Vim - Personalization

We can personalize Vim according to our requirement. In this section, we will discuss following items −

• Configuration files
• Changing fonts
• Changing color scheme
• Personal highlighting
• Status line

Configuration files

For Vim configuration files can be at user level or global level. User specific settings will be stored in user level files while global settings will be stored in global level files.

Vimrc file

Global vimrc

To find out global vimrc file execute following command in editor

:echo $VIM

OR

:echo \%VIM\%

On Linux this file will be located under /usr/share/vim directory while on Window it will be under C:\Program Files\Vim folder

Local vimrc

Local vimrc will be located under user’s home directory. For instance, on Linux it will be under /home/<USER> directory while on Windows it will be under C:\Documents and Setting\<USER>/ folder

Note that, on Windows file name will be _vimrc whereas on Linux it will be .vimrc.

Gvimrc

Global gvimrc

On Linux this file will be located under /usr/share/gvim directory while on Window it will be under C:\Program Files\Vim folder

Local gvimrc

Local gvimrc will be located under user’s home directory. For instance, on Linux it will be under /home/<USER> directory while on Windows it will be under C:\Documents and Setting\<USER>/ folder

Note that, on Windows file name will be _gvimrc whereas on Linux it will be 55 .gvimrc.

exrc

exrc files are used for backward compatibility. These files are ignored if either vimrc or gvimrc file is present.

Global exrc

On Linux this file will be located under /usr/share/vim directory while on Window it will be under C:\Program Files\Vim folder

Local exrc

Local exrc will be located under user’s home directory. For instance, on Linux it will be under /home/<USER> directory while on Windows it will be under C:\Documents and Setting\<USER>/_exrc folder

Changing fonts

To change font execute following command in gVim −

:set guifont = courier

Above command will change font to courier.

Change colorscheme

To change color scheme execute following command −

:colorscheme <tab>

When you press tab character, it will show available color schemes for Vim.

Personal highlighting

Highlight characters after certain columns

Execute below command to highlight columns greater than 73 −

:match ErrorMsg /\%>73v.\+/

Below image shows this −

Below is description of this command −

Add line number

To add line number execute following command −

:set number

To disable this execute following command −

:set nonumber

Set number width

To set number width execute following command −

:set numberwidth = <num>

Spell check

To enable spell check execute following command −

:set spell

And to set spell language execute following command −

:set spelllang = <language>

For example to set German use following comman −

:set spelllang = de

Abbreviation

Using abbreviation we can create shortcuts for long string. For instance below command creates abbreviation namely “quick”.

:abbr quick the quick brown fox

If you type “quick” and press tab then it will be replaced by “the quick brown fox” string

We can use this to correct some typos. For instance below command does this −

:abr teh the

Status line

Status line is shown at the bottom of editor. To enable status line execute following command −

:set laststatus = 2

To remove this for current session execute following command −

:set laststatus = 0