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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-27 13:18:03 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-27 13:18:03 +0000
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Adding upstream version 2:8.2.2434.upstream/2%8.2.2434upstream
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+*gui_w32.txt* For Vim version 8.2. Last change: 2020 Mar 25
+
+
+ VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
+
+
+Vim's Win32 Graphical User Interface *gui-w32* *win32-gui*
+
+1. Starting the GUI |gui-w32-start|
+2. Vim as default editor |vim-default-editor|
+3. Using the clipboard |gui-clipboard|
+4. Shell Commands |gui-shell-win32|
+5. Special colors |win32-colors|
+6. Windows dialogs & browsers |gui-w32-dialogs|
+7. Command line arguments |gui-w32-cmdargs|
+8. Various |gui-w32-various|
+
+Other relevant documentation:
+|gui.txt| For generic items of the GUI.
+|os_win32.txt| For Win32 specific items.
+
+
+==============================================================================
+1. Starting the GUI *gui-w32-start*
+
+The Win32 GUI version of Vim will always start the GUI, no matter how you
+start it or what it's called.
+
+The GUI will always run in the Windows subsystem. Mostly shells automatically
+return with a command prompt after starting gvim. If not, you should use the
+"start" command: >
+ start gvim [options] file ..
+< *E988*
+The console version with the |-g| option may also start the GUI by executing
+gvim.exe: >
+ vim -g [options] file ..
+To make this work, gvim.exe must exist in the same directory as the vim.exe,
+and this feature must be enabled at compile time.
+
+One may also use `:gui` from the console version. However, this is an
+experimental feature and this feature must be enabled at compile time.
+It uses a session file to recreate the current state of the console Vim in the
+GUI Vim.
+
+Note: All fonts (bold, italic) must be of the same size!!! If you don't do
+this, text will disappear or mess up the display. Vim does not check the font
+sizes. It's the size in screen pixels that must be the same. Note that some
+fonts that have the same point size don't have the same pixel size!
+Additionally, the positioning of the fonts must be the same (ascent and
+descent).
+
+The Win32 GUI has an extra menu item: "Edit/Select Font". It brings up the
+standard Windows font selector.
+
+Setting the menu height doesn't work for the Win32 GUI.
+
+ *gui-win32-maximized*
+If you want Vim to start with a maximized window, add this command to your
+vimrc or gvimrc file: >
+ au GUIEnter * simalt ~x
+<
+
+Using Vim as a plugin *gui-w32-windowid*
+
+When gvim starts up normally, it creates its own top level window. If you
+pass Vim the command-line option |--windowid| with a decimal or hexadecimal
+value, Vim will create a window that is a child of the window with the given
+ID. This enables Vim to act as a plugin in another application. This really
+is a programmer's interface, and is of no use without a supporting application
+to spawn Vim correctly.
+
+==============================================================================
+2. Vim as default editor *vim-default-editor*
+
+To set Vim as the default editor for a file type:
+1. Start a Windows Explorer
+2. Choose View/Options -> File Types
+3. Select the path to gvim for every file type that you want to use it for.
+ (you can also use three spaces in the file type field, for files without an
+ extension).
+ In the "open" action, use: >
+ gvim "%1"
+< The quotes are required for using file names with embedded spaces.
+ You can also use this: >
+ gvim "%L"
+< This should avoid short (8.3 character) file names in some situations. But
+ I'm not sure if this works everywhere.
+
+When you open a file in Vim by double clicking it, Vim changes to that
+file's directory.
+
+If you want Vim to start full-screen, use this for the Open action: >
+ gvim -c "simalt ~x" "%1"
+
+Another method, which also works when you put Vim in another directory (e.g.,
+when you have got a new version):
+1. select a file you want to use Vim with
+2. <Shift-F10>
+3. select "Open With..." menu entry
+4. click "Other..."
+5. browse to the (new) location of Vim and click "Open"
+6. make "Always Use this program..." checked
+7. <OK>
+
+ *send-to-menu* *sendto*
+You can also install Vim in the "Send To" menu:
+1. Start a Windows Explorer
+2. Navigate to your sendto directory:
+ Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\%user%\SendTo
+ Windows Vista: C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo .
+3. Right-click in the file pane and select New->Shortcut
+4. Follow the shortcut wizard, using the full path to VIM/GVIM.
+
+When you 'send a file to Vim', Vim changes to that file's directory. Note,
+however, that any long directory names will appear in their short (MS-DOS)
+form on some Windows versions. This is a limitation of the Windows "Send To"
+mechanism.
+
+ *notepad*
+You could replace notepad.exe with gvim.exe, but that has a few side effects.
+Some programs rely on notepad arguments, which are not recognized by Vim. For
+example "notepad -p" is used by some applications to print a file. It's
+better to leave notepad where it is and use another way to start Vim.
+
+ *win32-popup-menu*
+A more drastic approach is to install an "Edit with Vim" entry in the popup
+menu for the right mouse button. With this you can edit any file with Vim.
+
+This can co-exist with the file associations mentioned above. The difference
+is that the file associations will make starting Vim the default action. With
+the "Edit with Vim" menu entry you can keep the existing file association for
+double clicking on the file, and edit the file with Vim when you want. For
+example, you can associate "*.mak" with your make program. You can execute
+the makefile by double clicking it and use the "Edit with Vim" entry to edit
+the makefile.
+
+You can select any files and right-click to see a menu option called "Edit
+with gvim". Choosing this menu option will invoke gvim with the file you have
+selected. If you select multiple files, you will find two gvim-related menu
+options:
+"Edit with multiple gvims" -- one gvim for each file in the selection
+"Edit with single gvim" -- one gvim for all the files in the selection
+And if there already is a gvim running:
+"Edit with existing gvim" -- edit the file with the running gvim
+
+The "edit with existing Vim" entries can be disabled by adding an entry in the
+registry under HKLM\Software\Vim\Gvim, named DisableEditWithExisting, and with
+any value.
+ *install-registry*
+You can add the "Edit with Vim" menu entry in an easy way by using the
+"install.exe" program. It will add several registry entries for you.
+
+You can also do this by hand. This is complicated! Use the install.exe if
+you can.
+
+1. Start the registry editor with "regedit".
+2. Add these keys:
+ key value name value ~
+ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}
+ {default} Vim Shell Extension
+ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}\InProcServer32
+ {default} {path}\gvimext.dll
+ ThreadingModel Apartment
+ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\gvim
+ {default} {51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}
+ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved
+ {51EEE242-AD87-11d3-9C1E-0090278BBD99}
+ Vim Shell Extension
+ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Vim\Gvim
+ path {path}\gvim.exe
+ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\vim 8.2
+ DisplayName Vim 8.2: Edit with Vim popup menu entry
+ UninstallString {path}\uninstall.exe
+
+ Replace {path} with the path that leads to the executable.
+ Don't type {default}, this is the value for the key itself.
+
+To remove "Edit with Vim" from the popup menu, just remove the registry
+entries mentioned above. The "uninstall.exe" program can do this for you.
+You can also use the entry in the Windows standard "Add/Remove Programs" list.
+
+If you notice that this entry overrules other file type associations, set
+those associations again by hand (using Windows Explorer, see above). This
+only seems to happen on some Windows NT versions (Windows bug?). Procedure:
+1. Find the name of the file type. This can be done by starting the registry
+ editor, and searching for the extension in \\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
+2. In a Windows Explorer, use View/Options/File Types. Search for the file
+ type in the list and click "Edit". In the actions list, you can select on
+ to be used as the default (normally the "open" action) and click on the
+ "Set Default" button.
+
+
+Vim in the "Open With..." context menu *win32-open-with-menu*
+
+If you use the Vim install program you have the choice to add Vim to the "Open
+With..." menu. This means you can use Vim to edit many files. Not every file
+(for unclear reasons...), thus the "Edit with Vim" menu entry is still useful.
+
+One reason to add this is to be able to edit HTML files directly from Internet
+Explorer. To enable this use the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options..." entry.
+In the dialog select the "Programs" tab and select Vim in the "HTML editor"
+choice. If it's not there then installing didn't work properly.
+
+Doing this manually can be done with this script:
+
+----------------------------------------------------------
+REGEDIT4
+
+[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe]
+
+[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe\shell]
+
+[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe\shell\edit]
+
+[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gvim.exe\shell\edit\command]
+@="c:\\vim\\vim82\\gvim.exe \"%1\""
+
+[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\gvim.exe]
+
+[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\OpenWithList\gvim.exe]
+
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
+Change the "c:\\vim\\vim82" bit to where gvim.exe is actually located.
+
+To uninstall this run the Vim uninstall program or manually delete the
+registry entries with "regedit".
+
+==============================================================================
+3. Using the clipboard *gui-clipboard*
+
+Windows has a clipboard, where you can copy text to, and paste text from. Vim
+supports this in several ways. For other systems see |gui-selections|.
+
+The "* register reflects the contents of the clipboard. |quotestar|
+
+When the "unnamed" string is included in the 'clipboard' option, the unnamed
+register is the same. Thus you can yank to and paste from the clipboard
+without prepending "* to commands.
+
+The 'a' flag in 'guioptions' is not included by default. This means that text
+is only put on the clipboard when an operation is performed on it. Just
+Visually selecting text doesn't put it on the clipboard. When the 'a' flag is
+included, the text is copied to the clipboard even when it is not operated
+upon.
+
+ *mswin.vim*
+To use the standard MS-Windows way of CTRL-X, CTRL-C and CTRL-V, use the
+$VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim script. You could add this line to your _vimrc file: >
+ source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim
+
+Since CTRL-C is used to copy the text to the clipboard, it can't be used to
+cancel an operation. Use CTRL-Break for that.
+
+CTRL-Z is used for undo. This means you can't suspend Vim with this key, use
+|:suspend| instead (if it's supported at all).
+
+ *CTRL-V-alternative* *CTRL-Q*
+Since CTRL-V is used to paste, you can't use it to start a blockwise Visual
+selection. You can use CTRL-Q instead. You can also use CTRL-Q in Insert
+mode and Command-line mode to get the old meaning of CTRL-V. But CTRL-Q
+doesn't work for terminals when it's used for control flow.
+
+NOTE: The clipboard support still has a number of bugs. See |todo|.
+
+==============================================================================
+4. Shell Commands *gui-shell-win32*
+
+Vim uses another window for external commands, to make it possible to run any
+command. The external command gets its own environment for running, just like
+it was started from a DOS prompt.
+
+ *win32-vimrun*
+Executing an external command is done indirectly by the "vimrun" command. The
+"vimrun.exe" must be in the path for this to work. Or it must be in the same
+directory as the Vim executable. If "vimrun" cannot be found, the command is
+executed directly, but then the DOS window closes immediately after the
+external command has finished.
+WARNING: If you close this window with the "X" button, and confirm the
+question if you really want to kill the application, Vim may be killed too!
+(This does not apply to commands run asynchronously with ":!start".)
+
+The window in which the commands are executed will be the default you have set
+up for "Console" in Control Panel.
+
+ *win32-!start*
+Normally, Vim waits for a command to complete before continuing (this makes
+sense for most shell commands which produce output for Vim to use). If you
+want Vim to start a program and return immediately, you can use the following
+syntax: >
+ :!start [/min] {command}
+The optional "/min" causes the window to be minimized.
+
+==============================================================================
+5. Special colors *win32-colors*
+
+On Win32, the normal DOS colors can be used. See |dos-colors|.
+
+Additionally the system configured colors can also be used. These are known
+by the names Sys_XXX, where XXX is the appropriate system color name, from the
+following list (see the Win32 documentation for full descriptions). Case is
+ignored.
+
+Sys_3DDKShadow Sys_3DFace Sys_BTNFace
+Sys_3DHilight Sys_3DHighlight Sys_BTNHilight
+Sys_BTNHighlight Sys_3DLight Sys_3DShadow
+Sys_BTNShadow Sys_ActiveBorder Sys_ActiveCaption
+Sys_AppWorkspace Sys_Background Sys_Desktop
+Sys_BTNText Sys_CaptionText Sys_GrayText
+Sys_Highlight Sys_HighlightText Sys_InactiveBorder
+Sys_InactiveCaption Sys_InactiveCaptionText Sys_InfoBK
+Sys_InfoText Sys_Menu Sys_MenuText
+Sys_ScrollBar Sys_Window Sys_WindowFrame
+Sys_WindowText
+
+Probably the most useful values are
+ Sys_Window Normal window background
+ Sys_WindowText Normal window text
+ Sys_Highlight Highlighted background
+ Sys_HighlightText Highlighted text
+
+These extra colors are also available:
+Gray, Grey, LightYellow, SeaGreen, Orange, Purple, SlateBlue, Violet,
+
+ *rgb.txt*
+Additionally, colors defined by a "rgb.txt" file can be used. This file is
+well known from X11. A few lines from it: >
+
+ 255 218 185 peach puff
+ 205 133 63 peru
+ 255 181 197 pink
+
+This shows the layout of the file: First the R, G and B value as a decimal
+number, followed by the name of the color. The four fields are separated by
+spaces.
+
+You can get an rgb.txt file from any X11 distribution. It is located in a
+directory like "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/". For Vim it must be located in the
+$VIMRUNTIME directory. Thus the file can be found with "$VIMRUNTIME/rgb.txt".
+
+==============================================================================
+ *gui-w32-dialogs* *dialog*
+6. Windows dialogs & browsers
+
+The Win32 GUI can use familiar Windows components for some operations, as well
+as the traditional interface shared with the console version.
+
+
+6.1 Dialogs
+
+The dialogs displayed by the "confirm" family (i.e. the 'confirm' option,
+|:confirm| command and |confirm()| function) are GUI-based rather than the
+console-based ones used by other versions. The 'c' flag in 'guioptions'
+changes this.
+
+
+6.2 File Browsers
+
+When prepending ":browse" before file editing commands, a file requester is
+used to allow you to select an existing file. See |:browse|.
+
+
+6.3 Tearoff Menus
+
+The Win32 GUI emulates Motif's tear-off menus. At the top of each menu you
+will see a small graphic "rip here" sign. Selecting it will cause a floating
+window to be created with the same menu entries on it. The floating menu can
+then be accessed just as if it was the original (including sub-menus), but
+without having to go to the menu bar each time.
+This is most useful if you find yourself using a command buried in a sub-menu
+over and over again.
+The tearoff menus can be positioned where you like, and always stay just above
+the Main Vim window. You can get rid of them by closing them as usual; they
+also of course close when you exit Vim.
+
+ *:tearoff* *:te*
+:te[aroff] {name} Tear-off the menu {name}. The menu named must have at
+ least one subentry, but need not appear on the
+ menu-bar (see |win32-hidden-menus|).
+
+Example: >
+ :tearoff File
+will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear as a tearoff menu. >
+
+ :amenu ]Toolbar.Make :make<CR>
+ :tearoff ]Toolbar
+This creates a floating menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar.
+
+Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed.
+
+==============================================================================
+7. Command line arguments *gui-w32-cmdargs*
+
+Command line arguments behave the same way as with the console application,
+see |win32-cmdargs|.
+
+==============================================================================
+8. Various *gui-w32-various*
+
+ *gui-w32-printing*
+The "File/Print" menu prints the text with syntax highlighting, see
+|:hardcopy|. If you just want to print the raw text and have a default
+printer installed this should also work: >
+ :w >>prn
+
+Vim supports a number of standard MS Windows features. Some of these are
+detailed elsewhere: see |'mouse'|, |win32-hidden-menus|.
+
+ *drag-n-drop-win32*
+You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will
+be opened as normal. See |drag-n-drop|.
+
+ *:simalt* *:sim*
+:sim[alt] {key} simulate pressing {key} while holding Alt pressed.
+ {only for Win32 versions}
+ Note: ":si" means ":s" with the "i" flag.
+
+Normally, Vim takes control of all Alt-<Key> combinations, to increase the
+number of possible mappings. This clashes with the standard use of Alt as the
+key for accessing menus.
+The quick way of getting standard behavior is to set the 'winaltkeys' option
+to "yes". This however prevents you from mapping Alt keys at all.
+Another way is to set 'winaltkeys' to "menu". Menu shortcut keys are then
+handled by windows, other ALT keys can be mapped. This doesn't allow a
+dependency on the current state though.
+To get round this, the :simalt command allows Vim (when 'winaltkeys' is not
+"yes") to fake a Windows-style Alt keypress. You can use this to map Alt key
+combinations (or anything else for that matter) to produce standard Windows
+actions. Here are some examples: >
+
+ :map <M-f> :simalt f<CR>
+This makes Alt-F pop down the 'File' menu (with the stock Menu.vim) by
+simulating the keystrokes Alt, F. >
+ :map <M-Space> :simalt ~<CR>
+This maps Alt-Space to pop down the system menu for the Vim window. Note that
+~ is used by simalt to represent the <Space> character. >
+ :map <C-n> :simalt ~n<CR>
+Maps Control-N to produce the keys Alt-Space followed by N. This minimizes the
+Vim window via the system menu.
+
+Note that the key changes depending on the language you are using.
+
+ *intellimouse-wheel-problems*
+When using the Intellimouse mouse wheel causes Vim to stop accepting input, go
+to:
+ ControlPanel - Mouse - Wheel - UniversalScrolling - Exceptions
+
+And add gvim to the list of applications. This problem only appears to happen
+with the Intellimouse driver 2.2 and when "Universal Scrolling" is turned on.
+
+
+XPM support *w32-xpm-support*
+
+GVim can be built on MS-Windows with support for XPM files. |+xpm_w32|
+See the Make_mvc.mak file for instructions, search for XPM.
+
+To try out if XPM support works do this: >
+ :help
+ :let runtime = escape($VIMRUNTIME, ' \')
+ :exe 'sign define vimxpm icon=' .. runtime .. '\\vim16x16.xpm'
+ :exe 'sign place 1 line=1 name=vimxpm file=' .. expand('%:p')
+<
+You may need to get the vim16x16.xpm file from github:
+https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/vim16x16.xpm
+
+
+ vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: