.c 5,2 +-| between Vim windows |^|""""""""""""""""""""""""""|^| | | | | | | Another file buffer. | | | | | | |#| |#| Left scrollbar (l) -> |#| |#| <- Right |#| |#| scrollbar (r) | | | | |v| |v| +-+--------------------------+-+ | |< #### >| | <- Bottom +-+--------------------------+-+ scrollbar (b) Any of the scrollbar or menu components may be turned off by not putting the appropriate letter in the 'guioptions' string. The bottom scrollbar is only useful when 'nowrap' is set. VERTICAL SCROLLBARS *gui-vert-scroll* Each Vim window has a scrollbar next to it which may be scrolled up and down to move through the text in that buffer. The size of the scrollbar-thumb indicates the fraction of the buffer which can be seen in the window. When the scrollbar is dragged all the way down, the last line of the file will appear in the top of the window. If a window is shrunk to zero height (by the growth of another window) its scrollbar disappears. It reappears when the window is restored. If a window is vertically split, it will get a scrollbar when it is the current window and when, taking the middle of the current window and drawing a vertical line, this line goes through the window. When there are scrollbars on both sides, and the middle of the current window is on the left half, the right scrollbar column will contain scrollbars for the rightmost windows. The same happens on the other side. HORIZONTAL SCROLLBARS *gui-horiz-scroll* The horizontal scrollbar (at the bottom of the Vim GUI) may be used to scroll text sideways when the 'wrap' option is turned off. The scrollbar-thumb size is such that the text of the longest visible line may be scrolled as far as possible left and right. The cursor is moved when necessary, it must remain on a visible character (unless 'virtualedit' is set). Computing the length of the longest visible line takes quite a bit of computation, and it has to be done every time something changes. If this takes too much time or you don't like the cursor jumping to another line, include the 'h' flag in 'guioptions'. Then the scrolling is limited by the text of the current cursor line. *athena-intellimouse* If you have an Intellimouse and an X server that supports using the wheel, then you can use the wheel to scroll the text up and down in gvim. This works with XFree86 4.0 and later, and with some older versions when you add patches. See |scroll-mouse-wheel|. For older versions of XFree86 you must patch your X server. The following page has a bit of information about using the Intellimouse on Linux as well as links to the patches and X server binaries (may not have the one you need though): http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/
3. Mouse Control *gui-mouse* The mouse only works if the appropriate flag in the 'mouse' option is set. When the GUI is switched on, and 'mouse' wasn't set yet, the 'mouse' option is automatically set to "a", enabling it for all modes except for the |hit-enter| prompt. If you don't want this, a good place to change the 'mouse' option is the "gvimrc" file. Other options that are relevant: 'mousefocus' window focus follows mouse pointer |gui-mouse-focus| 'mousemodel' what mouse button does which action 'mousehide' hide mouse pointer while typing text 'selectmode' whether to start Select mode or Visual mode A quick way to set these is with the ":behave" command. *:behave* *:be* :be[have] {model} Set behavior for mouse and selection. Valid arguments are: mswin MS-Windows behavior xterm Xterm behavior Using ":behave" changes these options: option mswin xterm 'selectmode' "mouse,key" "" 'mousemodel' "popup" "extend" 'keymodel' "startsel,stopsel" "" 'selection' "exclusive" "inclusive" In the $VIMRUNTIME directory, there is a script called |mswin.vim|, which will also map a few keys to the MS-Windows cut/copy/paste commands. This is NOT compatible, since it uses the CTRL-V, CTRL-X and CTRL-C keys. If you don't mind, use this command: :so $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim For scrolling with a wheel on a mouse, see |scroll-mouse-wheel|. 3.1 Moving Cursor with Mouse *gui-mouse-move* Click the left mouse button somewhere in a text buffer where you want the cursor to go, and it does! This works in when 'mouse' contains Normal mode 'n' or 'a' Visual mode 'v' or 'a' Insert mode 'i' or 'a' Select mode is handled like Visual mode. You may use this with an operator such as 'd' to delete text from the current cursor position to the position you point to with the mouse. That is, you hit 'd' and then click the mouse somewhere. *gui-mouse-focus* The 'mousefocus' option can be set to make the keyboard focus follow the mouse pointer. This means that the window where the mouse pointer is, is the active window. Warning: this doesn't work very well when using a menu, because the menu command will always be applied to the top window. If you are on the ':' line (or '/' or '?'), then clicking the left or right mouse button will position the cursor on the ':' line (if 'mouse' contains 'c', 'a' or 'A'). In any situation the middle mouse button may be clicked to paste the current selection. 3.2 Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-select* The mouse can be used to start a selection. How depends on the 'mousemodel' option: 'mousemodel' is "extend": use the right mouse button 'mousemodel' is "popup": use the left mouse button, while keeping the Shift key pressed. If there was no selection yet, this starts a selection from the old cursor position to the position pointed to with the mouse. If there already is a selection then the closest end will be extended. If 'selectmode' contains "mouse", then the selection will be in Select mode. This means that typing normal text will replace the selection. See |Select-mode|. Otherwise, the selection will be in Visual mode. Double clicking may be done to make the selection word-wise, triple clicking makes it line-wise, and quadruple clicking makes it rectangular block-wise. See |gui-selections| on how the selection is used. 3.3 Other Text Selection with Mouse *gui-mouse-modeless* *modeless-selection* A different kind of selection is used when: - in Command-line mode - in the Command-line window and pointing in another window - at the |hit-enter| prompt - whenever the current mode is not in the 'mouse' option - when holding the CTRL and SHIFT keys in the GUI Since Vim continues like the selection isn't there, and there is no mode associated with the selection, this is called modeless selection. Any text in the Vim window can be selected. Select the text by pressing the left mouse button at the start, drag to the end and release. To extend the selection, use the right mouse button when 'mousemodel' is "extend", or the left mouse button with the shift key pressed when 'mousemodel' is "popup". The selection is removed when the selected text is scrolled or changed. On the command line CTRL-Y can be used to copy the selection into the clipboard. To do this from Insert mode, use CTRL-O : CTRL-Y <CR>. When 'guioptions' contains a or A (default on X11), the selection is automatically copied to the "* register. The middle mouse button can then paste the text. On non-X11 systems, you can use CTRL-R +. 3.4 Using Mouse on Status Lines *gui-mouse-status* Clicking the left or right mouse button on the status line below a Vim window makes that window the current window. This actually happens on button release (to be able to distinguish a click from a drag action). With the left mouse button a status line can be dragged up and down, thus resizing the windows above and below it. This does not change window focus. The same can be used on the vertical separator: click to give the window left of it focus, drag left and right to make windows wider and narrower. 3.5 Various Mouse Clicks *gui-mouse-various* <S-LeftMouse> Search forward for the word under the mouse click. When 'mousemodel' is "popup" this starts or extends a selection. <S-RightMouse> Search backward for the word under the mouse click. <C-LeftMouse> Jump to the tag name under the mouse click. <C-RightMouse> Jump back to position before the previous tag jump (same as "CTRL-T") 3.6 Mouse Mappings *gui-mouse-mapping* The mouse events, complete with modifiers, may be mapped. Eg: :map <S-LeftMouse> <RightMouse> :map <S-LeftDrag> <RightDrag> :map <S-LeftRelease> <RightRelease> :map <2-S-LeftMouse> <2-RightMouse> :map <2-S-LeftDrag> <2-RightDrag> :map <2-S-LeftRelease> <2-RightRelease> :map <3-S-LeftMouse> <3-RightMouse> :map <3-S-LeftDrag> <3-RightDrag> :map <3-S-LeftRelease> <3-RightRelease> :map <4-S-LeftMouse> <4-RightMouse> :map <4-S-LeftDrag> <4-RightDrag> :map <4-S-LeftRelease> <4-RightRelease> These mappings make selection work the way it probably should in a Motif application, with shift-left mouse allowing for extending the visual area rather than the right mouse button. Mouse mapping with modifiers does not work for modeless selection. 3.7 Drag and drop *drag-n-drop* You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will be opened as if a |:drop| command was used. If you hold down Shift while doing this, Vim changes to the first dropped file's directory. If you hold Ctrl Vim will always split a new window for the file. Otherwise it's only done if the current buffer has been changed. You can also drop a directory on Vim. This starts the explorer plugin for that directory (assuming it was enabled, otherwise you'll get an error message). Keep Shift pressed to change to the directory instead. If Vim happens to be editing a command line, the names of the dropped files and directories will be inserted at the cursor. This allows you to use these names with any Ex command. Special characters (space, tab, double quote and '|'; backslash on non-MS-Windows systems) will be escaped.
4. Making GUI Selections *gui-selections* *quotestar* You may make selections with the mouse (see |gui-mouse-select|), or by using Vim's Visual mode (see |v|). If 'a' is present in 'guioptions', then whenever a selection is started (Visual or Select mode), or when the selection is changed, Vim becomes the owner of the windowing system's primary selection (on MS-Windows the |gui-clipboard| is used; under X11, the |x11-selection| is used - you should read whichever of these is appropriate now). *clipboard* There is a special register for storing this selection, it is the "* register. Nothing is put in here unless the information about what text is selected is about to change (e.g. with a left mouse click somewhere), or when another application wants to paste the selected text. Then the text is put in the "* register. For example, to cut a line and make it the current selection/put it on the clipboard: "*dd Similarly, when you want to paste a selection from another application, e.g., by clicking the middle mouse button, the selection is put in the "* register first, and then 'put' like any other register. For example, to put the selection (contents of the clipboard): "*p When using this register under X11, also see |x11-selection|. This also explains the related "+ register. Note that when pasting text from one Vim into another separate Vim, the type of selection (character, line, or block) will also be copied. For other applications the type is always character. However, if the text gets transferred via the |x11-cut-buffer|, the selection type is ALWAYS lost. When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed register is the same as the "* register. Thus you can yank to and paste the selection without prepending "* to commands.
5. Menus *menus* For an introduction see |usr_42.txt| in the user manual. 5.1 Using Menus *using-menus* Basically, menus can be used just like mappings. You can define your own menus, as many as you like. Long-time Vim users won't use menus much. But the power is in adding your own menus and menu items. They are most useful for things that you can't remember what the key sequence was. For creating menus in a different language, see |:menutrans|. *menu.vim* The default menus are read from the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". See |$VIMRUNTIME| for where the path comes from. You can set up your own menus. Starting off with the default set is a good idea. You can add more items, or, if you don't like the defaults at all, start with removing all menus |:unmenu-all|. You can also avoid the default menus being loaded by adding this line to your .vimrc file (NOT your .gvimrc file!): :let did_install_default_menus = 1 If you also want to avoid the Syntax menu: :let did_install_syntax_menu = 1 If you do want the Syntax menu but not all the entries for each available syntax file (which take quite a bit of time to load): :let skip_syntax_sel_menu = 1 *console-menus* Although this documentation is in the GUI section, you can actually use menus in console mode too. You will have to load |menu.vim| explicitly then, it is not done by default. You can use the |:emenu| command and command-line completion with 'wildmenu' to access the menu entries almost like a real menu system. To do this, put these commands in your .vimrc file: :source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim :set wildmenu :set cpo-=< :set wcm=<C-Z> :map <F4> :emenu <C-Z> Pressing <F4> will start the menu. You can now use the cursor keys to select a menu entry. Hit <Enter> to execute it. Hit <Esc> if you want to cancel. This does require the |+menu| feature enabled at compile time. *tear-off-menus* GTK+ and Motif support Tear-off menus. These are sort of sticky menus or pop-up menus that are present all the time. If the resizing does not work correctly, this may be caused by using something like "Vim*geometry" in the defaults. Use "Vim.geometry" instead. The Win32 GUI version emulates Motif's tear-off menus. Actually, a Motif user will spot the differences easily, but hopefully they're just as useful. You can also use the |:tearoff| command together with |hidden-menus| to create floating menus that do not appear on the main menu bar. 5.2 Creating New Menus *creating-menus* *:me* *:menu* *:noreme* *:noremenu* *:am* *:amenu* *:an* *:anoremenu* *:nme* *:nmenu* *:nnoreme* *:nnoremenu* *:ome* *:omenu* *:onoreme* *:onoremenu* *:vme* *:vmenu* *:vnoreme* *:vnoremenu* *:xme* *:xmenu* *:xnoreme* *:xnoremenu* *:sme* *:smenu* *:snoreme* *:snoremenu* *:ime* *:imenu* *:inoreme* *:inoremenu* *:cme* *:cmenu* *:cnoreme* *:cnoremenu* *E330* *E327* *E331* *E336* *E333* *E328* *E329* *E337* *E792* To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are mostly like the ":map" set of commands but the first argument is a menu item name, given as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them, e.g.: :menu File.Save :w<CR> :inoremenu File.Save <C-O>:w<CR> :menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces :%s/[ ^I]//g<CR> This last one will create a new item in the menu bar called "Edit", holding the mouse button down on this will pop up a menu containing the item "Big Changes", which is a sub-menu containing the item "Delete All Spaces", which when selected, performs the operation. Special characters in a menu name: & The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu. If you want to insert a literal "&" in the menu name use "&&". <Tab> Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "<Tab>" can be used here for convenience. If you are using a real tab, don't forget to put a backslash before it! Example: :amenu &File.&Open<Tab>:e :browse e<CR> [typed literally] With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the <Alt> key pressed), and then "O", this menu can be used. The second part is shown as "Open :e". The ":e" is right aligned, and the "O" is underlined, to indicate it is the shortcut. The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once. To make the command work correctly, a character is automatically inserted for some modes: mode inserted appended Normal nothing nothing Visual <C-C> <C-\><C-G> Insert <C-O> Cmdline <C-C> <C-\><C-G> Op-pending <C-C> <C-\><C-G> Appending CTRL-\ CTRL-G is for going back to insert mode when 'insertmode' is set. |CTRL-\_CTRL-G| Example: :amenu File.Next :next^M is equal to: :nmenu File.Next :next^M :vmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G :imenu File.Next ^O:next^M :cmenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G :omenu File.Next ^C:next^M^\^G Careful: In Insert mode this only works for a SINGLE Normal mode command, because of the CTRL-O. If you have two or more commands, you will need to use the ":imenu" command. For inserting text in any mode, you can use the expression register: :amenu Insert.foobar "='foobar'<CR>P Note that the '<' and 'k' flags in 'cpoptions' also apply here (when included they make the <> form and raw key codes not being recognized). Note that <Esc> in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode. *:menu-<silent>* *:menu-silent* To define a menu which will not be echoed on the command line, add "<silent>" as the first argument. Example: :menu <silent> Settings.Ignore\ case :set ic<CR> The ":set ic" will not be echoed when using this menu. Messages from the executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a ":silent" in the executed command: :menu <silent> Search.Header :exe ":silent normal /Header\r"<CR> "<silent>" may also appear just after "<special>" or "<script>". *:menu-<special>* *:menu-special* Define a menu with <> notation for special keys, even though the "<" flag may appear in 'cpoptions'. This is useful if the side effect of setting 'cpoptions' is not desired. Example: :menu <special> Search.Header /Header<CR> "<special>" must appear as the very first argument to the ":menu" command or just after "<silent>" or "<script>". *:menu-<script>* *:menu-script* The "to" part of the menu will be inspected for mappings. If you don't want this, use the ":noremenu" command (or the similar one for a specific mode). If you do want to use script-local mappings, add "<script>" as the very first argument to the ":menu" command or just after "<silent>" or "<special>". *menu-priority* You can give a priority to a menu. Menus with a higher priority go more to the right. The priority is given as a number before the ":menu" command. Example: :80menu Buffer.next :bn<CR> The default menus have these priorities: File 10 Edit 20 Tools 40 Syntax 50 Buffers 60 Window 70 Help 9999 When no or zero priority is given, 500 is used. The priority for the PopUp menu is not used. The Help menu will be placed on the far right side of the menu bar on systems which support this (Motif and GTK+). For GTK+ 2, this is not done anymore because right-aligning the Help menu is now discouraged UI design. You can use a priority higher than 9999, to make it go after the Help menu, but that is non-standard and is discouraged. The highest possible priority is about 32000. The lowest is 1. *sub-menu-priority* The same mechanism can be used to position a sub-menu. The priority is then given as a dot-separated list of priorities, before the menu name: :menu 80.500 Buffer.next :bn<CR> Giving the sub-menu priority is only needed when the item is not to be put in a normal position. For example, to put a sub-menu before the other items: :menu 80.100 Buffer.first :brew<CR> Or to put a sub-menu after the other items, and further items with default priority will be put before it: :menu 80.900 Buffer.last :blast<CR> When a number is missing, the default value 500 will be used: :menu .900 myMenu.test :echo "text"<CR> The menu priority is only used when creating a new menu. When it already existed, e.g., in another mode, the priority will not change. Thus, the priority only needs to be given the first time a menu is used. An exception is the PopUp menu. There is a separate menu for each mode (Normal, Op-pending, Visual, Insert, Cmdline). The order in each of these menus can be different. This is different from menu-bar menus, which have the same order for all modes. NOTE: sub-menu priorities currently don't work for all versions of the GUI. *menu-separator* *E332* Menu items can be separated by a special item that inserts some space between items. Depending on the system this is displayed as a line or a dotted line. These items must start with a '-' and end in a '-'. The part in between is used to give it a unique name. Priorities can be used as with normal items. Example: :menu Example.item1 :do something :menu Example.-Sep- : :menu Example.item2 :do something different Note that the separator also requires a rhs. It doesn't matter what it is, because the item will never be selected. Use a single colon to keep it simple. *gui-toolbar* The toolbar is currently available in the Win32, Athena, Motif, GTK+ (X11), and Photon GUI. It should turn up in other GUIs in due course. The default toolbar is setup in menu.vim. The display of the toolbar is controlled by the 'guioptions' letter 'T'. You can thus have menu & toolbar together, or either on its own, or neither. The appearance is controlled by the 'toolbar' option. You can chose between an image, text or both. *toolbar-icon* The toolbar is defined as a special menu called ToolBar, which only has one level. Vim interprets the items in this menu as follows: 1) If an "icon=" argument was specified, the file with this name is used. The file can either be specified with the full path or with the base name. In the last case it is searched for in the "bitmaps" directory in 'runtimepath', like in point 3. Examples: :amenu icon=/usr/local/pixmaps/foo_icon.xpm ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR> :amenu icon=FooIcon ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR> Note that in the first case the extension is included, while in the second case it is omitted. If the file cannot be opened the next points are tried. A space in the file name must be escaped with a backslash. A menu priority must come _after_ the icon argument: :amenu icon=foo 1.42 ToolBar.Foo :echo "42!"<CR> 2) An item called 'BuiltIn##', where ## is a number, is taken as number ## of the built-in bitmaps available in Vim. Currently there are 31 numbered from 0 to 30 which cover most common editing operations |builtin-tools|. :amenu ToolBar.BuiltIn22 :call SearchNext("back")<CR> 3) An item with another name is first searched for in the directory "bitmaps" in 'runtimepath'. If found, the bitmap file is used as the toolbar button image. Note that the exact filename is OS-specific: For example, under Win32 the command :amenu ToolBar.Hello :echo "hello"<CR> would find the file 'hello.bmp'. Under GTK+/X11 it is 'Hello.xpm'. With GTK+ 2 the files 'Hello.png', 'Hello.xpm' and 'Hello.bmp' are checked for existence, and the first one found would be used. For MS-Windows and GTK+ 2 the bitmap is scaled to fit the button. For MS-Windows a size of 18 by 18 pixels works best. For MS-Windows the bitmap should have 16 colors with the standard palette. The light grey pixels will be changed to the Window frame color and the dark grey pixels to the window shadow color. More colors might also work, depending on your system. 4) If the bitmap is still not found, Vim checks for a match against its list of built-in names. Each built-in button image has a name. So the command :amenu ToolBar.Open :e will show the built-in "open a file" button image if no open.bmp exists. All the built-in names can be seen used in menu.vim. 5) If all else fails, a blank, but functioning, button is displayed. *builtin-tools* nr Name Normal action 00 New open new window 01 Open browse for file to open in current window 02 Save write buffer to file 03 Undo undo last change 04 Redo redo last undone change 05 Cut delete selected text to clipboard 06 Copy copy selected text to clipboard 07 Paste paste text from clipboard 08 Print print current buffer 09 Help open a buffer on Vim's builtin help 10 Find start a search command 11 SaveAll write all modified buffers to file 12 SaveSesn write session file for current situation 13 NewSesn write new session file 14 LoadSesn load session file 15 RunScript browse for file to run as a Vim script 16 Replace prompt for substitute command 17 WinClose close current window 18 WinMax make current window use many lines 19 WinMin make current window use few lines 20 WinSplit split current window 21 Shell start a shell 22 FindPrev search again, backward 23 FindNext search again, forward 24 FindHelp prompt for word to search help for 25 Make run make and jump to first error 26 TagJump jump to tag under the cursor 27 RunCtags build tags for files in current directory 28 WinVSplit split current window vertically 29 WinMaxWidth make current window use many columns 30 WinMinWidth make current window use few columns *hidden-menus* *win32-hidden-menus* In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, starting a menu name with ']' excludes that menu from the main menu bar. You must then use the |:popup| or |:tearoff| command to display it. *popup-menu* In the Win32, GTK+, Motif, Athena and Photon GUI, you can define the special menu "PopUp". This is the menu that is displayed when the right mouse button is pressed, if 'mousemodel' is set to popup or popup_setpos. 5.3 Showing What Menus Are Mapped To *showing-menus* To see what an existing menu is mapped to, use just one argument after the menu commands (just like you would with the ":map" commands). If the menu specified is a submenu, then all menus under that hierarchy will be shown. If no argument is given after :menu at all, then ALL menu items are shown for the appropriate mode (e.g., Command-line mode for :cmenu). Special characters in the list, just before the rhs: * The menu was defined with "nore" to disallow remapping. & The menu was defined with "<script>" to allow remapping script-local mappings only. - The menu was disabled. Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after a menu command may be used to complete the name of the menu item. 5.4 Executing Menus *execute-menus* *:em* *:emenu* *E334* *E335* :[range]em[enu] {menu} Execute {menu} from the command line. The default is to execute the Normal mode menu. If a range is specified, it executes the Visual mode menu. If used from <c-o>, it executes the insert-mode menu Eg: :emenu File.Exit If the console-mode vim has been compiled with WANT_MENU defined, you can use :emenu to access useful menu items you may have got used to from GUI mode. See 'wildmenu' for an option that works well with this. See |console-menus| for an example. When using a range, if the lines match with '<,'>, then the menu is executed using the last visual selection. 5.5 Deleting Menus *delete-menus* *:unme* *:unmenu* *:aun* *:aunmenu* *:nunme* *:nunmenu* *:ounme* *:ounmenu* *:vunme* *:vunmenu* *:xunme* *:xunmenu* *:sunme* *:sunmenu* *:iunme* *:iunmenu* *:cunme* *:cunmenu* To delete a menu item or a whole submenu, use the unmenu commands, which are analogous to the unmap commands. Eg: :unmenu! Edit.Paste This will remove the Paste item from the Edit menu for Insert and Command-line modes. Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after an umenu command may be used to complete the name of the menu item for the appropriate mode. To remove all menus use: *:unmenu-all* :unmenu * " remove all menus in Normal and visual mode :unmenu! * " remove all menus in Insert and Command-line mode :aunmenu * " remove all menus in all modes If you want to get rid of the menu bar: :set guioptions-=m 5.6 Disabling Menus *disable-menus* *:menu-disable* *:menu-enable* If you do not want to remove a menu, but disable it for a moment, this can be done by adding the "enable" or "disable" keyword to a ":menu" command. Examples: :menu disable &File.&Open\.\.\. :amenu enable * :amenu disable &Tools.* The command applies to the modes as used with all menu commands. Note that characters like "&" need to be included for translated names to be found. When the argument is "*", all menus are affected. Otherwise the given menu name and all existing submenus below it are affected. 5.7 Examples for Menus *menu-examples* Here is an example on how to add menu items with menu's! You can add a menu item for the keyword under the cursor. The register "z" is used. :nmenu Words.Add\ Var wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR> :nmenu Words.Remove\ Var wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR> :vmenu Words.Add\ Var "zy:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z <CR> :vmenu Words.Remove\ Var "zy:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR> :imenu Words.Add\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>a :imenu Words.Remove\ Var <Esc>wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>a (the rhs is in <> notation, you can copy/paste this text to try out the mappings, or put these lines in your gvimrc; "<C-R>" is CTRL-R, "<CR>" is the <CR> key. |<>|) 5.8 Tooltips & Menu tips See section |42.4| in the user manual. *:tmenu* *:tm* :tm[enu] {menupath} {rhs} Define a tip for a menu or tool. {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} :tm[enu] [menupath] List menu tips. {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} *:tunmenu* *:tu* :tu[nmenu] {menupath} Remove a tip for a menu or tool. {only in X11 and Win32 GUI} When a tip is defined for a menu item, it appears in the command-line area when the mouse is over that item, much like a standard Windows menu hint in the status bar. (Except when Vim is in Command-line mode, when of course nothing is displayed.) When a tip is defined for a ToolBar item, it appears as a tooltip when the mouse pauses over that button, in the usual fashion. Use the |hl-Tooltip| highlight group to change its colors. A "tip" can be defined for each menu item. For example, when defining a menu item like this: :amenu MyMenu.Hello :echo "Hello"<CR> The tip is defined like this: :tmenu MyMenu.Hello Displays a greeting. And delete it with: :tunmenu MyMenu.Hello Tooltips are currently only supported for the X11 and Win32 GUI. However, they should appear for the other gui platforms in the not too distant future. The ":tmenu" command works just like other menu commands, it uses the same arguments. ":tunmenu" deletes an existing menu tip, in the same way as the other unmenu commands. If a menu item becomes invalid (i.e. its actions in all modes are deleted) Vim deletes the menu tip (and the item) for you. This means that :aunmenu deletes a menu item - you don't need to do a :tunmenu as well. 5.9 Popup Menus In the Win32 and GTK+ GUI, you can cause a menu to popup at the cursor. This behaves similarly to the PopUp menus except that any menu tree can be popped up. This command is for backwards compatibility, using it is discouraged, because it behaves in a strange way. *:popup* *:popu* :popu[p] {name} Popup the menu {name}. The menu named must have at least one subentry, but need not appear on the menu-bar (see |hidden-menus|). {only available for Win32 and GTK GUI} :popu[p]! {name} Like above, but use the position of the mouse pointer instead of the cursor. Example: :popup File will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear at the text cursor (mouse pointer if ! was used). :amenu ]Toolbar.Make :make<CR> :popup ]Toolbar This creates a popup menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar. Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed.
6. Extras *gui-extras* This section describes other features which are related to the GUI. - With the GUI, there is no wait for one second after hitting escape, because the key codes don't start with <Esc>. - Typing ^V followed by a special key in the GUI will insert "<Key>", since the internal string used is meaningless. Modifiers may also be held down to get "<Modifiers-Key>". - In the GUI, the modifiers SHIFT, CTRL, and ALT (or META) may be used within mappings of special keys and mouse events. E.g.: :map <M-LeftDrag> <LeftDrag> - In the GUI, several normal keys may have modifiers in mappings etc, these are <Space>, <Tab>, <NL>, <CR>, <Esc>. - To check in a Vim script if the GUI is being used, you can use something like this: if has("gui_running") echo "yes, we have a GUI" else echo "Boring old console" endif *setting-guifont* - When you use the same vimrc file on various systems, you can use something like this to set options specifically for each type of GUI: if has("gui_running") if has("gui_gtk2") :set guifont=Luxi\ Mono\ 12 elseif has("x11") " Also for GTK 1 :set guifont=*-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-*-*-180-*-*-m-*-* elseif has("gui_win32") :set guifont=Luxi_Mono:h12:cANSI endif endif A recommended Japanese font is MS Mincho. You can find info here: http://www.lexikan.com/mincho.htm
7. Shell Commands *gui-shell* For the X11 GUI the external commands are executed inside the gvim window. See |gui-pty|. WARNING: Executing an external command from the X11 GUI will not always work. "normal" commands like "ls", "grep" and "make" mostly work fine. Commands that require an intelligent terminal like "less" and "ispell" won't work. Some may even hang and need to be killed from another terminal. So be careful! For the Win32 GUI the external commands are executed in a separate window. See |gui-shell-win32|. top - main help file