NERD Tree Guide – Usevim Medium

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Alex R. Young Follow

Software critic.

Aug 18, 2012 ·2 min read

NERD Tree Guide

The NERD Tree (GitHub: scrooloose / nerdtree) by Martin Grenfell is a

popular le system browser. If you’re using it simply to browse and

select les like a typical GUI IDE, then it’s worth spending a bit of time

going over the documentation, because this plugin does a lot more than

displaying a tree of les and directories.

With that in mind, here’s a guide to my favourite features and keyboard

commands.

Mirroring

If you want the tree to appear in the same state across multiple tabs,

then type :NERDTreeMirror . Any subsequent changes will be reected

in each mirrored instance. This gives the feel of a traditional IDE, but

be wary of relying on it too much -- trying to use tabs this way is seen as

somewhat of an anti-pattern.

Keyboard Commands

Type :help NERDTreeMappings to read through all of the default

keyboard shortcuts. These are the ones I use the most frequently:

t: Open the selected le in a new tab

i: Open the selected le in a horizontal split window

s: Open the selected le in a vertical split window

I: Toggle hidden les

m: Show the NERD Tree menu

R: Refresh the tree, useful if les change outside of Vim

?: Toggle NERD Tree's quick help

The NERD Tree Menu

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Typing m will display a menu that allows le system operations to be

performed from within NERD Tree. If you need to create a new le or

directory, then ma will show a prompt that allow a le name to be

entered.

I nd there are cases where NERD Tree’s visual representation of the

le system can aid understanding of a project’s structure, so it can be

useful to create new les from within it.

Further Reading

Dig into that :help NERDTree help le and have a look at the options

for customisation. And keep your NERD Tree up to date! This plugin

has had lots of contributors, and it was updated as recently as two

weeks ago.

6.7.2018 NERD Tree Guide – usevim – Medium

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