Opening Windows
This section goes into depth about how to get the precise behavior you want when you split your window.
New Windows
As discussed previously, the simplest way to open a new window
is to issue :split
(for a
horizontal division) or :vsplit
(for a vertical division). A more in-depth discussion of the many
commands and variations follows. We also include a command synopsis
for quick reference.
Options During Splits
The full :split
command to
open a new horizontal window is:
:[n
]split [++opt
] [+cmd
] [file
]
where:
- n
Tells Vim how many lines to display in the new window, which goes at the top.
- opt
Passes Vim option information to the new window session (note that it must be preceded by two plus signs).
- cmd
Passes a command for execution in the new window (note that it must be preceded by a single plus sign).
- file
Specifies a file to edit in the new window.
For example, suppose you are editing a file and want to split
the window to edit another file named otherfile. You want to ensure that the
session uses a fileformat
of
unix
(which ensures the use of a
line feed to end each line instead of a carriage return and line
feed combination). Finally, you want the window to be 15 lines tall.
Enter:
:15split ++fileformat=unix otherfile
To simply split the screen, showing the same file in both
windows and using all the current defaults, you can use the key
commands ^Ws
,
^WS
, or ^W^S
.
Tip
If you want windows to always split equally, set the
equalalways
option, preferably
putting it in your .vimrc to ...
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