How can I make Vim open help in a vertical split?

Question

I usually work in a drop-down terminal, running about 25 characters high. Since I prefer tabs to windows¹, usually a lot of horizontal space is wasted - around half of the terminal width.

On top of that, Vim, with the default setting of helpheight, leaves just about a couple of lines of the file content when I open a help window:

Is there a way to make :h use a vertical split?

I could:

• decrease helpheight
• use <C-W>L to manually move the window
• make a map or a custom command which does the above for me.

Is there a simpler way?

^{1I do use windows when I need to look at multiple files together. But usually I prefer each file to be in its own (mental) context.}

Answer 1

You can use :vert h [your topic] to open help vertically.

You can use the following command:

cnoreabbrev H vert h

To make vim replace H by vert h automatically in command line.

Also you can use this abbreviation:

cnoreabbrev HR vert bo h

To open the help window on the right side of the screen. (see :h :botright for more details on bo)

Answer 2

This is inspired from junegunn 's vimrc:

augroup vimrc_help
  autocmd!
  autocmd BufEnter *.txt if &buftype == 'help' | wincmd L | endif
augroup END

Answer 3

You can use a custom command that does the vertical-or-not selection for you. This can be based on the current window width and height :

function! s:ShowHelp(tag) abort
  if winheight('%') < winwidth('%')
    execute 'vertical help '.a:tag
  else
    execute 'help '.a:tag
  endif
endfunction

command! -nargs=1 H call s:ShowHelp(<f-args>)

References :

• :h winheight
• :h <f-args>

Answer 4

Here's an autocmd in lua for neovim.

-- Open help window in a vertical split to the right.
vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("BufWinEnter", {
    group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup("help_window_right", {}),
    pattern = { "*.txt" },
    callback = function()
        if vim.o.filetype == 'help' then vim.cmd.wincmd("L") end
    end
})

Answer 5

While this isn't a vertical split per-se, I find having help in its own tab to be very nice.

augroup HelpInTabs
autocmd!
   autocmd BufEnter *.txt call HelpInNewTab()
augroup END

Whoops. I thought I had pasted the whole answer. Here's the rest of the code.

" only apply to help files...
function! HelpInNewTab ()
  if &buftype == 'help'
    " convert help window to a tab
    execute "normal \<C-W>T"
  endif
endfunction