path: root/runtime/doc/gui.txt

*gui.txt*       For Vim version 9.1.  Last change: 2023 Apr 29


		  VIM REFERENCE MANUAL    by Bram Moolenaar


Vim's Graphical User Interface				*gui* *GUI*

1. Starting the GUI		|gui-start|
2. Scrollbars			|gui-scrollbars|
3. Mouse Control		|gui-mouse|
4. Making GUI Selections	|gui-selections|
5. Menus			|menus|
6. Font				|gui-font|
7. Extras			|gui-extras|
8. Shell Commands		|gui-shell|

Other GUI documentation:
|gui_x11.txt|	For specific items of the X11 GUI.
|gui_w32.txt|	For specific items of the Win32 GUI.


==============================================================================
1. Starting the GUI				*gui-start* *E229* *E233*

First you must make sure you actually have a version of Vim with the GUI code
included.  You can check this with the ":version" command, it says "with xxx
GUI", where "xxx" is X11-Motif, Photon, GTK2, GTK3, etc., or
"MS-Windows 32 bit GUI version".

How to start the GUI depends on the system used.  Mostly you can run the
GUI version of Vim with:
    gvim [options] [files...]

The X11 version of Vim can run both in GUI and in non-GUI mode.  See
|gui-x11-start|.

			*gui-init* *gvimrc* *.gvimrc* *_gvimrc* *$MYGVIMRC*
The gvimrc file is where GUI-specific startup commands should be placed.  It
is always sourced after the |vimrc| file.  If you have one then the $MYGVIMRC
environment variable has its name.

When the GUI starts up initializations are carried out, in this order:
- The 'term' option is set to "builtin_gui" and terminal options are reset to
  their default value for the GUI |terminal-options|.
- If the system menu file exists, it is sourced.  The name of this file is
  normally "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim".  You can check this with ":version".  Also
  see |$VIMRUNTIME|.  To skip loading the system menu include 'M' in
  'guioptions'.				*buffers-menu* *no_buffers_menu*
  The system menu file includes a "Buffers" menu.  If you don't want this, set
  the "no_buffers_menu" variable in your .vimrc (not .gvimrc!): >
	:let no_buffers_menu = 1
< NOTE: Switching on syntax highlighting also loads the menu file, thus
  disabling the Buffers menu must be done before ":syntax on".
  The path names are truncated to 35 characters.  You can truncate them at a
  different length, for example 50, like this: >
	:let bmenu_max_pathlen = 50
- If the "-U {gvimrc}" command-line option has been used when starting Vim,
  the {gvimrc} file will be read for initializations.  The following
  initializations are skipped.  When {gvimrc} is "NONE" no file will be read
  for initializations.
- For Unix and MS-Windows, if the system gvimrc exists, it is sourced.  The
  name of this file is normally "$VIM/gvimrc".  You can check this with
  ":version".  Also see |$VIM|.
- The following are tried, and only the first one that exists is used:
  - If the GVIMINIT environment variable exists and is not empty, it is
    executed as an Ex command.
  - If the user gvimrc file exists, it is sourced.  The name of this file is
    normally "$HOME/.gvimrc".  You can check this with ":version".
  - For Win32, $HOME is set by Vim if needed, see |$HOME-windows|.
  - When a "_gvimrc" file is not found, ".gvimrc" is tried too.  And vice
    versa.
  The name of the first file found is stored in $MYGVIMRC, unless it was
  already set.
- If the 'exrc' option is set (which is NOT the default) the file ./.gvimrc
  is sourced, if it exists and isn't the same file as the system or user
  gvimrc file.  If this file is not owned by you, some security restrictions
  apply.  When ".gvimrc" is not found, "_gvimrc" is tried too.  For Macintosh
  and DOS/Win32 "_gvimrc" is tried first.

NOTE: All but the first one are not carried out if Vim was started with
"-u NONE" or "-u DEFAULTS" and no "-U" argument was given, or when started
with "-U NONE".

All this happens AFTER the normal Vim initializations, like reading your
.vimrc file.  See |initialization|.
But the GUI window is only opened after all the initializations have been
carried out.  If you want some commands to be executed just after opening the
GUI window, use the |GUIEnter| autocommand event.  Example: >
	:autocmd GUIEnter * winpos 100 50

You can use the gvimrc files to set up your own customized menus (see |:menu|)
and initialize other things that you may want to set up differently from the
terminal version.

Recommended place for your personal GUI initializations:
	Unix		    $HOME/.gvimrc or $HOME/.vim/gvimrc
	Win32		    $HOME/_gvimrc, $HOME/vimfiles/gvimrc
			    or $VIM/_gvimrc
	Amiga		    s:.gvimrc, home:.gvimrc, home:vimfiles:gvimrc
			    or $VIM/.gvimrc
	Haiku		    $HOME/config/settings/vim/gvimrc

The personal initialization files are searched in the order specified above
and only the first one that is found is read.

There are a number of options which only have meaning in the GUI version of
Vim.  These are 'guicursor', 'guifont', 'guipty' and 'guioptions'.  They are
documented in |options.txt| with all the other options.

If using the Motif version of the GUI (but not for the GTK+ or
Win32 version), a number of X resources are available.  See |gui-resources|.

Another way to set the colors for different occasions is with highlight
groups.  The "Normal" group is used to set the background and foreground
colors.  Example (which looks nice): >

	:highlight Normal guibg=grey90

The "guibg" and "guifg" settings override the normal background and
foreground settings.  The other settings for the Normal highlight group are
not used.  Use the 'guifont' option to set the font.

Also check out the 'guicursor' option, to set the colors for the cursor in
various modes.

Vim tries to make the window fit on the screen when it starts up.  This avoids
that you can't see part of it.  On the X Window System this requires a bit of
guesswork.  You can change the height that is used for the window title and a
task bar with the 'guiheadroom' option.

						*:winp* *:winpos* *E188*
:winp[os]
		Display current position of the top left corner of the GUI vim
		window in pixels.  Does not work in all versions.
		Also see |getwinpos()|, |getwinposx()| and |getwinposy()|.

:winp[os] {X} {Y}							*E466*
		Put the GUI vim window at the given {X} and {Y} coordinates.
		The coordinates should specify the position in pixels of the
		top left corner of the window.  Does not work in all versions.
		Does work in an (new) xterm |xterm-color|.
		When the GUI window has not been opened yet, the values are
		remembered until the window is opened.  The position is
		adjusted to make the window fit on the screen (if possible).

					    *:wi* *:win* *:winsize* *E465*
:win[size] {width} {height}
		Set the window height to {width} by {height} characters.
		It is recommended to use `:set lines=11 columns=22` instead,
		since it's easy to see what the numbers mean.
		If you get less lines than expected, check the 'guiheadroom'
		option.

If you are running the X Window System, you can get information about the
window Vim is running in with these commands: >
	:!xwininfo -id $WINDOWID
	:!xprop -id $WINDOWID
	:execute '!xwininfo -id ' .. v:windowid
	:execute '!xprop -id ' .. v:windowid
<
							*gui-IME* *iBus*
Input methods for international characters in X that rely on the XIM
framework, most notably iBus, have been known to produce undesirable results
in gvim. These may include an inability to enter spaces, or long delays
between typing a character and it being recognized by the application.

One workaround that has been successful, for unknown reasons, is to prevent
gvim from forking into the background by starting it with the |-f| argument.

==============================================================================
2. Scrollbars						*gui-scrollbars*

There are vertical scrollbars and a horizontal scrollbar.  You may
configure which ones appear with the 'guioptions' option.

The interface looks like this (with ":set guioptions=mlrb"):

		       +------------------------------+ `
		       | File  Edit		 Help | <- Menu bar (m) `
		       +-+--------------------------+-+ `
		       |^|			    |^| `
		       |#| Text area.		    |#| `
		       | |			    | | `
		       |v|__________________________|v| `
 Normal status line -> |-+ File.c	       5,2  +-| `
 between Vim windows   |^|""""""""""""""""""""""""""|^| `
		       | |			    | | `
		       | | Another file buffer.     | | `
		       | |			    | | `
		       |#|			    |#| `
 Left scrollbar (l) -> |#|			    |#| <- Right `
		       |#|			    |#|    scrollbar (r) `
		       | |			    | | `
		       |v|			    |v| `
		       +-+--------------------------+-+ `
		       | |< ####		   >| | <- Bottom `
		       +-+--------------------------+-+    scrollbar (b) `

Any of the scrollbar or menu components may be turned off by not putting the
appropriate letter in the 'guioptions' string.  The bottom scrollbar is
only useful when 'nowrap' is set.


VERTICAL SCROLLBARS					*gui-vert-scroll*

Each Vim window has a scrollbar next to it which may be scrolled up and down
to move through the text in that buffer.  The size of the scrollbar-thumb
indicates the fraction of the buffer which can be seen in the window.
When the scrollbar is dragged all the way down, the last line of the file
will appear in the top of the window.

If a window is shrunk to zero height (by the growth of another window) its
scrollbar disappears.  It reappears when the window is restored.

If a window is vertically split, it will get a scrollbar when it is the
current window and when, taking the middle of the current window and drawing a
vertical line, this line goes through the window.
When there are scrollbars on both sides, and the middle of the current window
is on the left half, the right scrollbar column will contain scrollbars for
the rightmost windows.  The same happens on the other side.


HORIZONTAL SCROLLBARS					*gui-horiz-scroll*

The horizontal scrollbar (at the bottom of the Vim GUI) may be used to
scroll text sideways when the 'wrap' option is turned off.  The
scrollbar-thumb size is such that the text of the longest visible line may be
scrolled as far as possible left and right.  The cursor is moved when
necessary, it must remain on a visible character (unless 'virtualedit' is
set).

Computing the length of the longest visible line takes quite a bit of
computation, and it has to be done every time something changes.  If this
takes too much time or you don't like the cursor jumping to another line,
include the 'h' flag in 'guioptions'.  Then the scrolling is limited by the
text of the current cursor line.

							*motif-intellimouse*
If you have an Intellimouse and an X server that supports using the wheel,
then you can use the wheel to scroll the text up and down in gvim.  This works
with XFree86 4.0 and later, and with some older versions when you add patches.
See |scroll-mouse-wheel|.

For older versions of XFree86 you must patch your X server.  The following
page has a bit of information about using the Intellimouse on Linux as well as
links to the patches and X server binaries (may not have the one you need
though):
    http://www.inria.fr/koala/colas/mouse-wheel-scroll/

==============================================================================
3. Mouse Control					*gui-mouse*

The mouse only works if the appropriate flag in the 'mouse' option is set.
When the GUI is switched on, and 'mouse' wasn't set yet, the 'mouse' option is
automatically set to "a", enabling it for all modes except for the
|hit-enter| prompt.  If you don't want this, a good place to change the
'mouse' option is the "gvimrc" file.

Other options that are relevant:
'mousefocus'	window focus follows mouse pointer |gui-mouse-focus|
'mousemodel'	what mouse button does which action
'mousehide'	hide mouse pointer while typing text
'mousemoveevent' enable mouse move events so that <MouseMove> can be mapped
'selectmode'	whether to start Select mode or Visual mode

A quick way to set these is with the ":behave" command.
							*:behave* *:be*
:be[have] {model}	Set behavior for mouse and selection.  Valid
			arguments are:
			   mswin	MS-Windows behavior
			   xterm	Xterm behavior

			Using ":behave" changes these options:
			option		mswin			xterm	~
			'selectmode'	"mouse,key"		""
			'mousemodel'	"popup"			"extend"
			'keymodel'	"startsel,stopsel"	""
			'selection'	"exclusive"		"inclusive"

In the $VIMRUNTIME directory, there is a script called |mswin.vim|, which will
also map a few keys to the MS-Windows cut/copy/paste commands.  This is NOT
compatible, since it uses the CTRL-V, CTRL-X and CTRL-C keys.  If you don't
mind, use this command: >
	:so $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.