vim is extremely customizable. It will read the file .vimrc in your home directory before it starts. This file can contain settings and even scripts. The below settings are ones I've found helpful -- give them a try!
set nocompatible
This setting prevents vim from emulating the original vi's bugs and limitations.
set autoindent
set smartindent
The first setting tells vim to use "autoindent" (that is, use the current line's indent level to set the indent level of new lines). The second makes vim attempt to intelligently guess the indent level of any new line based on the previous line, assuming the source file is in a C-like language. Combined, they are very useful in writing well-formatted source code.
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
I prefer 4-space tabs to 8-space tabs. The first setting sets up 4-space tabs, and the second tells vi to use 4 spaces when text is indented (auto or with the manual indent adjustmenters.)
set showmatch
This setting will cause the cursor to very briefly jump to a brace/parenthese/bracket's "match" whenever you type a closing or opening brace/parenthese/bracket. I've had almost no mismatched-punctuation errors since I started using this setting.
set guioptions-=T
I find the toolbar in the GUI version of vim (gvim) to be somewhat useless visual clutter. This option gets rid of the toolbar.
set vb t_vb=
This setting prevents vi from making its annoying beeps when a command doesn't work. Instead, it briefly flashes the screen -- much less annoying.
set ruler
This setting ensures that each window contains a statusline that displays the current cursor position.
set nohls
By default, search matches are highlighted. I find this annoying most of the time. This option turns off search highlighting. You can always turn it back on with :set hls.
set incsearch
With this nifty option, vim will search for text as you enter it. For instance, if you type /bob to search for bob, vi will go to the first "b" after you type the "b," to the first "bo" after you type the "o," and so on. It makes searching much faster, since if you pay attention you never have to enter more than the minimum number of characters to find your target location. Make sure that you press Enter to accept the match after vim finds the location you want.
set virtualedit=all
By default, vim doesn't let the cursor stray beyond the defined text. This setting allows the cursor to freely roam anywhere it likes in command mode. It feels weird at first but is quite useful.
Type :help options within vim to get a complete list of options.
Many more advanced techniques, options, and mappings are available on the
http://phuzz.org/vimrc.html
" Vimrc file, http://phuzz.org
set nocompatible " use vim defaults
set ls =2 " allways show status line
set tabstop =4 " numbers of spaces of tab character
set shiftwidth =4 " numbers of spaces to (auto)indent
set scrolloff =3 " keep 3 lines when scrolling
set showcmd " display incomplete commands
set hlsearch " highlight searches
set incsearch " do incremental searching
set ruler " show the cursor position all the time
set visualbell t_vb = " turn off error beep/flash
set novisualbell " turn off visual bell
set nobackup " do not keep a backup file
set number " show line numbers
set ignorecase " ignore case when searching
"set noignorecase " don't ignore case
set title " show title in console title bar
set ttyfast " smoother changes
"set ttyscroll=0 " turn off scrolling, didn't work well with PuTTY
set modeline " last lines in document sets vim mode
set modelines =3 " number lines checked for modelines
set shortmess =atI " Abbreviate messages
set nostartofline " don't jump to first character when paging
set whichwrap =b, s, h, l, <,>, [, ] " move freely between files
"set viminfo='20,<50,s10,h
"set autoindent " always set autoindenting on
"set smartindent " smart indent
"set cindent " cindent
set noautoindent
set nosmartindent
set nocindent
"set autowrite " auto saves changes when quitting and swiching buffer
"set expandtab " tabs are converted to spaces, use only when required
"set sm " show matching braces, somewhat annoying...
"set nowrap " don't wrap lines
syntax on " syntax highlighing
if has ( "gui_running" )
" See ~/.gvimrc
set guifont =Monospace/ 10 " use this font
set lines =50 " height = 50 lines
set columns =100 " width = 100 columns
set background =light " adapt colors for background
set selectmode =mouse, key, cmd
set keymodel =
else
colorscheme elflord " use this color scheme
set background =dark " adapt colors for background
endif
if has ( "autocmd" )
" Restore cursor position
au BufReadPost * if line ( "'/"" ) > 0 |if line ( "'/"" ) <= line ( "$" ) |exe( "norm '/"" ) |else |exe "norm $" |endif |endif
" Filetypes (au = autocmd)
au FileType helpfile set nonumber " no line numbers when viewing help
au FileType helpfile nnoremap <buffer><cr> <c-]> " Enter selects subject
au FileType helpfile nnoremap <buffer><bs> <c-T> " Backspace to go back
" When using mutt, text width=72
au FileType mail,tex set textwidth =72
au FileType cpp,c,java,sh,pl,php,asp set autoindent
au FileType cpp,c,java,sh,pl,php,asp set smartindent
au FileType cpp,c,java,sh,pl,php,asp set cindent
"au BufRead mutt*[0-9] set tw=72
" Automatically chmod +x Shell and Perl scripts
"au BufWritePost *.sh !chmod +x %
"au BufWritePost *.pl !chmod +x %
" File formats
au BufNewFile ,BufRead *.pls set syntax =dosini
au BufNewFile ,BufRead modprobe.conf set syntax =modconf
endif
" Keyboard mappings
map <F1> :previous<CR> " map F1 to open previous buffer
map <F2> :next<CR> " map F2 to open next buffer
map <silent> <C-N> :silent noh<CR> " turn off highlighted search
map ,v :sp ~/.vimrc<cr> " edit my .vimrc file in a split
map ,e :e ~/.vimrc<cr> " edit my .vimrc file
map ,u :source ~/.vimrc<cr> " update the system settings from my vimrc file
"----- write out html file
map ,h :source $VIM/vim71/syntax/2html.vim<cr>:w<cr>:clo<cr>
" Common command line typos
"cmap W w
"cmap Q q
" Keyboard mapping for numeric keypad
"imap <Esc>OM <c-m>
" map <Esc>OM <c-m>
"imap <Esc>OP <nop>
" map <Esc>OP <nop>
"imap <Esc>OQ /
" map <Esc>OQ /
"imap <Esc>OR *
" map <Esc>OR *
"imap <Esc>OS -
" map <Esc>OS -
"imap <Esc>Ol +
"imap <Esc>Om -
"imap <Esc>On ,
"imap <Esc>Op 0
"imap <Esc>Oq 1
"imap <Esc>Or 2
"imap <Esc>Os 3
"imap <Esc>Ot 4
"imap <Esc>Ou 5
"imap <Esc>Ov 6
"imap <Esc>Ow 7
"imap <Esc>Ox 8
"imap <Esc>Oy 9
"imap <Esc>Oz 0
" 不要使用vi的键盘模式,而是vim 自 己的
set nocompatible
" 语法高亮
set syntax=on
" 去掉输入错误的提示声音
set noeb
" 在处理未保存或只读文 件 的时候,弹出确认
set confirm
" 自动缩进
set autoindent
set cindent
" Tab键的宽度
set tabstop=4
" 统一缩进为4
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
" 不要用空格代替制表符
set noexpandtab
" 在行和段开始处使用制表符
set smarttab
" 显示行号
set number
" 历史记录数
set history=1000
"禁止生成临时文件
set nobackup
set noswapfile
"搜索忽略大小写
set ignorecase
"搜索逐 字符高亮
set hlsearch
set incsearch
"行内替换
set gdefault
" 编码设置
set enc=utf-8
set fencs=utf-8,ucs-bom,shift-jis,gb18030,gbk,gb2312,cp936
" 语言设置
set langmenu=zh_CN.UTF-8
set helplang=cn
" 我的状态行显示的内容(包括文件类型和解码)
set statusline=%F%m%r%h%w/ [FORMAT=%{&ff}]/ [TYPE=%Y]/ [POS=%l,%v][%p%%]/ %{strftime(/"%d/%m/%y/ -/ %H:%M/")}
"set statusline=[%F]%y%r%m%*%=[Line:%l/%L,Column:%c][%p%%]
" 总是显示状态行
set laststatus=2
" 在编辑过程中,在右下角显示光标位置的状态行
set ruler
" 命令 行(在状态行下)的 高度,默认为1,这里是2
set cmdheight=2
" 侦测文件类型
filetype on
" 载入文件类型插件
filetype plugin on
" 为特定文件类型载入相关缩进文件
filetype indent on
" 保存全局变量
set viminfo+=!
" 带有如下符号的单词不要被换行分割
set iskeyword+=_,$,@,%,#,-
" 字符间插入的像素行数目
set linespace=0
" 增强模式中的命令行自动完成操作
set wildmenu
" 使回格键(backspace)正常处理indent, eol, start等
set backspace=2
" 允许backspace和光标键跨越行边界
set whichwrap+=<,>,h,l
" 可以在buffer的任何地方使用鼠标(类似office中在工作区双击鼠标定位)
set mouse=a
set selection=exclusive
set selectmode=mouse,key
" 通过使用: commands命令,告诉我们文件的哪一行被改变过
set report=0
" 启动的时候不显示那个援助索马里儿童的提示
set shortmess=atI
" 在被分割的窗口间显示空白,便于阅读
set fillchars=vert:/ ,stl:/ ,stlnc:/
" 高亮显示匹配的括号
set showmatch
" 匹配括号高亮的时间(单位是十分之一秒)
set matchtime=5
" 光标移动到buffer的顶部和底部时保持3行距离
set scrolloff=3
" 为C程序提供自动缩进
set smartindent
" 只在下列文件类型被侦测到的时候显示行号,普通文本文件不显示
if has("autocmd")
autocmd FileType xml,html,c,cs,java,perl,shell,bash,cpp,python,vim,php,ruby set number
autocmd FileType xml,html vmap <C-o> <ESC>'<i<!--<ESC>o<ESC>'>o-->
autocmd FileType java ,c,cpp,cs vmap <C-o> <ESC>'<o/*<ESC>'>o*/
autocmd FileType html,text,php,vim,c,java,xml,bash,shell,perl,python setlocal textwidth=100
autocmd Filetype html,xml,xsl source $VIMRUNTIME/plugin/closetag.vim
autocmd BufReadPost *
/ if line("'/"") > 0 && line("'/"") <= line("$") |
/ exe "normal g`/"" |
/ endif
endif " has("autocmd")
" F5编译和运行C程序,F6编译和运行C++程序
" 请注意,下述代码在windows 下 使用会报错
" 需要去掉./这两个字符
" C的编译和运行
map <F5> :call CompileRunGcc()<CR>
func! CompileRunGcc()
exec "w"
exec "!gcc % -o %<"
exec "! ./%<"
endfunc
" C++的编译和运行
map <F6> :call CompileRunGpp()<CR>
func! CompileRunGpp()
exec "w"
exec "!g++ % -o %<"
exec "! ./%<"
endfunc
" 能够漂亮地显示.NFO文件
set encoding=utf-8
function! SetFileEncodings(encodings)
let b:myfileencodingsbak=&fileencodings
let &fileencodings=a:encodings
endfunction
function! RestoreFileEncodings()
let &fileencodings=b:myfileencodingsbak
unlet b:myfileencodingsbak
endfunction
au BufReadPre *.nfo call SetFileEncodings('cp437')|set ambiwidth=single
au BufReadPost *.nfo call RestoreFileEncodings()
" 高亮显示普通txt文件(需要txt.vim脚本)
au BufRead,BufNewFile * setfiletype txt
" 用空格键来开关折叠
set foldenable
set foldmethod=manual
nnoremap <space> @=((foldclosed(line('.')) < 0) ? 'zc' : 'zo')<CR>
" minibufexpl插件的一般设置
let g:miniBufExplMapWindowNavVim = 1
let g:miniBufExplMapWindowNavArrows = 1
let g:miniBufExplMapCTabSwitchBufs = 1
let g:miniBufExplModSelTarget = 1