Gui

Nvim :help pages, generated from source using the tree-sitter-vimdoc parser.

Nvim Graphical User Interface GUI

Any client that supports the Nvim ui-protocol can be used as a UI for Nvim. And multiple UIs can connect to the same Nvim instance! The terms "UI" and "GUI" are often used interchangeably because all Nvim UI clients have the same potential capabilities; the "TUI" refers to a UI client that outputs to your terminal, whereas a "GUI" outputs directly to the OS graphics system.

Except where noted, this document describes UI capabilities available to both TUI and GUI (assuming the UI supports the given feature). See TUI for notes specific to the terminal UI. Help tags with the "gui-" prefix refer to UI features, whereas help tags with the "ui-" prefix refer to the ui-protocol.

Nvim provides a default, builtin UI (the TUI), but there are many other (third-party) GUIs that you can use instead:

Firenvim (Nvim in your web browser!) https://github.com/glacambre/firenvim

vscode-neovim (Nvim in VSCode!) https://github.com/vscode-neovim/vscode-neovim

Neovide https://neovide.dev/

Goneovim https://github.com/akiyosi/goneovim

Nvy https://github.com/RMichelsen/Nvy

Neovim-Qt (Qt5) https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt

VimR (macOS) https://github.com/qvacua/vimr

Others https://github.com/neovim/neovim/wiki/Related-projects#gui

Starting the GUI gui-config gui-start

ginit.vim gui-init gvimrc $MYGVIMRC For GUI-specific configuration Nvim provides the UIEnter event. This happens after other initializations, or whenever a UI attaches (multiple UIs can connect to any Nvim instance).

Example: this sets "g:gui" to the value of the UI's "rgb" field:

:autocmd UIEnter * let g:gui = filter(nvim_list_uis(),{k,v-> v.chan==v:event.chan})[0].rgb

: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. 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. Obsolete, use ":set lines=11 columns=22".

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.

Drag and drop drag-n-drop

You can drag and drop one or more files into the Vim window, where they will be opened as if a :drop command was used.

If you hold down Shift while doing this, Vim changes to the first dropped file's directory. If you hold Ctrl Vim will always split a new window for the file. Otherwise it's only done if the current buffer has been changed.

You can also drop a directory on Vim. This starts the explorer plugin for that directory (assuming it was enabled, otherwise you'll get an error message). Keep Shift pressed to change to the directory instead.

If Vim happens to be editing a command line, the names of the dropped files and directories will be inserted at the cursor. This allows you to use these names with any Ex command. Special characters (space, tab, double quote and "|"; backslash on non-MS-Windows systems) will be escaped.

Menus menus

For an introduction see usr_42.txt in the user manual.

Using Menus using-menus

Basically, menus can be used just like mappings. You can define your own menus, as many as you like. Long-time Vim users won't use menus much. But the power is in adding your own menus and menu items. They are most useful for things that you can't remember what the key sequence was.

For creating menus in a different language, see :menutrans. If you don't want to use menus at all, see 'go-M'.

The default menus are read from the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". See $VIMRUNTIME for where the path comes from. You can set up your own menus. Starting off with the default set is a good idea. You can add more items, or, if you don't like the defaults at all, start with removing all menus :unmenu-all. You can also avoid the default menus being loaded by adding this line to your vimrc file (NOT your gvimrc file!):

:let did_install_default_menus = 1

If you also want to avoid the Syntax menu:

:let did_install_syntax_menu = 1

The first item in the Syntax menu can be used to show all available filetypes in the menu (which can take a bit of time to load). If you want to have all filetypes already present at startup, add:

:let do_syntax_sel_menu = 1

Note that the menu.vim is sourced when :syntax on or :filetype on is executed or after your .vimrc file is sourced. This means that the 'encoding' option and the language of messages (:language messages) must be set before that (if you want to change them).

console-menus Although this documentation is in the GUI section, you can actually use menus in console mode too. You will have to load menu.vim explicitly then, it is not done by default. You can use the :emenu command and command-line completion with 'wildmenu' to access the menu entries almost like a real menu system. To do this, put these commands in your vimrc file:

:source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim
:set wildmenu
:set cpo-=<
:set wcm=<C-Z>
:map <F4> :emenu <C-Z>

Pressing <F4> will start the menu. You can now use the cursor keys to select a menu entry. Hit <Enter> to execute it. Hit <Esc> if you want to cancel.

Creating New Menus creating-menus

:me :menu :noreme :noremenu E330 E327 E331 E336 E333 E328 E329 E337 E792 To create a new menu item, use the ":menu" commands. They are mostly like the ":map" set of commands (see map-modes), but the first argument is a menu item name, given as a path of menus and submenus with a '.' between them, e.g.:

:menu File.Save  :w<CR>
:inoremenu File.Save  <C-O>:w<CR>
:menu Edit.Big\ Changes.Delete\ All\ Spaces  :%s/[ ^I]//g<CR>

This last one will create a new item in the menu bar called "Edit", holding the mouse button down on this will pop up a menu containing the item "Big Changes", which is a sub-menu containing the item "Delete All Spaces", which when selected, performs the operation.

To create a menu for terminal mode, use :tlmenu instead of :tmenu unlike key mapping (:tmap). This is because :tmenu is already used for defining tooltips for menus. See terminal-input.

Special characters in a menu name:

& The next character is the shortcut key. Make sure each shortcut key is only used once in a (sub)menu. If you want to insert a literal "&" in the menu name use "&&". <Tab> Separates the menu name from right-aligned text. This can be used to show the equivalent typed command. The text "<Tab>" can be used here for convenience. If you are using a real tab, don't forget to put a backslash before it! Example:

:amenu &File.&Open<Tab>:e  :browse e<CR>

[typed literally] With the shortcut "F" (while keeping the <Alt> key pressed), and then "O", this menu can be used. The second part is shown as "Open :e". The ":e" is right aligned, and the "O" is underlined, to indicate it is the shortcut.

:am :amenu :an :anoremenu The ":amenu" command can be used to define menu entries for all modes at once, except for Terminal mode. To make the command work correctly, a character is automatically inserted for some modes:

mode inserted appended

Normal nothing nothing Visual <C-C> <C-\><C-G> Insert <C-\><C-O> Cmdline <C-C> <C-\><C-G> Op-pending <C-C> <C-\><C-G>

Example:

:amenu File.Next        :next^M

is equal to:

:nmenu File.Next        :next^M
:vmenu File.Next        ^C:next^M^\^G
:imenu File.Next        ^\^O:next^M
:cmenu File.Next        ^C:next^M^\^G
:omenu File.Next        ^C:next^M^\^G

Careful: In Insert mode this only works for a SINGLE Normal mode command, because of the CTRL-O. If you have two or more commands, you will need to use the ":imenu" command. For inserting text in any mode, you can use the expression register:

:amenu Insert.foobar   "='foobar'<CR>P

The special text <Cmd> begins a "command menu", it executes the command directly without changing modes. Where you might use ":...<CR>" you can instead use "<Cmd>...<CR>". See <Cmd> for more info. Example:

anoremenu File.Next <Cmd>next<CR>

Note that <Esc> in Cmdline mode executes the command, like in a mapping. This is Vi compatible. Use CTRL-C to quit Cmdline mode.

:nme :nmenu :nnoreme :nnoremenu :nunme :nunmenu Menu commands starting with "n" work in Normal mode. mapmode-n

:ome :omenu :onoreme :onoremenu :ounme :ounmenu Menu commands starting with "o" work in Operator-pending mode. mapmode-o

:vme :vmenu :vnoreme :vnoremenu :vunme :vunmenu Menu commands starting with "v" work in Visual mode. mapmode-v

:xme :xmenu :xnoreme :xnoremenu :xunme :xunmenu Menu commands starting with "x" work in Visual and Select mode. mapmode-x

:sme :smenu :snoreme :snoremenu :sunme :sunmenu Menu commands starting with "s" work in Select mode. mapmode-s

:ime :imenu :inoreme :inoremenu :iunme :iunmenu Menu commands starting with "i" work in Insert mode. mapmode-i

:cme :cmenu :cnoreme :cnoremenu :cunme :cunmenu Menu commands starting with "c" work in Cmdline mode. mapmode-c

:tlm :tlmenu :tln :tlnoremenu :tlu :tlunmenu Menu commands starting with "tl" work in Terminal mode. mapmode-t

:menu-<silent> :menu-silent To define a menu which will not be echoed on the command line, add "<silent>" as the first argument. Example:

:menu <silent> Settings.Ignore\ case  :set ic<CR>

The ":set ic" will not be echoed when using this menu. Messages from the executed command are still given though. To shut them up too, add a ":silent" in the executed command:

:menu <silent> Search.Header :exe ":silent normal /Header\r"<CR>

"<silent>" may also appear just after "<script>".

:menu-<script> :menu-script The "to" part of the menu will be inspected for mappings. If you don't want this, use the ":noremenu" command (or the similar one for a specific mode). If you do want to use script-local mappings, add "<script>" as the very first argument to the ":menu" command or just after "<silent>".

You can give a priority to a menu. Menus with a higher priority go more to the right. The priority is given as a number before the ":menu" command. Example:

:80menu Buffer.next :bn<CR>

The default menus have these priorities: File 10 Edit 20 Tools 40 Syntax 50 Buffers 60 Window 70 Help 9999

When no or zero priority is given, 500 is used. The priority for the PopUp menu is not used.

You can use a priority higher than 9999, to make it go after the Help menu, but that is non-standard and is discouraged. The highest possible priority is about 32000. The lowest is 1.

The same mechanism can be used to position a sub-menu. The priority is then given as a dot-separated list of priorities, before the menu name:

:menu 80.500 Buffer.next :bn<CR>

Giving the sub-menu priority is only needed when the item is not to be put in a normal position. For example, to put a sub-menu before the other items:

:menu 80.100 Buffer.first :brew<CR>

Or to put a sub-menu after the other items, and further items with default priority will be put before it:

:menu 80.900 Buffer.last :blast<CR>

When a number is missing, the default value 500 will be used:

:menu .900 myMenu.test :echo "text"<CR>

The menu priority is only used when creating a new menu. When it already existed, e.g., in another mode, the priority will not change. Thus, the priority only needs to be given the first time a menu is used. An exception is the PopUp menu. There is a separate menu for each mode (Normal, Op-pending, Visual, Insert, Cmdline). The order in each of these menus can be different. This is different from menu-bar menus, which have the same order for all modes. NOTE: sub-menu priorities currently don't work for all versions of the GUI.

E332 Menu items can be separated by a special item that inserts some space between items. Depending on the system this is displayed as a line or a dotted line. These items must start with a '-' and end in a '-'. The part in between is used to give it a unique name. Priorities can be used as with normal items. Example:

:menu Example.item1        :do something
:menu Example.-Sep-        :
:menu Example.item2        :do something different

Note that the separator also requires a rhs. It doesn't matter what it is, because the item will never be selected. Use a single colon to keep it simple.

The default toolbar is setup in menu.vim. The display of the toolbar is controlled by the 'guioptions' letter 'T'. You can thus have menu & toolbar together, or either on its own, or neither. The appearance is controlled by the 'toolbar' option. You can choose between an image, text or both.

The toolbar is defined as a special menu called ToolBar, which only has one level. Vim interprets the items in this menu as follows: 1) If an "icon=" argument was specified, the file with this name is used. The file can either be specified with the full path or with the base name. In the last case it is searched for in the "bitmaps" directory in 'runtimepath', like in point 3. Examples:

:amenu icon=/usr/local/pixmaps/foo_icon.xpm ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR>
:amenu icon=FooIcon ToolBar.Foo :echo "Foo"<CR>

Note that in the first case the extension is included, while in the second case it is omitted. If the file cannot be opened the next points are tried. A space in the file name must be escaped with a backslash. A menu priority must come _after_ the icon argument:

:amenu icon=foo 1.42 ToolBar.Foo :echo "42!"<CR>

2) An item called 'BuiltIn##', where ## is a number, is taken as number ## of the built-in bitmaps available in Vim. Currently there are 31 numbered from 0 to 30 which cover most common editing operations builtin-tools.

:amenu ToolBar.BuiltIn22 :call SearchNext("back")<CR>

3) An item with another name is first searched for in the directory "bitmaps" in 'runtimepath'. If found, the bitmap file is used as the toolbar button image. Note that the exact filename is OS-specific: For example, under Win32 the command

:amenu ToolBar.Hello :echo "hello"<CR>

would find the file 'hello.bmp'. Under X11 it is 'Hello.xpm'. For MS-Windows and the bitmap is scaled to fit the button. For MS-Windows a size of 18 by 18 pixels works best. For MS-Windows the bitmap should have 16 colors with the standard palette. The light grey pixels will be changed to the Window frame color and the dark grey pixels to the window shadow color. More colors might also work, depending on your system. 4) If the bitmap is still not found, Vim checks for a match against its list of built-in names. Each built-in button image has a name. So the command

:amenu ToolBar.Open :e

will show the built-in "open a file" button image if no open.bmp exists. All the built-in names can be seen used in menu.vim. 5) If all else fails, a blank, but functioning, button is displayed.

builtin-tools

nr Name Normal action

00 New open new window 01 Open browse for file to open in current window 02 Save write buffer to file 03 Undo undo last change 04 Redo redo last undone change 05 Cut delete selected text to clipboard 06 Copy copy selected text to clipboard 07 Paste paste text from clipboard 08 Print print current buffer 09 Help open a buffer on Vim's builtin help 10 Find start a search command 11 SaveAll write all modified buffers to file 12 SaveSesn write session file for current situation 13 NewSesn write new session file 14 LoadSesn load session file 15 RunScript browse for file to run as a Vim script 16 Replace prompt for substitute command 17 WinClose close current window 18 WinMax make current window use many lines 19 WinMin make current window use few lines 20 WinSplit split current window 21 Shell start a shell 22 FindPrev search again, backward 23 FindNext search again, forward 24 FindHelp prompt for word to search help for 25 Make run make and jump to first error 26 TagJump jump to tag under the cursor 27 RunCtags build tags for files in current directory 28 WinVSplit split current window vertically 29 WinMaxWidth make current window use many columns 30 WinMinWidth make current window use few columns

hidden-menus win32-hidden-menus In the Win32 GUI, starting a menu name with ']' excludes that menu from the main menu bar. You must then use the :popup command to display it.

When splitting the window the window toolbar is not copied to the new window.

You can define the special menu "PopUp". This is the menu that is displayed when the right mouse button is pressed, if 'mousemodel' is set to popup or popup_setpos.

The default "PopUp" menu is:

anoremenu PopUp.Go\ to\ definition      <Cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.definition()<CR>
amenu     PopUp.Open\ in\ web\ browser  gx
anoremenu PopUp.Inspect                 <Cmd>Inspect<CR>
anoremenu PopUp.-1-                     <Nop>
vnoremenu PopUp.Cut                     "+x
vnoremenu PopUp.Copy                    "+y
anoremenu PopUp.Paste                   "+gP
vnoremenu PopUp.Paste                   "+P
vnoremenu PopUp.Delete                  "_x
nnoremenu PopUp.Select\ All             ggVG
vnoremenu PopUp.Select\ All             gg0oG$
inoremenu PopUp.Select\ All             <C-Home><C-O>VG
anoremenu PopUp.-2-                     <Nop>
anoremenu PopUp.How-to\ disable\ mouse  <Cmd>help disable-mouse<CR>

Showing What Menus Are Mapped To showing-menus

To see what an existing menu is mapped to, use just one argument after the menu commands (just like you would with the ":map" commands). If the menu specified is a submenu, then all menus under that hierarchy will be shown. If no argument is given after :menu at all, then ALL menu items are shown for the appropriate mode (e.g., Command-line mode for :cmenu).

Special characters in the list, just before the rhs:

* Menu was defined with "nore" to disallow remapping.

& Menu was defined with "<script>" to allow remapping script-local mappings.

s Menu was defined with "<silent>" to avoid showing what it is mapped to when triggered.

- Menu was disabled.

Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after a menu command may be used to complete the name of the menu item.

Executing Menus execute-menus

:em :emenu E334 E335 :[range]em[enu] {menu} Execute {menu} from the command line. The default is to execute the Normal mode menu. If a range is specified, it executes the Visual mode menu. If used from <c-o>, it executes the insert-mode menu Eg:

:emenu File.Exit

:[range]em[enu] {mode} {menu} Like above, but execute the menu for {mode}: 'n': :nmenu Normal mode 'v': :vmenu Visual mode 's': :smenu Select mode 'o': :omenu Operator-pending mode 't': :tlmenu Terminal mode 'i': :imenu Insert mode 'c': :cmenu Cmdline mode

You can use :emenu to access useful menu items you may have got used to from GUI mode. See 'wildmenu' for an option that works well with this. See console-menus for an example.

When using a range, if the lines match with '<,'>, then the menu is executed using the last visual selection.

Deleting Menus delete-menus

:unme :unmenu :aun :aunmenu To delete a menu item or a whole submenu, use the unmenu commands, which are analogous to the unmap commands. Eg:

:unmenu! Edit.Paste

This will remove the Paste item from the Edit menu for Insert and Command-line modes.

Note that hitting <Tab> while entering a menu name after an umenu command may be used to complete the name of the menu item for the appropriate mode.

To remove all menus use: :unmenu-all

:unmenu *        " remove all menus in Normal and visual mode
:unmenu! *        " remove all menus in Insert and Command-line mode
:aunmenu *        " remove all menus in all modes, except for Terminal
                " mode
:tlunmenu *        " remove all menus in Terminal mode

If you want to get rid of the menu bar:

:set guioptions-=m

Disabling Menus disable-menus

:menu-disable :menu-enable If you do not want to remove a menu, but disable it for a moment, this can be done by adding the "enable" or "disable" keyword to a ":menu" command. Examples:

:menu disable &File.&Open\.\.\.
:amenu enable *
:amenu disable &Tools.*

The command applies to the modes as used with all menu commands. Note that characters like "&" need to be included for translated names to be found. When the argument is "*", all menus are affected. Otherwise the given menu name and all existing submenus below it are affected.

Examples for Menus

Here is an example on how to add menu items with menus! You can add a menu item for the keyword under the cursor. The register "z" is used.

:nmenu Words.Add\ Var                wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>
:nmenu Words.Remove\ Var        wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>
:vmenu Words.Add\ Var                "zy:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z <CR>
:vmenu Words.Remove\ Var        "zy:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>
:imenu Words.Add\ Var                <Esc>wb"zye:menu! Words.<C-R>z <C-R>z<CR>a
:imenu Words.Remove\ Var        <Esc>wb"zye:unmenu! Words.<C-R>z<CR>a

(the rhs is in <> notation, you can copy/paste this text to try out the mappings, or put these lines in your gvimrc; "<C-R>" is CTRL-R, "<CR>" is the <CR> key. <>)

tooltips Tooltips & Menu tips

See section 42.4 in the user manual.

:tmenu :tm[enu] {menupath} {rhs} Define a tip for a menu or tool. (only in X11 and Win32 GUI)

:tm[enu] [menupath] List menu tips. (only in X11 and Win32 GUI)

:tunmenu :tu[nmenu] {menupath} Remove a tip for a menu or tool. (only in X11 and Win32 GUI)

Note: To create menus for terminal mode, use :tlmenu instead.

When a tip is defined for a menu item, it appears in the command-line area when the mouse is over that item, much like a standard Windows menu hint in the status bar. (Except when Vim is in Command-line mode, when of course nothing is displayed.) When a tip is defined for a ToolBar item, it appears as a tooltip when the mouse pauses over that button, in the usual fashion. Use the hl-Tooltip highlight group to change its colors.

A "tip" can be defined for each menu item. For example, when defining a menu item like this:

:amenu MyMenu.Hello :echo "Hello"<CR>

The tip is defined like this:

:tmenu MyMenu.Hello Displays a greeting.

And delete it with:

:tunmenu MyMenu.Hello

Tooltips are currently only supported for the X11 and Win32 GUI. However, they should appear for the other gui platforms in the not too distant future.

The ":tmenu" command works just like other menu commands, it uses the same arguments. ":tunmenu" deletes an existing menu tip, in the same way as the other unmenu commands.

If a menu item becomes invalid (i.e. its actions in all modes are deleted) Vim deletes the menu tip (and the item) for you. This means that :aunmenu deletes a menu item - you don't need to do a :tunmenu as well.

5.9 Popup Menus

You can cause a menu to popup at the cursor. This behaves similarly to the PopUp menus except that any menu tree can be popped up.

This command is for backwards compatibility, using it is discouraged, because it behaves in a strange way.

:popup :popu :popu[p] {name} Popup the menu {name}. The menu named must have at least one subentry, but need not appear on the menu-bar (see hidden-menus).

:popu[p]! {name} Like above, but use the position of the mouse pointer instead of the cursor.

Example:

:popup File

will make the "File" menu (if there is one) appear at the text cursor (mouse pointer if ! was used).

:amenu ]Toolbar.Make        :make<CR>
:popup ]Toolbar

This creates a popup menu that doesn't exist on the main menu-bar.

Note that a menu that starts with ']' will not be displayed.