vimdiff and move among left and right pane

vim cygwin vimdiff

50,266

Solution 1

Ctrl+w and right and left arrow can be used to move between any split windows on vim, not only vimdiff splits.

These keys do work here on cygwin; also, Ctrl+w w also moves to the next window, but without the delay you mentioned.

It is possible that you have mapped these keys in your .vimrc or via some vim plugin. You can check this with :map w, :map <left> and :map <right>.

As moving between windows is something that you use often, you may consider using the following mappings:

  nnoremap <C-J> <C-W>j
  nnoremap <C-K> <C-W>k
  nnoremap <C-H> <C-W>h
  nnoremap <C-L> <C-W>l

Then you can use Ctrl+h and Ctrl+l to move left and right, without moving your hands from the home row. And the nnoremap will ensure that these works despite of any other mappings that you may have.

Solution 2

Press Ctrl + W and then (after releasing Ctrl + W) press the arrow keys to change the pane.

Solution 3

It is very useful to use set mouse=a in your .vimrc file. It gives you possibility to switch between windows using mouse. Additionally you can resize windows using it.

If you prefer to use keyboard I have also mapped arrow keys in .vimrc in this way:

map <C-Left> <C-W>j
map <C-Down> <C-W>k
map <C-Up> <C-W>h
map <C-Right> <C-W>l

50,266

Cratylus

Updated on July 09, 2022

Comments

Cratylus almost 2 years

I am using vimdiff for the first time. Online I found written that to move from the left pane you use CTRL + w + Left or right arrow
This does not work for me. But I see that if I press just CTRL + w and press w for a sec and let it go, it switches pane after ~500ms.
Is this how it is supposed to work? Am I doing something wrong?
- glts almost 11 years
  
  Please read :h window-move-cursor.
- FDinoff almost 11 years
  
  Its not supposed to be that slow. The lag on my set up is unnoticeable. Also you can use <Ctrl-W> h or l to move left or right.
- Kent almost 11 years
  
  please check if you have mapping with ctrl-w w x y z
- Cratylus almost 11 years
  
  @FDinoff:I tried <Ctrl-W> h but it does not work (at least in my cygwin)
sob almost 7 years

Grzegorz, thanks for the tip.For me set mouse=a worked but set mouse=a' showed an error.
Grzegorz Bielański almost 7 years

It was typo. It should be mouse=a
Chan Kim over 3 years

what's the reverse of 'set mouse=a'? I forgot.
Chan Kim over 3 years

oh it was set mouse=
Chan Kim over 3 years

@GrzegorzBielański Hi, how am I use the keyboard with the .vimrc setting above? can I move the center divider left or right using keyboard?
Stephen C over 3 years

This is for window rotation, not for moving between windows. :h ctrl-w_ctrl-r : "Rotate windows downward/rightwards. ... The cursor remains in the same window."