1*helphelp.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 29 2 3 4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar 5 6 7Help on help files *helphelp* 8 91. Help commands |online-help| 102. Translating help files |help-translated| 113. Writing help files |help-writing| 12 13============================================================================== 141. Help commands *online-help* 15 16 *help* *<Help>* *:h* *:help* *<F1>* *i_<F1>* *i_<Help>* 17<Help> or 18:h[elp] Open a window and display the help file in read-only 19 mode. If there is a help window open already, use 20 that one. Otherwise, if the current window uses the 21 full width of the screen or is at least 80 characters 22 wide, the help window will appear just above the 23 current window. Otherwise the new window is put at 24 the very top. 25 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 26 the main help file is available in several languages. 27 {not in Vi} 28 29 *{subject}* *E149* *E661* 30:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}. 31 {subject} can include wildcards like "*", "?" and 32 "[a-z]": 33 :help z? jump to help for any "z" command 34 :help z. jump to the help for "z." 35 If there is no full match for the pattern, or there 36 are several matches, the "best" match will be used. 37 A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which 38 match is better than another one. These items are 39 considered in the computation: 40 - A match with same case is much better than a match 41 with different case. 42 - A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric 43 character is better than a match in the middle of a 44 word. 45 - A match at or near the beginning of the tag is 46 better than a match further on. 47 - The more alphanumeric characters match, the better. 48 - The shorter the length of the match, the better. 49 50 The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if 51 the {subject} is available in several languages. 52 To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab", 53 where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See 54 |help-translated|. 55 56 Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less 57 matches will be found. You can get an idea how this 58 all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D 59 after ":help subject" |c_CTRL-D|). 60 If there are several matches, you can have them listed 61 by hitting CTRL-D. Example: > 62 :help cont<Ctrl-D> 63 64< Instead of typing ":help CTRL-V" to search for help 65 for CTRL-V you can type: > 66 :help ^V 67< This also works together with other characters, for 68 example to find help for CTRL-V in Insert mode: > 69 :help i^V 70< 71 To use a regexp |pattern|, first do ":help" and then 72 use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The 73 ":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other 74 matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one. > 75 :help index| :tse z. 76 77< When there is no argument you will see matches for 78 "help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that 79 would be very slow). 80 The number of matches displayed is limited to 300. 81 82 This command can be followed by '|' and another 83 command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a 84 help command. So these both work: > 85 :help | 86 :help k| only 87< Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of 88 the ":help" argument. 89 You can also use <LF> or <CR> to separate the help 90 command from a following command. You need to type 91 CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example: > 92 :help so<C-V><CR>only 93< {not in Vi} 94 95:h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to 96 find a tag in a file with the same language as the 97 current file. See |help-translated|. 98 99 *:helpg* *:helpgrep* 100:helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx] 101 Search all help text files and make a list of lines 102 in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match. 103 The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the 104 "xx" language are to be found. 105 You can navigate through the matches with the 106 |quickfix| commands, e.g., |:cnext| to jump to the 107 next one. Or use |:cwindow| to get the list of 108 matches in the quickfix window. 109 {pattern} is used as a Vim regexp |pattern|. 110 'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case. 111 Example for case sensitive search: > 112 :helpgrep Uganda 113< Example for case ignoring search: > 114 :helpgrep uganda\c 115< Example for searching in French help: > 116 :helpgrep backspace@fr 117< The pattern does not support line breaks, it must 118 match within one line. You can use |:grep| instead, 119 but then you need to get the list of help files in a 120 complicated way. 121 Cannot be followed by another command, everything is 122 used as part of the pattern. But you can use 123 |:execute| when needed. 124 Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora 125 compresses the help files). 126 {not in Vi} 127 128 *:lh* *:lhelpgrep* 129:lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx] 130 Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used 131 instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is 132 already opened, then the location list for that window 133 is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and 134 the location list for that window is set. The 135 location list for the current window is not changed. 136 137 *:exu* *:exusage* 138:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi 139 command. {not in Vi} 140 141 *:viu* *:viusage* 142:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate 143 the Nvi command. {not in Vi} 144 145When no argument is given to |:help| the file given with the 'helpfile' option 146will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags" 147files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option. 148 149The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option 150(default 20). 151 152Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways: 153- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option. 154 This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and 155 "g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]". 156- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword 157 characters. 158 159Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back. 160Use ":q" to close the help window. 161 162If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you 163can jump to each one of them: 1641. Open a help window 1652. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.: > 166 :tag /min 1673. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag. 168 169It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need 170to change the distributed help files for that. See |add-local-help|. 171 172To write a local help file, see |write-local-help|. 173 174Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to 175the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file |local-additions|. 176This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It 177is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each 178file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped. 179 180 *help-xterm-window* 181If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this 182command: > 183 :!xterm -e vim +help & 184< 185 186 *:helpfind* *:helpf* 187:helpf[ind] Like |:help|, but use a dialog to enter the argument. 188 Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the 189 ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin 190 dialog. {only when compiled with |+GUI_GTK|} 191< {not in Vi} 192 193 *:helpt* *:helptags* 194 *E154* *E150* *E151* *E152* *E153* *E670* 195:helpt[ags] [++t] {dir} 196 Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}. 197 All "*.txt" and "*.??x" files in the directory are 198 scanned for a help tag definition in between stars. 199 The "*.??x" files are for translated docs, they 200 generate the "tags-??" file, see |help-translated|. 201 The generated tags files are sorted. 202 When there are duplicates an error message is given. 203 An existing tags file is silently overwritten. 204 The optional "++t" argument forces adding the 205 "help-tags" tag. This is also done when the {dir} is 206 equal to $VIMRUNTIME/doc. 207 To rebuild the help tags in the runtime directory 208 (requires write permission there): > 209 :helptags $VIMRUNTIME/doc 210< {not in Vi} 211 212 213============================================================================== 2142. Translated help files *help-translated* 215 216It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help 217files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'. 218This is only available when compiled with the |+multi_lang| feature. 219 220At this moment translations are available for: 221 Chinese - multiple authors 222 French - translated by David Blanchet 223 Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo 224 Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski 225 Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin 226See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php 227 228A set of translated help files consists of these files: 229 230 help.abx 231 howto.abx 232 ... 233 tags-ab 234 235"ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are: 236 237 help.itx 238 howto.itx 239 ... 240 tags-it 241 242The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is 243set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag 244in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found. 245 246To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the 247two-letter language code. Example: > 248 :he user-manual@it 249 :he user-manual@en 250The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty. 251The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to 252"it". 253 254When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en" 255extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the 256tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. 257 258When using |CTRL-]| or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to 259find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used 260to select a language. 261 262Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is 263utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must 264translate the header with "For Vim version". 265 266The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one 267directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use 268a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different 269directory. 270 271Hints for translators: 272- Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to 273 specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language. 274- When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version, 275 using the "tag@en" notation. 276- Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download. 277 Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it. 278 Report this to Bram, so that he can add a link on www.vim.org. 279- Use the |:helptags| command to generate the tags files. It will find all 280 languages in the specified directory. 281 282============================================================================== 2833. Writing help files *help-writing* 284 285For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the 286standard Vim help files. If you are writing a new help file it's best to copy 287one of the existing files and use it as a template. 288 289The first line in a help file should have the following format: 290 291*helpfile_name.txt* For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2010 June 4 292 293The first field is a link to the help file name. The second field describes 294the applicable Vim version. The last field specifies the last modification 295date of the file. Each field is separated by a tab. 296 297At the bottom of the help file, place a Vim modeline to set the 'textwidth' 298and 'tabstop' options and the 'filetype' to 'help'. Never set a global option 299in such a modeline, that can have consequences undesired by whoever reads that 300help. 301 302 303TAGS 304 305To define a help tag, place the name between asterisks (*tag-name*). The 306tag-name should be different from all the Vim help tag names and ideally 307should begin with the name of the Vim plugin. The tag name is usually right 308aligned on a line. 309 310When referring to an existing help tag and to create a hot-link, place the 311name between two bars (|) eg. |help-writing|. 312 313When referring to a Vim option in the help file, place the option name between 314two single quotes, eg. 'statusline' 315 316 317HIGHLIGHTING 318 319To define a column heading, use a tilde character at the end of the line. 320This will highlight the column heading in a different color. E.g. 321 322Column heading~ 323 324To separate sections in a help file, place a series of '=' characters in a 325line starting from the first column. The section separator line is highlighted 326differently. 327 328To quote a block of ex-commands verbatim, place a greater than (>) character 329at the end of the line before the block and a less than (<) character as the 330first non-blank on a line following the block. Any line starting in column 1 331also implicitly stops the block of ex-commands before it. E.g. > 332 function Example_Func() 333 echo "Example" 334 endfunction 335< 336 337The following are highlighted differently in a Vim help file: 338 - a special key name expressed either in <> notation as in <PageDown>, or 339 as a Ctrl character as in CTRL-X 340 - anything between {braces}, e.g. {lhs} and {rhs} 341 342The word "Note", "Notes" and similar automagically receive distinctive 343highlighting. So do these: 344 *Todo something to do 345 *Error something wrong 346 347You can find the details in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/help.vim 348 349 vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 350