View Source in IE6 using VIM

Duplicate tip

This tip is very similar to the following:

• VimTip118
• VimTip1156

These tips need to be merged – see the merge guidelines.

Tip 134 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created October 12, 2001 · complexity basic · author Eric Lee · version 6.0

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WARNING: Editing your Windows registry may cause unintended side effects that render your system inoperable. Although this tip has worked in the past for some people, there is no guarantee that it will work for you. Use with caution, and at your own risk.

View Source

On a Windows system, you can configure Internet Explorer 6.0 to use Vim to "View Source". Add the following to the registry. Change the path to the location where you installed Vim.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name]
@="C:\\vim\\vim60\\gvim.exe"

On Vista 64-bit

On Vista 64-bit, the path to use for the above registry key is slightly different:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name]
@="C:\\vim\\vim72\\gvim.exe"

Thanks to Josh Poley at Microsoft for this information!

HTML Editor

On a Windows system, you can configure Internet Explorer to use Vim as an HTML Editor.

This was originally tip #190 (removed from the Vim Tips wiki).

Following are two reg files, tested under Windows XP.

Microsoft documentation: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa753633.aspx

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Set gvim as HTML editor in Internet Explorer 6.0.
; Vim version 6.0 on Windows XP.
; Save this file as iex-vim60.reg and double click it.

; gvim is expected in "C:\Program Files\Vim\vim60\gvim.exe"
; Be sure to also reset Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Programs

; Add Vim in the list of supported HTML editors
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\Vim]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\Vim\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\Vim\shell\edit]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\Vim\shell\edit\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Vim\\vim60\\gvim.exe\" \"%1\""

; Do NOT add to .html, registry for .htm type suffixes
;[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithList\Vim]

;[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithList\Vim\shell]

;[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithList\Vim\shell\edit]

;[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithList\Vim\shell\edit\command]
;@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Vim\\vim60\\gvim.exe\" \"%1\""

; OPTIONAL: Within Internet Explorer "View Source" with gvim
; but prefer to use Edit button (have to add this) on Toolbar.
;[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor]

;[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name]
;@="C:\\Program Files\\Vim\\vim60\\gvim.exe"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; UNINSTALL gvim as HTML editor in Internet Explorer 6.0.
; Vim version 6.0 on Windows XP.
; Save this file as iex-vim60-uninstall.reg and double click it.

; gvim is expected in "C:\Program Files\Vim\vim60\gvim.exe"
; Be sure to also reset Explorer, Tools, Internet Options, Programs

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm\OpenWithList\Vim]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html\OpenWithList\Vim]

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor]

Comments

IE requires an editor that can open files with embedded spaces. See VimTip118 which deals with defaulting the syntax to html and eating extra spaces.

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