Vim documentation: scroll
main help file
*scroll.txt* For Vim version 9.1. Last change: 2022 Oct 17
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
Scrolling *scrolling*
These commands move the contents of the window. If the cursor position is
moved off of the window, the cursor is moved onto the window (with
'scrolloff' screen lines around it). A page is the number of lines in the
window minus two. The mnemonics for these commands may be a bit confusing.
Remember that the commands refer to moving the window (the part of the buffer
that you see) upwards or downwards in the buffer. When the window moves
upwards in the buffer, the text in the window moves downwards on your screen.
See section |03.7| of the user manual for an introduction.
1. Scrolling downwards |scroll-down|
2. Scrolling upwards |scroll-up|
3. Scrolling relative to cursor |scroll-cursor|
4. Scrolling horizontally |scroll-horizontal|
5. Scrolling synchronously |scroll-binding|
6. Scrolling with a mouse wheel |scroll-mouse-wheel|
==============================================================================
1. Scrolling downwards *scroll-down*
The following commands move the edit window (the part of the buffer that you
see) downwards (this means that more lines downwards in the text buffer can be
seen):
*CTRL-E*
CTRL-E Scroll window [count] lines downwards in the buffer.
The text moves upwards on the screen.
Mnemonic: Extra lines.
*CTRL-D*
CTRL-D Scroll window Downwards in the buffer. The number of
lines comes from the 'scroll' option (default: half a
screen). If [count] given, first set 'scroll' option
to [count]. The cursor is moved the same number of
lines down in the file (if possible; when lines wrap
and when hitting the end of the file there may be a
difference). When the cursor is on the last line of
the buffer nothing happens and a beep is produced.
See also 'startofline' option.
<S-Down> or *<S-Down>* *<kPageDown>*
<PageDown> or *<PageDown>* *CTRL-F*
CTRL-F Scroll window [count] pages Forwards (downwards) in
the buffer. See also 'startofline' option.
When there is only one window the 'window' option
might be used.
*z+*
z+ Without [count]: Redraw with the line just below the
window at the top of the window. Put the cursor in
that line, at the first non-blank in the line.
With [count]: just like "z<CR>".
==============================================================================
2. Scrolling upwards *scroll-up*
The following commands move the edit window (the part of the buffer that you
see) upwards (this means that more lines upwards in the text buffer can be
seen):
*CTRL-Y*
CTRL-Y Scroll window [count] lines upwards in the buffer.
The text moves downwards on the screen.
Note: When using the MS-Windows key bindings CTRL-Y is
remapped to redo.
*CTRL-U*
CTRL-U Scroll window Upwards in the buffer. The number of
lines comes from the 'scroll' option (default: half a
screen). If [count] given, first set the 'scroll'
option to [count]. The cursor is moved the same
number of lines up in the file (if possible; when
lines wrap and when hitting the end of the file there
may be a difference). When the cursor is on the first
line of the buffer nothing happens and a beep is
produced. See also 'startofline' option.
<S-Up> or *<S-Up>* *<kPageUp>*
<PageUp> or *<PageUp>* *CTRL-B*
CTRL-B Scroll window [count] pages Backwards (upwards) in the
buffer. See also 'startofline' option.
When there is only one window the 'window' option
might be used.
*z^*
z^ Without [count]: Redraw with the line just above the
window at the bottom of the window. Put the cursor in
that line, at the first non-blank in the line.
With [count]: First scroll the text to put the [count]
line at the bottom of the window, then redraw with the
line which is now at the top of the window at the
bottom of the window. Put the cursor in that line, at
the first non-blank in the line.
==============================================================================
3. Scrolling relative to cursor *scroll-cursor*
The following commands reposition the edit window (the part of the buffer that
you see) while keeping the cursor on the same line. Note that the 'scrolloff'
option may cause context lines to show above and below the cursor.
*z<CR>*
z<CR> Redraw, line [count] at top of window (default
cursor line). Put cursor at first non-blank in the
line.
*zt*
zt Like "z<CR>", but leave the cursor in the same
column.
*zN<CR>*
z{height}<CR> Redraw, make window {height} lines tall. This is
useful to make the number of lines small when screen
updating is very slow. Cannot make the height more
than the physical screen height.
*z.*
z. Redraw, line [count] at center of window (default
cursor line). Put cursor at first non-blank in the
line.
*zz*
zz Like "z.", but leave the cursor in the same column.
Careful: If caps-lock is on, this command becomes
"ZZ": write buffer and exit!
*z-*
z- Redraw, line [count] at bottom of window (default
cursor line). Put cursor at first non-blank in the
line.
*zb*
zb Like "z-", but leave the cursor in the same column.
==============================================================================
4. Scrolling horizontally *scroll-horizontal*
For the following four commands the cursor follows the screen. If the
character that the cursor is on is moved off the screen, the cursor is moved
to the closest character that is on the screen. The value of 'sidescroll' is
not used.
z<Right> or *zl* *z<Right>*
zl Move the view on the text [count] characters to the
right, thus scroll the text [count] characters to the
left. This only works when 'wrap' is off.
z<Left> or *zh* *z<Left>*
zh Move the view on the text [count] characters to the
left, thus scroll the text [count] characters to the
right. This only works when 'wrap' is off.
*zL*
zL Move the view on the text half a screenwidth to the
right, thus scroll the text half a screenwidth to the
left. This only works when 'wrap' is off.
*zH*
zH Move the view on the text half a screenwidth to the
left, thus scroll the text half a screenwidth to the
right. This only works when 'wrap' is off.
For the following two commands the cursor is not moved in the text, only the
text scrolls on the screen.
*zs*
zs Scroll the text horizontally to position the cursor
at the start (left side) of the screen. This only
works when 'wrap' is off.
*ze*
ze Scroll the text horizontally to position the cursor
at the end (right side) of the screen. This only
works when 'wrap' is off.
==============================================================================
5. Scrolling synchronously *scroll-binding*
Occasionally, it is desirable to bind two or more windows together such that
when one window is scrolled, the other windows are also scrolled. In Vim,
windows can be given this behavior by setting the (window-specific)
'scrollbind' option. When a window that has 'scrollbind' set is scrolled, all
other 'scrollbind' windows are scrolled the same amount, if possible. The
behavior of 'scrollbind' can be modified by the 'scrollopt' option.
When using the scrollbars or the mouse wheel, the binding only happens when
scrolling the window with focus (where the cursor is). You can use this to
avoid scroll-binding for a moment without resetting options.
When a window also has the 'diff' option set, the scroll-binding uses the
differences between the two buffers to synchronize the position precisely.
Otherwise the following method is used.
*scrollbind-relative*
Each 'scrollbind' window keeps track of its "relative offset", which can be
thought of as the difference between the current window's vertical scroll
position and the other window's vertical scroll position. When one of the
'scrollbind' windows is asked to vertically scroll past the beginning or end
limit of its text, the window no longer scrolls, but remembers how far past
the limit it wishes to be. The window keeps this information so that it can
maintain the same relative offset, regardless of its being asked to scroll
past its buffer's limits.
However, if a 'scrollbind' window that has a relative offset that is past its
buffer's limits is given the cursor focus, the other 'scrollbind' windows must
jump to a location where the current window's relative offset is valid. This
behavior can be changed by clearing the "jump" flag from the 'scrollopt'
option.
*syncbind* *:syncbind* *:sync*
:syncbind Force all 'scrollbind' windows to have the same
relative offset. I.e., when any of the 'scrollbind'
windows is scrolled to the top of its buffer, all of
the 'scrollbind' windows will also be at the top of
their buffers.
*scrollbind-quickadj*
The 'scrollbind' flag is meaningful when using keyboard commands to vertically
scroll a window, and is also meaningful when using the vertical scrollbar or
the mouse wheel in the window which has the cursor focus. However, when using
the vertical scrollbar or the mouse wheel in a window which doesn't have the
cursor focus, 'scrollbind' is ignored.
This allows quick adjustment of the relative offset of 'scrollbind' windows.
==============================================================================
6. Scrolling with a mouse wheel *scroll-mouse-wheel*
When your mouse has a scroll wheel, it should work with Vim in the GUI. How
it works depends on your system. It might also work in an xterm
|xterm-mouse-wheel|. By default only vertical scroll wheels are supported,
but some GUIs also support horizontal scroll wheels.
On MS-Windows, if the scroll action causes input focus -problems, see
|intellimouse-wheel-problems|.
For Win32 and the X11 GUIs (Motif and GTK) scrolling the wheel generates key
presses <ScrollWheelUp>, <ScrollWheelDown>, <ScrollWheelLeft> and
<ScrollWheelRight>. For example, if you push the scroll wheel upwards a
<ScrollWheelUp> key press is generated causing the window to scroll upwards
(while the text is actually moving downwards). The default action for these
keys are:
<ScrollWheelUp> scroll N lines up *<ScrollWheelUp>*
<S-ScrollWheelUp> scroll one page up *<S-ScrollWheelUp>*
<C-ScrollWheelUp> scroll one page up *<C-ScrollWheelUp>*
<ScrollWheelDown> scroll N lines down *<ScrollWheelDown>*
<S-ScrollWheelDown> scroll one page down *<S-ScrollWheelDown>*
<C-ScrollWheelDown> scroll one page down *<C-ScrollWheelDown>*
<ScrollWheelLeft> scroll N columns left *<ScrollWheelLeft>*
<S-ScrollWheelLeft> scroll one page left *<S-ScrollWheelLeft>*
<C-ScrollWheelLeft> scroll one page left *<C-ScrollWheelLeft>*
<ScrollWheelRight> scroll N columns right *<ScrollWheelRight>*
<S-ScrollWheelRight> scroll one page right *<S-ScrollWheelRight>*
<C-ScrollWheelRight> scroll one page right *<C-ScrollWheelRight>*
This should work in all modes, except when editing the command line.
The value of N depends on the system. By default Vim scrolls three lines when
moving vertically, and six columns when moving horizontally. On MS-Windows
the amount of lines and columns for each scroll action is taken from the
system-wide settings.
Note that horizontal scrolling only works if 'nowrap' is set. Also, unless
the "h" flag in 'guioptions' is set, the cursor moves to the longest visible
line if the cursor line is about to be scrolled off the screen (similarly to
how the horizontal scrollbar works).
You can modify the default behavior by mapping the keys. For example, to make
the scroll wheel move one line or half a page in Normal mode:
:map <ScrollWheelUp> <C-Y>
:map <S-ScrollWheelUp> <C-U>
:map <ScrollWheelDown> <C-E>
:map <S-ScrollWheelDown> <C-D>
You can also use Alt and Ctrl modifiers.
This only works when Vim gets the scroll wheel events, of course. You can
check if this works with the "xev" program.
*mouse-scrolling-off*
If you do not want the mouse to cause scrolling (e.g. because resting your
palm on the touchpad causes scroll events), you can disable that with:
:map <ScrollWheelDown> <Nop>
:map! <ScrollWheelDown> <Nop>
:map <ScrollWheelUp> <Nop>
:map! <ScrollWheelUp> <Nop>
:map <ScrollWheelLeft> <Nop>
:map! <ScrollWheelLeft> <Nop>
:map <ScrollWheelRight> <Nop>
:map! <ScrollWheelRight> <Nop>
When using XFree86, the /etc/XF86Config file should have the correct entry for
your mouse. For FreeBSD, this entry works for a Logitech scrollmouse:
Protocol "MouseMan"
Device "/dev/psm0"
ZAxisMapping 4 5
See the XFree86 documentation for information.
*<MouseDown>* *<MouseUp>*
The keys <MouseDown> and <MouseUp> have been deprecated. Use <ScrollWheelUp>
instead of <MouseDown> and use <ScrollWheelDown> instead of <MouseUp>.
*xterm-mouse-wheel*
To use the mouse wheel in a new xterm you only have to make the scroll wheel
work in your Xserver, as mentioned above.
To use the mouse wheel in an older xterm you must do this:
1. Make it work in your Xserver, as mentioned above.
2. Add translations for the xterm, so that the xterm will pass a scroll event
to Vim as an escape sequence.
3. Add mappings in Vim, to interpret the escape sequences as <ScrollWheelDown>
or <ScrollWheelUp> keys.
You can do the translations by adding this to your ~.Xdefaults file (or other
file where your X resources are kept):
XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \n\
s<Btn4Down>: string("0x9b") string("[64~") \n\
s<Btn5Down>: string("0x9b") string("[65~") \n\
<Btn4Down>: string("0x9b") string("[62~") \n\
<Btn5Down>: string("0x9b") string("[63~") \n\
<Btn4Up>: \n\
<Btn5Up>:
Add these mappings to your vimrc file:
:map <M-Esc>[62~ <ScrollWheelUp>
:map! <M-Esc>[62~ <ScrollWheelUp>
:map <M-Esc>[63~ <ScrollWheelDown>
:map! <M-Esc>[63~ <ScrollWheelDown>
:map <M-Esc>[64~ <S-ScrollWheelUp>
:map! <M-Esc>[64~ <S-ScrollWheelUp>
:map <M-Esc>[65~ <S-ScrollWheelDown>
:map! <M-Esc>[65~ <S-ScrollWheelDown>
top - main help file