The Vim text editor provides instructions that make it easy for us to operate, through which we can open files in a variety of ways.

Before we get started, let’s prepare some test content:

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printf '%s\n' \
'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam nisi tellus,' \
'egestas sed dolor nec, eleifend venenatis mi. Mauris ac ligula' \
'scelerisque libero interdum varius. Aenean nec arcu nec turpis' \
'commodo mollis. Morbi suscipit felis libero, eu sollicitudin justo' \
'condimentum id. Praesent eu metus rutrum, varius leo malesuada,' \
'varius sapien. Vestibulum blandit, dolor bibendum bibendum ultricies,' \
'ipsum velit pretium arcu, eu maximus augue massa vitae justo. Etiam' \
'elit sapien, placerat quis libero a, tincidunt ornare erat. Praesent eu nibh' \
'ac sem mattis tincidunt. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nulla egestas dui ac urna' \
'convallis, vel egestas lectus ultrices. Morbi sit amet quam eget tortor' \
'laoreet laoreet id non libero.' > vim_file
cat vim_file
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Prepare test content

Locate Cursor to Fifth Line

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vim +5 vim_file
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Locate the cursor to the fifth line of the file vim_file's content

Locate Cursor to Last Line

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vim + vim_file
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Locate the cursor to the last line of the file vim_file's content

Locate Cursor to the First Matching Pattern

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vim +/commodo vim_file
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Locate the cursor to the first matching pattern of the file vim_file's content

Tile the Opening Files Horizontally

For the upcoming demonstrations to continue, we need to create another file, just like the one created before, to change the name:

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printf '%s\n' \
'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam nisi tellus,' \
'egestas sed dolor nec, eleifend venenatis mi. Mauris ac ligula' \
'scelerisque libero interdum varius. Aenean nec arcu nec turpis' \
'commodo mollis. Morbi suscipit felis libero, eu sollicitudin justo' \
'condimentum id. Praesent eu metus rutrum, varius leo malesuada,' \
'varius sapien. Vestibulum blandit, dolor bibendum bibendum ultricies,' \
'ipsum velit pretium arcu, eu maximus augue massa vitae justo. Etiam' \
'elit sapien, placerat quis libero a, tincidunt ornare erat. Praesent eu nibh' \
'ac sem mattis tincidunt. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nulla egestas dui ac urna' \
'convallis, vel egestas lectus ultrices. Morbi sit amet quam eget tortor' \
'laoreet laoreet id non libero.' > vim_file2
cat vim_file2

Let’s open these two files at the same time horizontally:

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vim -o vim_file vim_file2
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Tile two opening files horizontally

Tile the Opening Files Vertically

Let’s open these two files at the same time vertically:

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vim -O vim_file vim_file2
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Tile two opening files vertically

Switching Between Tiled Files

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Ctrl+w, up/down/left/right key    # Press Ctrl+w, release, and then either one of the arrow keys, the arrow key must be pressed after the releasing of the Ctrl+w combination key.
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Switch to the second file's window with Ctrl+w and press left arrow key after the releasing of the combination key

Open Files in More Windows

Horizontal Window

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Ctrl+w, s    # Press Ctrl+w, release, and then press the s key, the s key must be pressed after the releasing of the Ctrl+w combination key.
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Open the file vim_file2 in another window horizontally

Vertical Window

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Ctrl+w, v    # Press Ctrl+w, release, and then press the v key, the v key must be pressed after the releasing of the Ctrl+w combination key.
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Open the file vim_file2 in another window vertically

References VIM Documentation

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