:h helphelp.txt

helphelp.txt For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2014 Sep 19LINK

VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar

Help on help files helphelpLINK

1. Help commands online-help

2. Translated help files help-translated

3. Writing help files help-writing

==============================================================================

1. Help commands online-helpLINK

help <Help> :h :help <F1> i_<F1> i_<Help>LINK

<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.

{not in Vi}

{subject} E149 E661LINK

:h[elp] {subject} Like ":help", additionally jump to the tag {subject}.

{subject} can include wildcards like "*", "?" and

"[a-z]":

:help z? jump to help for any "z" command

:help z. jump to the help for "z."

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

To use a regexp pattern, 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| :tse z.

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.

This 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 <LF> or <CR> to separate the help

command from a following command. You need to type

CTRL-V first to insert the <LF> or <CR>. Example:

:help so<C-V><CR>only

{not in Vi}

: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 :helpcloseLINK

:helpc[lose] Close one help window, if there is one.

:helpg :helpgrepLINK

: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).

{not in Vi}

:lh :lhelpgrepLINK

: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.

:exu :exusageLINK

:exu[sage] Show help on Ex commands. Added to simulate the Nvi

command. {not in Vi}

:viu :viusageLINK

:viu[sage] Show help on Normal mode commands. Added to simulate

the Nvi command. {not in Vi}

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.

The initial height of the help window can be set with the 'helpheight' option

(default 20).

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-windowLINK

If you want to have the help in another xterm window, you could use this

command:

:!xterm -e vim +help &

:helpfind :helpfLINK

: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}

{not in Vi}

:helpt :helptagsLINK

E154 E150 E151 E152 E153 E670LINK

:helpt[ags] [++t] {dir}

Generate the help tags file(s) for directory {dir}.

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

{not in Vi}

==============================================================================

2. Translated help files help-translatedLINK

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 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 this to Bram, so that he 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-writingLINK

For ease of use, a Vim help file for a plugin should follow the format of the

standard Vim help files. 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:

helpfile_name.txt For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2010 June 4LINK

The first field is a link to the help file name. The second field describes

the applicable Vim version. The last field specifies the last modification

date of the file. Each field is separated by a tab.

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 consequences undesired by whoever reads that

help.