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Documentation

The most useful software is sometimes rendered useless by poor or altogether missing documentation. Vim refuses to succumb to death by underdocumentation. With a book to extensive help files to a tips collection, all audiences should be pleased.

Help Files

Vim's online documentation system, accessible via the :help command, is an extensive cross-referenced and hyperlinked reference. It's kept up-to-date with the software and can answer almost any question about Vim's functionality.

An up-to-date version of the help, with hyperlinks, can be found on vimhelp.org. This is maintained by Carlo Teubner.

The VimDoc project has links to various types of Vim documentation. The online, hyperlinked copy of the documentation is currently outdated.

For translations of the help files see the translation page.

The Books

    
There are about a dozen books available bout Vim and Vi. More information on this page.
There also is the "Use Vim Like A Pro" eBook. It is available on leanpub.com. You can decide about the price you want to pay, and the slider goes down all the way to zero.
And now, for something completely different: Vim books in Japanese! Vim完全バイブル

Learning Vim playfully

Especially useful for absolute beginners who fear being bored by learning the basic commands: Vim Adventure. Starts with teaching you h, j, k and l movement commands and practice them in an adventure style interactive play.

Less playfull, but a bit faster to go through is the Vim tutor. See :help tutor inside Vim.

The FAQ

     Vim FAQ
A manual is great for reference, but voluminous reference materials aren't always the easiest way to locate answers to your questions. We've compiled a list of frequently asked questions, along with good answers. You can find the FAQ here. It comes from this github project

Tips

     Vim Tips wiki
Finding an answer is even harder if you don't know that you have a question. The Vim tips collection contains a seemingly endless supply of hints on making your vim use a more pleasant experience. The tips collection is also a great way to find quick hacks to perform common tasks.

You can also watch videos. You can find them with Google search.

Screen casts

     Vimcasts
Workshops in the form of videos. Created between January 2010 and May 2011.

Other Documentation

There are plenty of other sources of Vim documentation. We've got a partial list of them, but Google is another great way to find obscure documentation.


If you have questions or remarks about this site, visit the vimonline development pages. Please use this site responsibly.
Questions about Vim should go to the maillist. Help Bram help Uganda.
   
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