Creating Splits

Open more than one viewport onto the same workspace.

Keys: Ctrl-W s, Ctrl-W v, :sp, :vs

Ctrl-Ws splits the current window horizontally; Ctrl-Wv splits vertically. :sp and :vs do the same and can take a filename to open in the new split.

A window is a viewport. Splits give you more than one. Ctrl-W s stacks two viewports vertically (a horizontal split). Ctrl-W v puts them side by side (a vertical split).

Horizontal split (top/bottom)

Key	Note
`{key:Ctrl-W}`
`s`

Vertical split (left/right)

Key	Note
`{key:Ctrl-W}`
`v`

Horizontal split, open {file}

Key	Note
`:`
`s`
`p`

`{file}`
`Enter`

Vertical split, open {file}

Key	Note
`:`
`v`
`s`

`{file}`
`Enter`

Ctrl-W s — horizontal split

Ctrl-W v — vertical split

Tip. :new creates a horizontal split with an empty buffer. :vnew the vertical equivalent. Useful for scratch space without creating a file.

Worked example — :split and :vsplit

Two views of one buffer (or two).

Step 2 · `:sp` · :sp — horizontal split.

Step 3 · `:vsp` · :vsp — vertical split.