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Does Vim have functionality similar to tmux's display-panes command for selecting (goto) a specific window by number?

Sometimes when I've many windows open, it can be a pain to navigate them by C-w h (left), C-w j (down), C-w k (up), and C-w l (right). In that case, I miss functionality similar to tmux's display-panes command, which lets me select (goto) a specific pane by its number:

bind-key    -T prefix       q                     display-panes

Does vim have similar functionality?

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6 Answers 6

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I'm not aware of any Vim feature or even plugin that does that; in fact, up until recently it would be rather hard to display it like that, but with Vim 8.2's popup windows it wouldn't be too hard; you just have to loop over all visible windows and create a new popup window displaying the window number.

The closest thing you can get, which may actually be enough, is displaying the window number in the statusline by adding %{winnr()}; you can then use [nr]<C-w>w to switch to a specific window.

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  • Thank you. Do you know of any approximate functionality, like labeling windows and then moving to a window by its label, or is there a command for moving to the last-visited window (i.e., jump between two windows)?
    – Shuzheng
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 9:28
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    @Shuzheng You can use CTRL-W p to jump to the last visited window, which will effectively jump between two windows when used repeatedly.
    – filbranden
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 10:29
  • @filbranden - Thank you. But there is no way to jump to a specific window except using Ctrl-w h, Ctrl-w j, ...?
    – Shuzheng
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 11:08
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    @Shuzheng If you know the window number (for instance by including it in the status line, like Martin suggests), then you can use <count> CTRL-W w to jump to that window directly. Even if you don't have the number in the status line, windows are numbered from top-left to bottom-right, so you should be able to count to the one you would like to jump too...
    – filbranden
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 11:17
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    @filbranden Window number is determined by layout, it's totally possible to number window by top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right. See end of vi.stackexchange.com/a/22545/5017 for an example.
    – dedowsdi
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 12:27
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You are looking for Choosewin, sadly it's not being actively developed anymore, but for the simplest use cases it works great.

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  • Looks like that plugin works by creating a new buffer with the same text, and then adding and highlighting some characters to draw a number. It then switches the actual buffer out for the new one, and back when you select it. Clever, but rather ugly, and apparently with some side-effects. With popup windows in Vim 8.2 it's no longer needed, so that plugin can be simplified a lot now.
    – Martin Tournoij
    Commented Apr 10, 2020 at 12:08
  • Agree, it actually has several corner cases so I used the mode that only changes the status line
    – Tae
    Commented Apr 10, 2020 at 16:21
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With vim only

There's a few options to make navigation between files less tedious in vanilla vim.

First, you probably want to have set switchbuf=useopen in your vimrc (:h 'switchbuf') to reuse a split, instead of opening the buffer in the current split.

If you have the buffer number in 'statusline' (i.e %n), you can then easily switch to a split by number with :sbuffer buffnumber.

This will also work if you give a unique pattern from the name. If you are in the split 'foo' and have two more splits 'bar' and 'baz', :sbuffer az will switch to the 'baz' split.

You can have a mapping to make it easier: nnoremap <leader>b :sbuffer (there's a space at the end).

Also, those mappings help switch to different splits (:h windows):

  • <c-w>t -> top left split
  • <c-w>b -> bottom right split
  • <c-w>p -> last used split

With FZF

Besides, could use fzf.vim plugin (requires fzf) and its :Buffers command.

Similarly to switchbuf=useopen, you'll want let g:fzf_buffers_jump = 1 in your vimrc to reuse an open split.

The command will show a list of buffers which you can strip down with fuzzy search, and navigate with <c-j> and <c-k>

<Enter> will then switch to the split if already open, or else use the current one. <c-v>, <c-x> or <c-t> will open the buffer in a new vertical split, horizontal split or tab.

You could have a mapping to launch :Buffers like nnoremap <leader>b :Buffers<cr>.

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    :Windows is another fzf command that shows the window numbers along with tabs.
    – jsuth
    Commented Jul 4, 2021 at 20:12
  • FZF for the win here! The :Windows and :Buffers commands wth the plugin were really cool. I do wish Vim/Neovim had a way to list split numbers and jump between them easier than having to modify the statusline.
    – FilBot3
    Commented Aug 31, 2021 at 14:57
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I found a plugin that does exactly this.

I have been using for a whole hour now, so I feel comfortable recommending it to the world.

Look at it go!

https://github.com/t9md/vim-choosewin

In particular, I've been using this configuration:

" Invoke choosewin plugin using tab
nmap  <Tab>  <Plug>(choosewin)
"Use overlay feature for choosewin
let g:choosewin_overlay_enable = 1

But I have not play around with other options, it seems to be pretty configurable, go nuts!

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It might not be a direct answer, but if you just need to jump between buffers you can use :bN, where N is the number of the buffer, which you can check with the :ls command.

I rarely need to use more than 3 panes in one direction and I just use the :bN command. If you work long enough with the files, you will remember their buffer number.

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If you never have more than 9 windows then with a tiny bit of config you can jump to any window with <leader> + window number. Or you can jump to the previous window with <leader>0.

This relies on your status line showing the window number so you know what each window's number is.

Here's the config:

" Jump to window <n>:
" http://stackoverflow.com/a/6404246/151007
for i in range(1, 9)
  execute 'nnoremap <Leader>'.i.' :'.i.'wincmd w<CR>'
endfor
" Jump to previous window:
execute 'nnoremap <Leader>0 :wincmd p<CR>'

Additionally I map tab and shift-tab to cycle through the windows. Sometimes it's quicker to hammer tab a few times than look at the window's status line and type <leader>7 or whatever it may be.

nnoremap <Tab> <C-W>w
nnoremap <S-Tab> <C-W>W
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