How can I open a new empty tmux pane when I am working in Vim?

Question

Let's say I am working on an .html (or any text-based) file in vim. Next, I need to open a new pane in the same window to work on the terminal. How can I achieve that?

I know how to use tmux to open a new pane and then go into vim. But how do I do the reverse? To open a new tmux pane to work on terminal if i am already in vim window?

Edit

I would like to open a new pane instead of tab. Panes will allow me to easily see all the terminals and vim files. I can do :split but that would just open a new vim pane instead of a new terminal pane.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try prefix-key followed by shift+double quote. This works for me and I use it frequently. It should open a terminal pane below the vim pane.

Cntrl-b
Shift-"

Or to have the new terminal pane open beside the vim pane:

Cntrl-b
Shift-%

Answer 2

Apparently you're forgetting to press the prefix-key (Ctrl+b by default) before the colon. The right combination is Ctrl+b and then :split-window.

If you forget to press Ctrl+b, the colon will be interpreted by Vim instead of Tmux.