Watching Windows - Vim, Part 2

In a past article, I talked about getting Vim for Windows and using it for semi-scripted activities, and I've shared my Vim configuration. Another thing I find interesting about Vim is that you can open multiple windows in the same editor, either of the same file or of a different file. This comes in handy for multiple reasons, such as...

Opening Multiple Buffers

The first use is to open two files.  This can be done on the command-line with the -o (horizontally split windows) or -O (vertically split windows) argument:

gvim -O file1 file2

Or directly in Vim, with the :new command:

:new file2

Splitting Windows

Like Microsoft Office and other editors, Vim allows for multiple views of the same buffer.  It does this by supporting the split command:

:split

If you prefer to view windows side by side, then use the vertical split command:

:vsplit

Getting Around

If you're familiar with the typical Vim commands for getting around (hjkl), prepend a Ctrl-W to each to move between windows.  That is, to move to the next window to the left, down, up, or right, respectively, type:

Ctrl-w, h
Ctrl-w, j
Ctrl-w, k
Ctrl-w, l

If, on the other hand, you mean to move the windows themselves, then simply capitalize the motion direction, as follows:

Ctrl-w, H
Ctrl-w, J
Ctrl-w, K
Ctrl-w, L

If you want to shut everything else out except the window you are looking at, the underscore and pipe window commands will respectively do so in the vertical and horizontal directions:

Ctrl-w, _
Ctrl-w, |

To decrease or increase the size of a window in the vertical dimension, use the minus and plus window commands, respectively:

Ctrl-w, -
Ctrl-w, +

And to decrease or increase the size of a window in the horizontal dimension, use the less-than and greater-than window commands:

Ctrl-w, <
Ctrl-w, >

To bring everything back into equality, use the equals window command:

Ctrl-w, =

And for more about window commands, check out:

:help ctrl-w

Diffing

If you want to diff multiple files from the command-line, use the -d argument:

gvim -d file1 file2

The result will be a color-coded view highlighting the differences between files.

To view the differences of two or three files that have already been loaded in an existing session of Vim, use the :diffthis command in each applicable window:

:diffthis

And to turn off diffing,

:diffoff

So there it is.