usr_42.txt For Vim version 9.1. Last change: 2025 Nov 09 VIM USER MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar Add new menus By now you know that Vim is very flexible. This includes the menus used in the GUI. You can define your own menu entries to make certain commands easily accessible. This is for mouse-happy users only. 42.1 Introduction 42.2 Menu commands 42.3 Various 42.4 Toolbar and popup menus Next chapter: usr_43.txt Using filetypes Previous chapter: usr_41.txt Write a Vim script Table of contents: usr_toc.txt ============================================================================== 42.1 Introduction The menus that Vim uses are defined in the file "$VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim". If you want to write your own menus, you might first want to look through that file. To define a menu item, use the ":menu" command. The basic form of this command is as follows: :menu {menu-item} {keys} The {menu-item} describes where on the menu to put the item. A typical {menu-item} is "File.Save", which represents the item "Save" under the "File" menu. A dot is used to separate the names. Example: :menu File.Save :update<CR> The ":update" command writes the file when it was modified. You can add another level: "Edit.Settings.Shiftwidth" defines a submenu "Settings" under the "Edit" menu, with an item "Shiftwidth". You could use even deeper levels. Don't use this too much, you need to move the mouse quite a bit to use such an item. The ":menu" command is very similar to the ":map" command: the left side specifies how the item is triggered and the right hand side defines the characters that are executed. {keys} are characters, they are used just like you would have typed them. Thus in Insert mode, when {keys} is plain text, that text is inserted. ACCELERATORS The ampersand character (&) is used to indicate an accelerator. For instance, you can use Alt-F to select "File" and S to select "Save". (The 'winaltkeys' option may disable this though!). Therefore, the {menu-item} looks like "&File.&Save". The accelerator characters will be underlined in the menu. You must take care that each key is used only once in each menu. Otherwise you will not know which of the two will actually be used. Vim doesn't warn you for this. PRIORITIES The actual definition of the File.Save menu item is as follows: :menu 10.340 &File.&Save<Tab>:w :confirm w<CR> The number 10.340 is called the priority number. It is used by the editor to decide where it places the menu item. The first number (10) indicates the position on the menu bar. Lower numbered menus are positioned to the left, higher numbers to the right. These are the priorities used for the standard menus: 10 20 40 50 60 70 9999 +------------------------------------------------------------+ | File Edit Tools Syntax Buffers Window Help | +------------------------------------------------------------+ Notice that the Help menu is given a very high number, to make it appear on the far right. The second number (340) determines the location of the item within the pull-down menu. Lower numbers go on top, higher number on the bottom. These are the priorities in the File menu: +-----------------+ 10.310 |Open... | 10.320 |Split-Open... | 10.325 |New | 10.330 |Close | 10.335 |---------------- | 10.340 |Save | 10.350 |Save As... | 10.400 |---------------- | 10.410 |Split Diff with | 10.420 |Split Patched By | 10.500 |---------------- | 10.510 |Print | 10.600 |---------------- | 10.610 |Save-Exit | 10.620 |Exit | +-----------------+ Notice that there is room in between the numbers. This is where you can insert your own items, if you really want to (it's often better to leave the standard menus alone and add a new menu for your own items). When you create a submenu, you can add another ".number" to the priority. Thus each name in {menu-item} has its priority number. SPECIAL CHARACTERS The {menu-item} in this example is "&File.&Save<Tab>:w". This brings up an important point: {menu-item} must be one word. If you want to put a dot, space or tabs in the name, you either use the <> notation (<Space> and <Tab>, for instance) or use the backslash (\) escape. :menu 10.305 &File.&Do\ It\.\.\. :exit<CR> In this example, the name of the menu item "Do It..." contains a space and the command is ":exit<CR>". The <Tab> character in a menu name is used to separate the part that defines the menu name from the part that gives a hint to the user. The part after the <Tab> is displayed right aligned in the menu. In the File.Save menu the name used is "&File.&Save<Tab>:w". Thus the menu name is "File.Save" and the hint is ":w". SEPARATORS The separator lines, used to group related menu items together, can be defined by using a name that starts and ends in a '-'. For example "-sep-". When using several separators the names must be different. Otherwise the names don't matter. The command from a separator will never be executed, but you have to define one anyway. A single colon will do. Example: :amenu 20.510 Edit.-sep3- : ============================================================================== 42.2 Menu commands You can define menu items that exist for only certain modes. This works just like the variations on the ":map" command: :menu Normal, Visual and Operator-pending mode :nmenu Normal mode :vmenu Visual mode :omenu Operator-pending mode :menu! Insert and Command-line mode :imenu Insert mode :cmenu Command-line mode :tlmenu Terminal mode :amenu All modes (except for Terminal mode) To avoid that the commands of a menu item are being mapped, use the command ":noremenu", ":nnoremenu", ":anoremenu", etc. USING :AMENU The ":amenu" command is a bit different. It assumes that the {keys} you give are to be executed in Normal mode. When Vim is in Visual or Insert mode when the menu is used, Vim first has to go back to Normal mode. ":amenu" inserts a CTRL-C or CTRL-O for you. For example, if you use this command: :amenu 90.100 Mine.Find\ Word * Then the resulting menu commands will be: Normal mode: * Visual mode: CTRL-C * Operator-pending mode: CTRL-C * Insert mode: CTRL-O * Command-line mode: CTRL-C * When in Command-line mode the CTRL-C will abandon the command typed so far. In Visual and Operator-pending mode CTRL-C will stop the mode. The CTRL-O in Insert mode will execute the command and then return to Insert mode. CTRL-O only works for one command. If you need to use two or more commands, put them in a function and call that function. Example: :amenu Mine.Next\ File :call <SID>NextFile()<CR> :function <SID>NextFile() : next : 1/^Code :endfunction This menu entry goes to the next file in the argument list with ":next". Then it searches for the line that starts with "Code". The <SID> before the function name is the script ID. This makes the function local to the current Vim script file. This avoids problems when a function with the same name is defined in another script file. See <SID>