flake-nixinator/config/neovim/store/lazy-plugins/vimtex/VISUALS.md

VimTeX Visualized

This page contains animated GIFs that demonstrate many of the core VimTeX editing features listed in :help vimtex-features. The related mappings are documented in detail at :help vimtex-mappings. The GIFs and accompanying descriptions are used with permission from @ejmastnak's guide to Getting started with the VimTeX plugin.

Hopefully, the animations can give you a clearer mental image of what VimTeX's mappings do and how you might use them. You may want to scroll through this page while simultaneously looking through :help vimtex-features—the animations should nicely complement the plain-text documentation.

You can find a description of how the GIFs were made at the bottom of this page.

This page is community-maintained

• This page is made possible only with help from the community. @ejmastnak, not @lervag, takes primary responsibility for maintaining it, but contributions from all VimTeX users are welcome.

• If you notice mistakes or outdated content (following a VimTeX update, say), feel free to open a PR to fix it yourself. Alternatively, contact @ejmastnak at ejmastnak@gmail.com, who will be happy to help fix it.

Table of contents

• Motion commands
  • Navigating sections
  • Navigating environments
  • Navigating math zones
  • Navigating frames
  • Navigating matching delimiters
• Text objects
  • The math text object
  • The section, delimiter, and command text objects
  • The environment and item text objects
• Deleting surrounding LaTeX content
  • Delete surrounding commands
  • Delete surrounding environments
  • Delete surrounding math zones
  • Delete surrounding delimiters
• Changing surrounding LaTeX content
  • Change surrounding commands
  • Change surrounding environments
  • Change surrounding math zones
  • Change surrounding delimiters
• Toggling commands
  • Toggling starred commands and environments
  • Toggling between inline and display math
  • Toggling delimiter modifiers
  • Toggling fractions
• How these GIFs were made

Motion commands

Navigating sections

Use ]] to jump to the beginning of the next \section, \subsection or \subsubsection, whichever comes first. Use [[ to jump backward through sections, and see the similar shortcuts ][ and [] in the VimTeX documentation at :help <Plug>(vimtex-][) and :help <Plug>(vimtex-[]).

Navigating environments

Use ]m and [m to jump to the next or previous environment \begin{} command. See the VimTeX documentation for the similar shortcuts ]M and [M, described in :help <Plug>(vimtex-]M) and :help <Plug>(vimtex-[M).

Navigating math zones

Use ]n and [n to jump to the beginning of the next or previous math zone. See the VimTeX documentation for the similar shortcuts ]N and [N, described in :help <Plug>(vimtex-]N) and :help <Plug>(vimtex-[N).

Navigating frames

Use ]r and [r to jump to the beginning of the next or previous Beamer frame environment. See the VimTeX documentation for the similar shortcuts ]R and [R, described in :help <Plug>(vimtex-]R) and :help <Plug>(vimtex-[R).

Navigating matching delimiters

Use % to move between matching delimiters, inline-math $ delimiters, and LaTeX environments.

Text objects

VimTeX provides text objects for commands, delimiters, environments, math zones, sections, and items. The following GIFs use Vim's visual mode to show the scope of the text objects.

The math text object

The i$ and a$ text objects select inline math, display math, and common math environments.

The section, delimiter, and command text objects

The iP and aP text objects select LaTeX sections (their subsection variations); the id and ad objects select delimiters (parentheses, brackets, braces...); the ic and ac objects select LaTeX commands.

The environment and item text objects

The ie and ae text objects select LaTeX environments and the im and am objects select items in enumerated environments.

Deleting surrounding LaTeX content

Delete surrounding commands

Use dsc to delete a LaTeX command while preserving the command's argument(s); the dsc mapping also recognizes and correctly deletes parameters inside square brackets.

Delete surrounding environments

Use dse to delete the \begin{} and \end{} declaration surrounding a LaTeX environment without changing the environment contents.

Delete surrounding math zones

Use ds$ to delete surrounding math zones (display math, standard environments, and inline math) without changing the math contents.

Delete surrounding delimiters

Use dsd to delete delimiters (e.g. (), [], {}, and any of their \left \right, \big \big variants) without changing the enclosed content.

Changing surrounding LaTeX content

Change surrounding commands

Use csc to change a LaTeX command while preserving the command's argument(s).

Change surrounding environments

Use cse to change the type of a LaTeX environment without changing the environment contents.

Change surrounding math zones

Use cs$ to change the type of surrounding math zone without changing the math contents. You can switch between display math, standard environments, and inline math.

Change surrounding delimiters

Use csd to change delimiters (e.g. (), [], {}, and any of their \left \right, \big \big variants) without changing the enclosed content; the csd command is "smart" and correctly recognizes and preserves \left \right-style modifiers.

Toggling commands

Toggling starred commands and environments

Use tsc and tse to toggle between starred and un-starred versions of commands and environments, respectively.

Toggling between inline and display math

Use ts$ to toggle between inline math, display math, and standard math environments.

Toggling delimiter modifiers

Use tsd to change between plain and \left/\right versions of delimiters. Use the g:vimtex_delim_toggle_mod_list variable to add more modifiers to the delimiter toggle list. (e.g. \big as in the GIF below)

Toggling fractions

Use tsf to toggle between inline and \frac{}{} versions of fractions.

How these GIFs were made

(Based on interest and discussion in issue #2685.)

The basic toolkit is Menyoki for recording the GIFs and screenkey to display the keys being typed, all running on a Linux system using the X11 window system.

On top of this are some aesthetic details to make the GIFs look nicer, including:

• Goyo to remove Vim peripherals (status bar, line numbers, etc.) for a cleaner look
• Limelight to draw focus to the currently selected paragraph (and gray out the rest of the document)
• Screen recording region (crop, basically) set via Menyoki to exactly capture the terminal window (and not e.g. the rest of my desktop)
• Enlarged terminal font for the duration of the GIF recording for better readability
• Vim and screenkey color schemes and fonts aligned for visual consistency.

The aesthetic details and cropping are wrapped in shell scripts for repeatability across multiple GIF recordings—the original scripts and auxiliary files can be found in the GitHub repo ejmastnak/ejmastnak.github.io, although they might be difficult to parse without additional context.

Feel free to contact @ejmastnak if you're interested in the details or recording similar GIFs.