141

Must be something super obvious, but I can't figure out, and Google is not helping out either.

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
179 
:help new
:help vnew

should bring you on course.

you will have a new buffer then, obviously. that buffer becomes a file only if you :w it to the disk.

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  • 9
    And :set splitright puts the new split on the right. Awesome, thanks
    – hakanensari
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 13:56
  • 5
    Also :set splitbelow is the corresponding command to make the new split appear on the bottom when splitting horizontally.
    – dsaxton
    Commented Apr 22, 2016 at 14:10
58

another way is to do a <CTRL + W> n in normal mode. This will create a new split.

EDIT:

You can also do <CTRL + W> v in normal mode to create a vertical split (the previous one will do a horizontal split.

And just to be complete, you move to the different splits by doing <CTRL + W> <direction> with the direction being any h, j, k, or l

To close a buffer, do <CTRL + W> q

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  • 6
    fyi: these open the current buffer in a new split, not a new file in a new split.
    – Emile 81
    Commented May 10, 2017 at 8:44
  • 5
    For me, Ctrl+w n opens a split with a new buffer, but Ctrl+w v just splits the current buffer. Strange.
    – c24w
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 8:46
  • 3
    if you're looking to create a vertical split with a new file, check out this question/answer vi.stackexchange.com/questions/2811/…
    – g19fanatic
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 11:42
  • note that :split <filename> would open/edit a file in splitwindow.
    – Louis Go
    Commented Nov 25, 2020 at 1:31
4 
vim myfile.txt  # open one file in one window
:buffers        " shows one buffer with "myfile.txt" in it
:sp             " create split window; we now have one buffer with two windows.
:e newfile.txt  " create new buffer with new filename in first window
:buffers        " shows two buffers (myfile.txt & newfile.txt), each in own window

This is a good link: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Easier_buffer_switching

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0

I used the Vim menu under File - Split Open. You will have to give a name for your new blank file though.

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3
  • 2
    Vim has a menu?
    – frabjous
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 16:23
  • gvim or macvim are able to display a menu, yes. what did you expect? :)
    – akira
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 16:26
  • It seems that :sp also can work -- for those not using the gvim version.
    – Rolnik
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 18:58

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