vim editor: How to toggle split windows in different direction

Question

In vim, I am using Ctrl-w w to toggle between split windows. However, this toggling goes in one direction only. i.e., usually left to right in a cyclic manner.

When there are a large number of split windows, it takes a lot of effort to switch to the window immediately to the left. Are there any shortcuts to switch windows in the opposite direction?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 13 '13 at 19:11

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(I assume you mean you are repeating the command, eg ctrl-w ctrl-w.)

Use the standard h, j, k, and l movement keys, eg:

ctrl-w h - select pane to the left
ctrl-w j - select pane below
ctrl-w k - select pane above
ctrl-w l - select pane to the right

answered Aug 13 '13 at 19:11

tvon

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Not clear for me :( I tried pressing ctrl-w-h to move to left pane, but did not work – SKPS Aug 13 '13 at 19:16
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@SathishKrishnan let go of the control key (and w) after typing `` – FDinoff Aug 13 '13 at 19:19

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 13 '13 at 19:08

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Use Ctrl+W followed by one of hjkl to move to the desired direction.

I've put a map into my .vimrc that goes like this:

map <C-J> <C-W>j

to ommit the Ctrl+W stroke.

answered Aug 13 '13 at 19:08

ohcibi

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I use the same approach. The only issue I had to deal with was that I was used to press `` to redraw the window. Solution is easy: `noremap l` moves me to the left window _and_ redraws the windows. – Ikar Pohorský Aug 14 '13 at 11:33

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 14 '13 at 08:00

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You don't need to hit <C-w> twice, keeping the Ctrl key pressed and hitting w twice works just as well. You don't even need to keep the Ctrl key pressed, actually: <C-w>w is the exact equivalent of <C-w><C-w>: hit <C-w> then hit w.

That said, the opposite of <C-w>w is simply <C-w>W (uppercase W, same logic as :bn/:bN or gt/gT).

See :help window-move-cursor.

answered Aug 14 '13 at 08:00

romainl

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I actually meant ` w` only. The uppercase logic did help me! – SKPS Aug 14 '13 at 11:49
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Well, `W` is exactly what you asked for. – romainl Aug 14 '13 at 12:24

vim editor: How to toggle split windows in different direction

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