Most of us are Vim users and have tweaked our favorite editor for speed and convenience. See thoughtbot’s dotfiles.
One of my favorite tools is the window split. Here is a quick splits overview and configurations to use them more effectively.
The basics
Create a vertical split using :vsp and horizontal with :sp.
By default, they duplicate the current buffer. This command also takes a filename:
:vsp ~/.vimrc
You can specify the new split height by prefixing with a number:
:10sp ~/.zshrc
Close the split like you would close vim:
:q
Easier split navigations
We can use different key mappings for easy navigation between splits to save a
keystroke. So instead of ctrl-w then j, it’s just ctrl-j:
nnoremap <C-J> <C-W><C-J>
nnoremap <C-K> <C-W><C-K>
nnoremap <C-L> <C-W><C-L>
nnoremap <C-H> <C-W><C-H>
More natural split opening
Open new split panes to right and bottom, which feels more natural than Vim’s default:
set splitbelow
set splitright
Resizing splits
Vim’s defaults are useful for changing split shapes:
"Max out the height of the current split
ctrl + w _
"Max out the width of the current split
ctrl + w |
"Normalize all split sizes, which is very handy when resizing terminal
ctrl + w =
More split manipulation
"Swap top/bottom or left/right split
Ctrl+W R
"Break out current window into a new tabview
Ctrl+W T
"Close every window in the current tabview but the current one
Ctrl+W o
Please :help me
As with everything in Vim, for more information, check the well-written
helpfiles. In Vim, :help splits.
What’s next
If you found this useful, you might also enjoy:
- Navigating Ruby Files in Vim
- Vim, You Complete Me (tab completion)
- Running Specs From Vim