In vim, how can I quickly switch between tabs?

In gnome-terminal, I can just press Alt + (1, 2, 3, etc.) to switch to specific tabs. I can also use Ctrl + (PgUp / PgDn) to cycle through tabs (admittedly less convenient, but it can be remapped).

If I want to use vim tabs instead of gnome-terminal tabs, typing :tabn and :tabp is quite cumbersome. I could map them to keyboard shortcuts, but that is still a lot less convenient than jumping directly to tab 4 with Alt + 4.

Is there a faster way to switch between tabs in vim?

8 Answers

Next tab: gt

Prior tab: gT

Numbered tab: nnngt

4

Why not make use of your leader (my leader is mapped to Space):

" Go to tab by number
noremap <leader>1 1gt
noremap <leader>2 2gt
noremap <leader>3 3gt
noremap <leader>4 4gt
noremap <leader>5 5gt
noremap <leader>6 6gt
noremap <leader>7 7gt
noremap <leader>8 8gt
noremap <leader>9 9gt
noremap <leader>0 :tablast<cr>

You can use the settings below to toggle between the current and last active tab (here it is mapped to Ctrl+L, i.e., <c-l>):

" Go to last active tab
au TabLeave * let g:lasttab = tabpagenr()
nnoremap <silent> <c-l> :exe "tabn ".g:lasttab<cr>
vnoremap <silent> <c-l> :exe "tabn ".g:lasttab<cr>
3

This is the easiest way that I found, to switch between tabs faster and simple.
Add next lines to your .vimrc and enjoy it, more tricks about vim tabs here.

nnoremap <C-Left> :tabprevious<CR>
nnoremap <C-Right> :tabnext<CR>

Now you can use Ctrl to go left and Ctrl to go right.

Or just use:
1gt to go to tab one,
2gt to go to tab two,
3gt to go to tab three, etc... now you have the idea.

8

As I am on a Mac and not using MacVim (but plain vim within a terminal) I have had some difficulty with key combinations not being sent through to the terminal.

The most-compatible (and for me most comfortable) way to switch tabs quickly comes from the Vim Wikia site.

Place in your .vimrc file:

nnoremap H gT
nnoremap L gt

Now Shift-h (capital H) and Shift-l (capital L) will switch you quickly between tabs, and follows the convention that h and l correspond to left and right in vim on a regular qwerty keyboard.

3

Add these to .vimrc to enable tab navigation hot keys:

<ctrl-l> toggle between 2 most recent tabs;

<ctrl-j/k> goto the last/next tab;

<ctrl-t> open a new tab.

" tab navigation: Alt or Ctrl+Shift may not work in terminal: " " Tab navigation like Firefox: only 'open new tab' works in terminal nnoremap <C-t> :tabnew<CR> inoremap <C-t> <Esc>:tabnew<CR> " move to the previous/next tabpage. nnoremap <C-j> gT nnoremap <C-k> gt " Go to last active tab au TabLeave * let g:lasttab = tabpagenr() nnoremap <silent> <c-l> :exe "tabn ".g:lasttab<cr> vnoremap <silent> <c-l> :exe "tabn ".g:lasttab<cr>

1

(Unfortunately) vim also uses CtrlPgDn/PgUp to cycle through tabs. You'll need to use map to map tabn/tabp to something usable.

If you're using gvim or similar (i.e., something outside of the terminal), you can imitate the gnome-terminal behaviour you describe with:

" Map alt-x keys to jump to a tab
for i in range(1, 8) execute "nmap \<M-" . i . "> " . i . "gt"
endfor
nmap <M-9> :tablast<CR>

So alt-1 jumps to the first tab, etc. But alt-9 jumps to the last tab (as in Chrome).

You might want to wrap this in if has("gui_running") (although this doesn't seem to work with Neovim), or put this in .gvimrc.

2

I encountered this problem the same as you,
but later I find out what I really need might be a Marker.
Especially when using uppercase characters like mA ,
It will take you to your marked tab by using "`A" as fast as it can.
Hope it can help.

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