

When you choose a menu option, one or more of Vim commands are executed, they just type the commands for you. That's pretty much how the menu system works. So when I click on save, it's as if I had type :W and pressed Enter. If we just hover over the menu option here, you'll see a little box appear that shows what command will be executed when you click on this menu option. So how would you save a file normally? That's right. Keep in mind that you can still use all the commands you've learned.
#Macvim vimrc mac#
In MacVim, you can take advantage of some Mac conventions like Command + O to Open a file, Command + S to Save the file and so on. You see the usual file menu, edit menu and so on. These menus will be very similar to most other graphical application menus. One of the most obvious differences between the graphical version of Vim and the textual version of Vim is that the graphical version of Vim includes menus. If you do, you'll be looking for something like Vim-X11, Vim-gnome something similar.
#Macvim vimrc install#
Of course Linux users can use the package manager for their OS and install it from there if you'd like.

You'll find the official versions of Vim at vim.org. So if you don't find MacVim installed on your Mac system or GVim reports command not found on a Linux system, then you'll need to install the graphical version. Just because you have the textual version of Vim installed, doesn't mean you have the GUI version installed as well. You can also use the menuing system for your graphical environment. First, you can the graphical version of Vim from the command line by typing GVim. On a Linux or Unix system, you have a couple of options.

Of course you can also search for it using Spotlight. If you're using a Mac, you'll find MacVim in your applications folder.
#Macvim vimrc windows#
You can also use the Windows Search feature and look for GVim that way. If there are multiple options, select GVim which is the graphical version of Vim. For example, if you're on a window system you can use the Start menu to navigate to Vim. Start the graphical version of Vim like you would any other graphical application on your OS. These options aren't available to you in the command line only version of Vim. For example, if you want to access your systems clipboard or you want to use the File Explorer to open files, or you want to use the scroll wheel on your mouse to skim through a document. Yet another reason to use the GUI version of Vim is to take advantage of GUI only features. It makes sense to run Vim as a standalone graphical application as opposed to running it in a terminal window. It's just a heavy, graphical, focused environment. For example, I don't know many people who leave a command prompt open all the time on their window system. Another reason you might want to use a graphical version of Vim is that you really don't use the command line as part of your normal workflow. This way you don't have to use one editor in one place and another editor in another place. That graphical environment might be your Linux desktop, a Mac, or even a Window system. For example, if you're a Linux admin and you work with Vim all day on all of your servers, you might want to leverage that knowledge even when you're working in a graphical desktop environment. With that said, there are a couple of good reasons to use a graphical version of Vim.
#Macvim vimrc how to#
So anything you already know how to do in Vim will also work in the GUI version too. The good news is that all of that knowledge you already have about Vim is transferable to the graphical user interface or GUI version of Vim. All the other lessons in this course have covered topics related to the command line or textual user interface version of Vim.
