helphelp.txt For Vim version 9.1. Last change: 2024 Nov 19
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
Help on help files helphelp
1. Help commands online-help
2. Translated help files help-translated
3. Writing help files help-writing
==============================================================================
1. Help commands online-help
help <Help> :h :help <F1> i_<F1> i_<Help>
<Help> or
:h[elp] Open a window and display the help file in read-only
mode. If there is a help window open already, use
that one. Otherwise, if the current window uses the
full width of the screen or is at least 80 characters
wide, the help window will appear just above the
current window. Otherwise the new window is put at
the very top.
The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if
the main help file is available in several languages.
{subject} E149 E661
:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}.
For example:
:help options
{subject} can include wildcards such as "*", "?" and
"[a-z]":
:help z? jump to help for any "z" command
:help z. jump to the help for "z."
But when a tag exists it is taken literally:
:help :? jump to help for ":?"
If there is no full match for the pattern, or there
are several matches, the "best" match will be used.
A sophisticated algorithm is used to decide which
match is better than another one. These items are
considered in the computation:
- A match with same case is much better than a match
with different case.
- A match that starts after a non-alphanumeric
character is better than a match in the middle of a
word.
- A match at or near the beginning of the tag is
better than a match further on.
- The more alphanumeric characters match, the better.
- The shorter the length of the match, the better.
The 'helplang' option is used to select a language, if
the {subject} is available in several languages.
To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab",
where "ab" is the two-letter language code. See
help-translated.
Note that the longer the {subject} you give, the less
matches will be found. You can get an idea how this
all works by using commandline completion (type CTRL-D
after ":help subject" c_CTRL-D).
If there are several matches, you can have them listed
by hitting CTRL-D. Example:
:help cont<Ctrl-D>
Instead of typing ":help CTRL-V" to search for help
for CTRL-V you can type:
:help ^V
This also works together with other characters, for
example to find help for CTRL-V in Insert mode:
:help i^V
It is also possible to first do ":help" and then
use ":tag {pattern}" in the help window. The
":tnext" command can then be used to jump to other
matches, "tselect" to list matches and choose one.
:help index
:tselect /.*mode
When there is no argument you will see matches for
"help", to avoid listing all possible matches (that
would be very slow).
The number of matches displayed is limited to 300.
The :help command can be followed by '|' and another
command, but you don't need to escape the '|' inside a
help command. So these both work:
:help |
:help k| only
Note that a space before the '|' is seen as part of
the ":help" argument.
You can also use <NL> or <CR> to separate the help
command from a following command. You need to type
CTRL-V first to insert the <NL> or <CR>. Example:
:help so<C-V><CR>only
:h[elp]! [subject] Like ":help", but in non-English help files prefer to
find a tag in a file with the same language as the
current file. See help-translated.
:helpc :helpclose
:helpc[lose] Close one help window, if there is one.
Vim will try to restore the window layout (including
cursor position) to the same layout it was before
opening the help window initially. This might cause
triggering several autocommands.
:helpg :helpgrep
:helpg[rep] {pattern}[@xx]
Search all help text files and make a list of lines
in which {pattern} matches. Jumps to the first match.
The optional [@xx] specifies that only matches in the
"xx" language are to be found.
You can navigate through the matches with the
quickfix commands, e.g., :cnext to jump to the
next one. Or use :cwindow to get the list of
matches in the quickfix window.
{pattern} is used as a Vim regexp pattern.
'ignorecase' is not used, add "\c" to ignore case.
Example for case sensitive search:
:helpgrep Uganda
Example for case ignoring search:
:helpgrep uganda\c
Example for searching in French help:
:helpgrep backspace@fr
The pattern does not support line breaks, it must
match within one line. You can use :grep instead,
but then you need to get the list of help files in a
complicated way.
Cannot be followed by another command, everything is
used as part of the pattern. But you can use
:execute when needed.
Compressed help files will not be searched (Fedora
compresses the help files).
:lh :lhelpgrep
:lh[elpgrep] {pattern}[@xx]
Same as ":helpgrep", except the location list is used
instead of the quickfix list. If the help window is
already opened, then the location list for that window
is used. Otherwise, a new help window is opened and
the location list for that window is set. The
location list for the current window is not changed
then.
:exu :exusage
:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi
command.
:viu :viusage
:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate
the Nvi command.
When no argument is given to :help the file given with the 'helpfile' option
will be opened. Otherwise the specified tag is searched for in all "doc/tags"
files in the directories specified in the 'runtimepath' option.
If you would like to open the help in the current window, see this tip:
help-curwin.
The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option
(default 20).
help-buffer-options
When the help buffer is created, several local options are set to make sure
the help text is displayed as it was intended:
'iskeyword' nearly all ASCII chars except ' ', '*', '"' and '|'
'foldmethod' "manual"
'tabstop' 8
'arabic' off
'binary' off
'buflisted' off
'cursorbind' off
'diff' off
'foldenable' off
'list' off
'modifiable' off
'number' off
'relativenumber' off
'rightleft' off
'scrollbind' off
'spell' off
Jump to specific subjects by using tags. This can be done in two ways:
- Use the "CTRL-]" command while standing on the name of a command or option.
This only works when the tag is a keyword. "<C-Leftmouse>" and
"g<LeftMouse>" work just like "CTRL-]".
- use the ":ta {subject}" command. This also works with non-keyword
characters.
Use CTRL-T or CTRL-O to jump back.
Use ":q" to close the help window.
If there are several matches for an item you are looking for, this is how you
can jump to each one of them:
1. Open a help window
2. Use the ":tag" command with a slash prepended to the tag. E.g.:
:tag /min
3. Use ":tnext" to jump to the next matching tag.
It is possible to add help files for plugins and other items. You don't need
to change the distributed help files for that. See add-local-help.
To write a local help file, see write-local-help.
Note that the title lines from the local help files are automagically added to
the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section in the "help.txt" help file local-additions.
This is done when viewing the file in Vim, the file itself is not changed. It
is done by going through all help files and obtaining the first line of each
file. The files in $VIMRUNTIME/doc are skipped.
help-xterm-window
If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this
command:
:!xterm -e vim +help &
:helpfind :helpf
:helpf[ind] Like :help, but use a dialog to enter the argument.
Only for backwards compatibility. It now executes the
ToolBar.FindHelp menu entry instead of using a builtin
dialog. {only when compiled with |+GUI_GTK|}
:helpt :helptags
E150 E151 E152 E153 E154 E670
:helpt[ags] [++t] {dir}
Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}.
When {dir} is ALL then all "doc" directories in
'runtimepath' will be used.
All "*.txt" and "*.??x" files in the directory and
sub-directories are scanned for a help tag definition
in between stars. The "*.??x" files are for
translated docs, they generate the "tags-??" file, see
help-translated. The generated tags files are
sorted.
When there are duplicates an error message is given.
An existing tags file is silently overwritten.
The optional "++t" argument forces adding the
"help-tags" tag. This is also done when the {dir} is
equal to $VIMRUNTIME/doc.
To rebuild the help tags in the runtime directory
(requires write permission there):
:helptags $VIMRUNTIME/doc
:HelpToc help-TOC help-toc-install
If you want to access an interactive table of contents, from any position in
the file, you can use the helptoc plugin. Load the plugin with:
packadd helptoc
Then you can use the :HelpToc command to open a popup menu.
The latter supports the following normal commands:
key | effect
----+---------------------------------------------------------
j | select next entry
k | select previous entry
J | same as j, and jump to corresponding line in main buffer
K | same as k, and jump to corresponding line in main buffer
c | select nearest entry from cursor position in main buffer
g | select first entry
G | select last entry
H | collapse one level
L | expand one level
p | print current entry on command-line
P | same as p but automatically, whenever selection changes
| press multiple times to toggle feature on/off
q | quit menu
z | redraw menu with current entry at center
+ | increase width of popup menu
- | decrease width of popup menu
? | show/hide a help window
/ | search for pattern
<C-D> | scroll down half a page
<C-U> | scroll up half a page
<PageUp> | scroll down a whole page
<PageDown> | scroll up a whole page
<Home> | select first entry
<End> | select last entry
The plugin can also provide a table of contents in man pages, markdown files,
and terminal buffers. In the latter, the entries will be the past executed
shell commands. To find those, the following pattern is used:
^\w\+@\w\+:\f\+\$\s
This is meant to match a default bash prompt. If it doesn't match your prompt,
you can change the regex with the shell_prompt key from the g:helptoc
dictionary variable:
let g:helptoc = {'shell_prompt': 'regex matching your shell prompt'}
Tip: After inserting a pattern to look for with the / command, if you press
<Esc> instead of <CR>, you can then get more context for each remaining entry
by pressing J or K.
==============================================================================
2. Translated help files help-translated
It is possible to add translated help files, next to the original English help
files. Vim will search for all help in "doc" directories in 'runtimepath'.
This is only available when compiled with the +multi_lang feature.
At this moment translations are available for:
Chinese - multiple authors
French - translated by David Blanchet
Italian - translated by Antonio Colombo
Japanese - multiple authors
Polish - translated by Mikolaj Machowski
Russian - translated by Vassily Ragosin
See the Vim website to find them: http://www.vim.org/translations.php
A set of translated help files consists of these files:
help.abx
howto.abx
...
tags-ab
"ab" is the two-letter language code. Thus for Italian the names are:
help.itx
howto.itx
...
tags-it
The 'helplang' option can be set to the preferred language(s). The default is
set according to the environment. Vim will first try to find a matching tag
in the preferred language(s). English is used when it cannot be found.
To find a tag in a specific language, append "@ab" to a tag, where "ab" is the
two-letter language code. Example:
:he user-manual@it
:he user-manual@en
The first one finds the Italian user manual, even when 'helplang' is empty.
The second one finds the English user manual, even when 'helplang' is set to
"it".
When using command-line completion for the ":help" command, the "@en"
extension is only shown when a tag exists for multiple languages. When the
tag only exists for English "@en" is omitted. When the first candidate has an
"@ab" extension and it matches the first language in 'helplang' "@ab" is also
omitted.
When using CTRL-] or ":help!" in a non-English help file Vim will try to
find the tag in the same language. If not found then 'helplang' will be used
to select a language.
Help files must use latin1 or utf-8 encoding. Vim assumes the encoding is
utf-8 when finding non-ASCII characters in the first line. Thus you must
translate the header with "For Vim version".
The same encoding must be used for the help files of one language in one
directory. You can use a different encoding for different languages and use
a different encoding for help files of the same language but in a different
directory.
Hints for translators:
- Do not translate the tags. This makes it possible to use 'helplang' to
specify the preferred language. You may add new tags in your language.
- When you do not translate a part of a file, add tags to the English version,
using the "tag@en" notation.
- Make a package with all the files and the tags file available for download.
Users can drop it in one of the "doc" directories and start use it.
Report to the development team, so they can add a link on www.vim.org.
- Use the :helptags command to generate the tags files. It will find all
languages in the specified directory.
==============================================================================
3. Writing help files help-writing
For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the
standard Vim help files, except for the first line. If you are writing a new
help file it's best to copy one of the existing files and use it as a
template.
The first line in a help file should have the following format:
plugin_name.txt {short description of the plugin}
The first field is a help tag where ":help plugin_name" will jump to. The
remainder of the line, after a Tab, describes the plugin purpose in a short
way. This will show up in the "LOCAL ADDITIONS" section of the main help
file. Check there that it shows up properly: local-additions.
If you want to add a version number or last modification date, put it in the
second line, right aligned.
At the bottom of the help file, place a Vim modeline to set the 'textwidth'
and 'tabstop' options and the 'filetype' to "help". Never set a global option
in such a modeline, that can have undesired consequences.
TAGS
To define a help tag, place the name between asterisks (*tag-name*). The
tag-name should be different from all the Vim help tag names and ideally
should begin with the name of the Vim plugin. The tag name is usually right
aligned on a line.
When referring to an existing help tag and to create a hot-link, place the
name between two bars (|) eg. help-writing.
When referring to a Vim command and to create a hot-link, place the
name between two backticks, eg. inside :filetype. You will see this is
highlighted as a command, like a code block (see below).
When referring to a Vim option in the help file, place the option name between
two single quotes, eg. 'statusline'
HIGHLIGHTING
To define a column heading, use a tilde character at the end of the line.
This will highlight the column heading in a different color. E.g.
Column heading
To separate sections in a help file, place a series of '=' characters in a
line starting from the first column. The section separator line is highlighted
differently.
To quote a block of ex-commands verbatim, place a greater than (>) character
at the end of the line before the block and a less than (<) character as the
first non-blank on a line following the block. Any line starting in column 1
also implicitly stops the block of ex-commands before it. E.g.
function Example_Func()
echo "Example"
endfunction
The following are highlighted differently in a Vim help file:
- a special key name expressed either in <> notation as in <PageDown>, or
as a Ctrl character as in CTRL-X
- anything between {braces}, e.g. {lhs} and {rhs}
The word "Note", "Notes" and similar automagically receive distinctive
highlighting. So do these:
*Todo something to do
*Error something wrong
You can find the details in $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/help.vim
GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE
gender-neutral inclusion
Vim is for everybody, no matter race, gender or anything. For new or updated
help text, gender neutral language is recommended. Some of the help text is
many years old and there is no need to change it. We do not make any
assumptions about the gender of the user, no matter how the text is phrased.
The goal is that the reader understands how Vim works, the exact wording is
secondary.
Many online technical style guides include sections about gender neutral
language. Here are a few:
https://developers.google.com/style/pronouns
https://techwhirl.com/gender-neutral-technical-writing/
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/gender-neutral-language.html
https://ualr.edu/writingcenter/avoid-sexist-language/
Note: gender neutral language does not require using singular "they".
vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: