codekingpro/portable-devtools

1*usr_25.txt*	For Vim version 9.2.  Last change: 2026 Feb 142 3 4		     VIM USER MANUAL	by Bram Moolenaar5 6 7			     Editing formatted text8 9 10Text hardly ever comes in one sentence per line.  This chapter is about11breaking sentences to make them fit on a page and other formatting.12Vim also has useful features for editing single-line paragraphs and tables.13 14|25.1|	Breaking lines15|25.2|	Aligning text16|25.3|	Indents and tabs17|25.4|	Dealing with long lines18|25.5|	Editing tables19 20     Next chapter: |usr_26.txt|  Repeating21 Previous chapter: |usr_24.txt|  Inserting quickly22Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|23 24==============================================================================25*25.1*	Breaking lines26 27Vim has a number of functions that make dealing with text easier.  By default,28the editor does not perform automatic line breaks.  In other words, you have29to press <Enter> yourself.  This is useful when you are writing programs where30you want to decide where the line ends.  It is not so good when you are31creating documentation and want the text to be at most 70 character wide.32   If you set the 'textwidth' option, Vim automatically inserts line breaks.33Suppose, for example, that you want a very narrow column of only 3034characters.  You need to execute the following command: >35 36	:set textwidth=3037 38Now you start typing (ruler added):39 40		 1	   2	     341	1234567890123456789012345678901234542	I taught programming for a whi ~43 44If you type "l" next, this makes the line longer than the 30-character limit.45When Vim sees this, it inserts a line break and you get the following:46 47		 1	   2	     348	1234567890123456789012345678901234549	I taught programming for a ~50	whil ~51 52Continuing on, you can type in the rest of the paragraph:53 54		 1	   2	     355	1234567890123456789012345678901234556	I taught programming for a ~57	while. One time, I was stopped ~58	by the Fort Worth police, ~59	because my homework was too ~60	hard. True story. ~61 62You do not have to type newlines; Vim puts them in automatically.63 64	Note:65	The 'wrap' option makes Vim display lines with a line break, but this66	doesn't insert a line break in the file.67 68 69REFORMATTING70 71The Vim editor is not a word processor.  In a word processor, if you delete72something at the beginning of the paragraph, the line breaks are reworked.  In73Vim they are not; so if you delete the word "programming" from the first line,74all you get is a short line:75 76		 1	   2	     377	1234567890123456789012345678901234578	I taught for a ~79	while. One time, I was stopped ~80	by the Fort Worth police, ~81	because my homework was too ~82	hard. True story. ~83 84This does not look good.  To get the paragraph into shape you use the "gq"85operator.86   Let's first use this with a Visual selection.  Starting from the first87line, type: >88 89	v4jgq90 91"v" to start Visual mode, "4j" to move to the end of the paragraph and then92the "gq" operator.  The result is:93 94		 1	   2	     395	1234567890123456789012345678901234596	I taught for a while. One ~97	time, I was stopped by the ~98	Fort Worth police, because my ~99	homework was too hard. True ~100	story. ~101 102Note: there is a way to do automatic formatting for specific types of text103layouts, see |auto-format|.104 105Since "gq" is an operator, you can use one of the three ways to select the106text it works on: With Visual mode, with a movement and with a text object.107   The example above could also be done with "gq4j".  That's less typing, but108you have to know the line count.  A more useful motion command is "}".  This109moves to the end of a paragraph.  Thus "gq}" formats from the cursor to the110end of the current paragraph.111   A very useful text object to use with "gq" is the paragraph.  Try this: >112 113	gqap114 115"ap" stands for "a-paragraph".  This formats the text of one paragraph116(separated by empty lines).  Also the part before the cursor.117   If you have your paragraphs separated by empty lines, you can format the118whole file by typing this: >119 120	gggqG121 122"gg" to move to the first line, "gqG" to format until the last line.123   Warning: If your paragraphs are not properly separated, they will be joined124together.  A common mistake is to have a line with a space or tab.  That's a125blank line, but not an empty line.126 127Vim is able to format more than just plain text.  See |fo-table| for how to128change this.  See the 'joinspaces' option to change the number of spaces used129after a full stop.130   It is possible to use an external program for formatting.  This is useful131if your text can't be properly formatted with Vim's builtin command.  See the132'formatprg' option.133 134==============================================================================135*25.2*	Aligning text136 137To center a range of lines, use the following command: >138 139	:{range}center [width]140 141{range} is the usual command-line range.  [width] is an optional line width to142use for centering.  If [width] is not specified, it defaults to the value of143'textwidth'.  (If 'textwidth' is 0, the default is 80.)144   For example: >145 146	:1,5center 40147 148results in the following:149 150       I taught for a while. One ~151       time, I was stopped by the ~152     Fort Worth police, because my ~153      homework was too hard. True ~154		 story. ~155 156 157RIGHT ALIGNMENT158 159Similarly, the ":right" command right-justifies the text: >160 161	:1,5right 37162 163gives this result:164 165	    I taught for a while. One ~166	   time, I was stopped by the ~167	Fort Worth police, because my ~168	  homework was too hard. True ~169			       story. ~170 171LEFT ALIGNMENT172 173Finally there is this command: >174 175	:{range}left [margin]176 177Unlike ":center" and ":right", however, the argument to ":left" is not the178length of the line.  Instead it is the left margin.  If it is omitted, the179text will be put against the left side of the screen (using a zero margin180would do the same).  If it is 5, the text will be indented 5 spaces.  For181example, use these commands: >182 183	:1left 5184	:2,5left185 186This results in the following:187 188	     I taught for a while. One ~189	time, I was stopped by the ~190	Fort Worth police, because my ~191	homework was too hard. True ~192	story. ~193 194 195JUSTIFYING TEXT		*justify* *:Justify* *Justify()* *package-justify*196 197Vim has no built-in way of justifying text.  However, there is a neat macro198package that does the job.  To use this package, execute the following199command: >vim200 201	:packadd justify202 203Or put this line in your |vimrc|: >vim204 205	:packadd! justify206 207This Vim script file defines a new visual command "_j".  To justify a block of208text, highlight the text in Visual mode and then execute "_j".209   Look in the file for more explanations.  To go there, do "gf" on this name:210$VIMRUNTIME/pack/dist/opt/justify/plugin/justify.vim.211 212An alternative is to filter the text through an external program.  Example: >213 214	:%!fmt215 216==============================================================================217*25.3*	Indents and tabs218 219Indents can be used to make text stand out from the rest.  The example texts220in this manual, for example, are indented by eight columns.  You would221normally enter this by typing <Tab> at the start of each line.  Take this222text:223	the first line ~224	the second line ~225 226This is entered by typing <Tab>, some text, <Enter>, <Tab> and more text.227   The 'autoindent' option inserts indents automatically: >228 229	:set autoindent230 231When a new line is started it gets the same indent as the previous line.  In232the above example, pressing the <Tab> key after <Enter> is not needed anymore.233 234 235INCREASING INDENT236 237To increase the amount of indent in a line, use the ">" operator, in Normal238mode.  Often this is used as ">>", which adds indent to the current line.239In Insert mode, use <C-t>.240   The amount of indent added is specified with the 'shiftwidth' option.  The241default value is 8.  To make ">>" insert four columns worth of indent, for242example, type this: >243 244	:set shiftwidth=4245 246When used on the second line of the example text, this is what you get:247 248	the first line ~249	    the second line ~250 251"4>>" will increase the indent of four lines.252 253 254SOFT TAB STOPS255 256If you want to make indents a multiple of 4, you set 'shiftwidth' to 4.  But257when pressing a <Tab> you still get 8 columns worth of indent.  To change258this, set the 'softtabstop' option: >259 260	:set softtabstop=4261 262Vim now creates invisible tab stops for your cursor every 4 columns; hitting263<Tab> jumps to the next stop and inserts the exact mix of spaces or tabs264needed.265 266	Note:267	You could set the 'tabstop' option to 4.  However, if you edit the268	file another time, with 'tabstop' set to the default value of 8, it269	will look wrong.  In other programs and when printing the indent will270	also be wrong.  Therefore it is recommended to keep 'tabstop' at eight271	all the time.  That's the standard value everywhere on UNIX-like272	systems.273 274 275==============================================================================276*25.4*	Dealing with long lines277 278Sometimes you will be editing a file that is wider than the number of columns279in the window.  When that occurs, Vim wraps the lines so that everything fits280on the screen.281   If you switch the 'wrap' option off, each line in the file shows up as one282line on the screen.  Then the ends of the long lines disappear off the screen283to the right.284   When you move the cursor to a character that can't be seen, Vim will scroll285the text to show it.  This is like moving a viewport over the text in the286horizontal direction.287   By default, Vim does not display a horizontal scrollbar in the GUI.  If you288want to enable one, use the following command: >289 290	:set guioptions+=b291 292One horizontal scrollbar will appear at the bottom of the Vim window.293 294If you don't have a scrollbar or don't want to use it, use these commands to295scroll the text.  The cursor will stay in the same place, but it's moved back296into the visible text if necessary.297 298	zh		scroll right299	4zh		scroll four characters right300	zH		scroll half a window width right301	ze		scroll right to put the cursor at the end302	zl		scroll left303	4zl		scroll four characters left304	zL		scroll half a window width left305	zs		scroll left to put the cursor at the start306 307Let's attempt to show this with one line of text.  The cursor is on the "w" of308"which".  The "current window" above the line indicates the text that is309currently visible.  The "window"s below the text indicate the text that is310visible after the command left of it.311 312			      |<-- current window -->|313		some long text, part of which is visible in the window ~314	ze	  |<--	   window     -->|315	zH	   |<--     window     -->|316	4zh		  |<--	   window     -->|317	zh		     |<--     window	 -->|318	zl		       |<--	window	   -->|319	4zl			  |<--	   window     -->|320	zL				|<--	 window     -->|321	zs			       |<--	window	   -->|322 323 324MOVING WITH WRAP OFF325 326When 'wrap' is off and the text has scrolled horizontally, you can use the327following commands to move the cursor to a character you can see.  Thus text328left and right of the window is ignored.  These never cause the text to329scroll:330 331	g0		to first visible character in this line332	g^		to first non-blank visible character in this line333	gm		to middle of screen line334	gM		to middle of the text in this line335	g$		to last visible character in this line336 337		|<--	  window     -->|338	some long    text, part of which is visible in one line ~339		 g0  g^    gm	   gM g$340 341 342BREAKING AT WORDS				*edit-no-break*343 344When preparing text for use by another program, you might have to make345paragraphs without a line break.  A disadvantage of using 'nowrap' is that you346can't see the whole sentence you are working on.  When 'wrap' is on, words are347broken halfway, which makes them hard to read.348   A good solution for editing this kind of paragraph is setting the349'linebreak' option.  Vim then breaks lines at an appropriate place when350displaying the line.  The text in the file remains unchanged.351   Without 'linebreak' text might look like this:352 353	+---------------------------------+354	|letter generation program for a b|355	|ank.  They wanted to send out a s|356	|pecial, personalized letter to th|357	|eir richest 1000 customers.  Unfo|358	|rtunately for the programmer, he |359	+---------------------------------+360After: >361 362	:set linebreak363 364it looks like this:365 366	+---------------------------------+367	|letter generation program for a  |368	|bank.  They wanted to send out a |369	|special, personalized letter to  |370	|their richest 1000 customers.    |371	|Unfortunately for the programmer,|372	+---------------------------------+373 374Related options:375'breakat' specifies the characters where a break can be inserted.376'showbreak' specifies a string to show at the start of broken line.377Set 'textwidth' to zero to avoid a paragraph to be split.378 379 380MOVING BY VISIBLE LINES381 382The "j" and "k" commands move to the next and previous lines.  When used on383a long line, this means moving a lot of screen lines at once.384   To move only one screen line, use the "gj" and "gk" commands.  When a line385doesn't wrap they do the same as "j" and "k".  When the line does wrap, they386move to a character displayed one line below or above.387   You might like to use these mappings, which bind these movement commands to388the cursor keys: >389 390	:map <Up> gk391	:map <Down> gj392 393 394TURNING A PARAGRAPH INTO ONE LINE			*edit-paragraph-join*395 396If you want to import text into a program like MS-Word, each paragraph should397be a single line.  If your paragraphs are currently separated with empty398lines, this is how you turn each paragraph into a single line: >399 400	:g/./,/^$/join401 402That looks complicated.  Let's break it up in pieces:403 404	:g/./		A ":global" command that finds all lines that contain405			at least one character.406	     ,/^$/	A range, starting from the current line (the non-empty407			line) until an empty line.408		  join	The ":join" command joins the range of lines together409			into one line.410 411Starting with this text, containing eight lines broken at column 30:412 413	+----------------------------------+414	|A letter generation program	   |415	|for a bank.  They wanted to	   |416	|send out a special,		   |417	|personalized letter.		   |418	|				   |419	|To their richest 1000		   |420	|customers.  Unfortunately for	   |421	|the programmer,		   |422	+----------------------------------+423 424You end up with two lines:425 426	+----------------------------------+427	|A letter generation program for a |428	|bank.	They wanted to send out a s|429	|pecial, personalized letter.	   |430	|To their richest 1000 customers.  |431	|Unfortunately for the programmer, |432	+----------------------------------+433 434Note that this doesn't work when the separating line is blank but not empty;435when it contains spaces and/or tabs.  This command does work with blank lines:436>437	:g/\S/,/^\s*$/join438 439This still requires a blank or empty line at the end of the file for the last440paragraph to be joined.441 442==============================================================================443*25.5*	Editing tables444 445Suppose you are editing a table with four columns:446 447	nice table	  test 1	test 2	    test 3 ~448	input A		  0.534 ~449	input B		  0.913 ~450 451You need to enter numbers in the third column.  You could move to the second452line, use "A", enter a lot of spaces and type the text.453   For this kind of editing there is a special option: >454 455	set virtualedit=all456 457Now you can move the cursor to positions where there isn't any text.  This is458called "virtual space".  Editing a table is a lot easier this way.459   Move the cursor by searching for the header of the last column: >460 461	/test 3462 463Now press "j" and you are right where you can enter the value for "input A".464Typing "0.693" results in:465 466	nice table	  test 1     test 2	 test 3 ~467	input A		  0.534			 0.693 ~468	input B		  0.913 ~469 470Vim has automatically filled the gap in front of the new text for you.  Now,471to enter the next field in this column use "Bj".  "B" moves back to the start472of a white space separated word.  Then "j" moves to the place where the next473field can be entered.474 475	Note:476	You can move the cursor anywhere in the display, also beyond the end477	of a line.  But Vim will not insert spaces there, until you insert a478	character in that position.479 480 481COPYING A COLUMN482 483You want to add a column, which should be a copy of the third column and484placed before the "test 1" column.  Do this in seven steps:4851.  Move the cursor to the left upper corner of this column, e.g., with486    "/test 3".4872.  Press CTRL-V to start blockwise Visual mode.4883.  Move the cursor down two lines with "2j".  You are now in "virtual space":489    the "input B" line of the "test 3" column.4904.  Move the cursor right, to include the whole column in the selection, plus491    the space that you want between the columns.  "9l" should do it.4925.  Yank the selected rectangle with "y".4936.  Move the cursor to "test 1", where the new column must be placed.4947.  Press "P".495 496The result should be:497 498	nice table	  test 3    test 1     test 2	   test 3 ~499	input A		  0.693     0.534		   0.693 ~500	input B			    0.913 ~501 502Notice that the whole "test 1" column was shifted right, also the line where503the "test 3" column didn't have text.504 505Go back to non-virtual cursor movements with: >506 507	:set virtualedit=508 509 510VIRTUAL REPLACE MODE511 512The disadvantage of using 'virtualedit' is that it "feels" different.  You513can't recognize tabs or spaces beyond the end of line when moving the cursor514around.  Another method can be used: Virtual Replace mode.515   Suppose you have a line in a table that contains both tabs and other516characters.  Use "rx" on the first tab:517 518	inp	0.693   0.534	0.693 ~519 520	       |521	   rx  |522	       V523 524	inpx0.693   0.534	0.693 ~525 526The layout is messed up.  To avoid that, use the "gr" command:527 528	inp	0.693   0.534	0.693 ~529 530	       |531	  grx  |532	       V533 534	inpx	0.693   0.534	0.693 ~535 536What happens is that the "gr" command makes sure the new character takes the537right amount of screen space.  Extra spaces or tabs are inserted to fill the538gap.  Thus what actually happens is that a tab is replaced by "x" and then539blanks added to make the text after it keep its place.  In this case a540tab is inserted.541   When you need to replace more than one character, you use the "R" command542to go to Replace mode (see |04.9|).  This messes up the layout and replaces543the wrong characters:544 545	inp	0	0.534	0.693 ~546 547		|548	 R0.786 |549		V550 551	inp	0.78634	0.693 ~552 553The "gR" command uses Virtual Replace mode.  This preserves the layout:554 555	inp	0	0.534	0.693 ~556 557		|558	gR0.786 |559		V560 561	inp	0.786	0.534	0.693 ~562 563 564REFORMATTING TABS IN TABLES565 566You edit a file that contains tabular data and the original author of the file567decided to align the tabular data using tab characters (instead of spaces).568Alas, they were using tab stops separated by 4 columns and Vim's default569is 8 columns; the table looks wrong!  What can be done?570  To fix the appearance without modifying the file, adjust the setting571temporarily: >572 573	:set tabstop=4574 575This updates the visual layout, but the file itself remains unchanged.576  Another possibility is to permanently reformat the file.  For this Vim577provides the |:retab| command.  First, set 'tabstop' to match original layout578(as above), then run: >579 580	:retab 8581 582The ":retab" command will change 'tabstop' to 8, while changing the text such583that it looks the same.  It changes spans of white space into tabs and spaces584for this.  You can now write the file.585   Warning: When using ":retab" on a program, it may change white space inside586a string constant.  Therefore it's a good habit to use "\t" instead of a587real tab.588 589==============================================================================590 591Next chapter: |usr_26.txt|  Repeating592 593Copyright: see |manual-copyright|  vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:594