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Learn To Use Help - Vim Tips Wiki - FANDOM Powered by Wikia
Learn To Use Help - Vim Tips Wiki - FANDOM Powered by Wikia
Vim's help is remarkably helpful, but in order to use it effectively you need to spend a few minutes learning how it is organised.
Contents [show]
Enter :help to browse help. Scroll down the help page to see the quickref and tutor links, and the table of contents.
Enter :help pattern for help on the topic pattern (for example).
:h pattern is the same (the :help command can be abbreviated).
Type :h patt then press Ctrl-D to list all topics that contain "patt".
Type :h patt then press Tab to scroll through the topics that start with "patt".
If you have set the 'wildmenu' option (e.g. by using :set wildmenu), then :h patt followed by <Tab> opens a menu on the statusline, with all help topics containing "patt". You
can select any item in the menu with the arrow keys or more presses of the <Tab> key to fill in the rest of your command line.
Links:
Searching:
Search within a help file using / like you would when searching any file.
Search all the help files with the :helpgrep command, for example:
:helpgrep \csearch.\{,12}file
\c means the pattern is case insensitive.
The pattern finds "search" then up to 12 characters followed by "file".
You will then see the first match. To see other matches for the same pattern, use:
:cnext
:cprev
:cnfile
:cpfile
:cfirst
:clast
and even
:cc
which brings you back to the current match after you scrolled the helpfile, or
:copen
which will list out all the matches in a separate window. Read up on these commands with the :help entry for each of them!
Each week (or more often if you prefer), read a new section from the :help page to learn something new!
Context Edit
https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Learn_to_use_help 1/2
10/25/2019 Learn to use help | Vim Tips Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikia
' :h 'ro' option
- :h -r Vim argument (starting Vim)
Sometimes you want to know what a particular control key means to Vim. For example, to see all help topics containing "ctrl-r", type :h ctrl-r then press Ctrl-D. The following examples show
the help for pressing various keys in different contexts.
The following mappings (which can go in your vimrc) simplify navigating the results of quickfix commands such as (among others) :helpgrep
References Edit
:help
:help :help
:help :helpgrep
:help helphelp.txt
:help quickref.txt
Comments Edit
What it does:
https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Learn_to_use_help 2/2