Learn-Vim-Neovim

A repo containing curated Vim and Neovim help files, examples, and tips to learn and reference Vim/Neovim features and configuration. Files are intended to be readable in a browser or installed into your editor's runtime to be available via :help.

Table of contents

• About
• Repository structure
• Quick start
• Installing help files (Vim & Neovim)
• Viewing the help locally
• Contributing
• License
• Contact / Support

About

This repository collects help files, mini-guides, and example configs to help users learn Vim and Neovim. Help files are formatted so they can be used with Vim's :help system (when placed in a doc/ directory and processed with helptags) and are also viewable as plain text or HTML in a browser.

Repository structure

(Adjust if your repo uses different folders)

• docs/ or help/ — raw help files (text or HTML)
• examples/ — example vimrc / init.lua snippets
• tips/ — short how-to notes and shortcuts
• README.md — this file

Quick start

Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/M4ikel79/Learn-Vim-Neovim.git
cd Learn-Vim-Neovim

Open HTML help files in your browser (if present):

# from repo root, open index.html or individual .html files
# e.g. (Linux)
xdg-open docs/index.html   # or open on macOS with `open`

Recommended: run a local static server with live-server

• Open the directory that contains the HTML help files (for example docs/ or help/) — or open the repo root if the HTML files are in the root.
• Run once without installing globally:

npx live-server

• Or install live-server via npm:

# install globally
npm install -g live-server
# or add as a dev dependency
npm install --save-dev live-server

• Then run:

live-server

This starts a local server (e.g. http://127.0.0.1:8080) so you can browse the help in your browser. Opening the directory "between the two" and running npx live-server (as you prefer) is the recommended workflow for this repo.

Or open the text help files directly in Vim/Neovim after installing (see below).

Installing help files into Vim / Neovim

If you want these help files available via :help inside Vim/Neovim, copy them into your editor's doc directory and generate helptags.

For Vim (classic):

1. Copy help files to ~/.vim/doc/ (create if missing)
2. In Vim run:

:helptags ~/.vim/doc

For Neovim:

1. Copy help files to ~/.local/share/nvim/site/doc/ (or to a plugin's doc/ directory under your runtimepath)
2. In Neovim run:

:helptags ALL

Or generate helptags from the shell:

nvim --headless +'helptags ALL' +qa

Notes:

• Help file names should end with .txt and include a tag line (see Vim help file format).
• If you place files inside a plugin folder under pack/*/start/, they are picked up automatically by runtimepath; then run :helptags on that doc directory.

Viewing the help locally

• Text help files: open directly in Vim/Neovim with :help {tag} after generating helptags.
• HTML files: open in any browser or use live-server as recommended above.
• Quick search: use grep or ripgrep inside the repo:

rg "search-term" .

Contributing

Contributions welcome.

• Add new help files in docs/ or help/.
• If adding a Vim help file (.txt), include tags and a short summary line.
• Run tests / validate formatting manually (there are no automated checks yet).
• Submit a pull request with a clear title and description.
• Coding style: keep examples minimal and annotated.

Suggested PR checklist:

• File placed in correct folder
• Help/tags formatted for :helptags if appropriate
• Examples tested in Vim/Neovim

License

This repository is released under the MIT License — see the included LICENSE file for details.

Contact / Support

For issues or feature requests, open an issue in this repository: https://github.com/M4ikel79/Learn-Vim-Neovim/issues