Editing Word wrap without line breaks

{{TipImported
|id=989
|previous=988
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|created=2005
|complexity=basic
|author=
|version=6.0
|rating=127/50
|category1=Options
|category2=Usage
}}
When editing a text file, if you want word wrapping, but ''only'' want line breaks inserted when you explicitly press the Enter key:
<pre>
:set wrap
:set linebreak
" :set nolist In vim versions prior to 7.4.353 list disabled linebreak  
</pre>

This will get Vim to wrap existing text as desired. <code>wrap</code> tells Vim to word wrap visually (as opposed to changing the text in the buffer), and <code>linebreak</code> tells Vim to only wrap at a character in the <code>breakat</code> option (by default, this includes "<code> ^I!@*-+;:,./?</code>" (note the inclusion of " " and that <code>^I</code> is the control character for Tab)).

In addition, you will need to prevent Vim from automatically inserting line breaks in newly entered text. The easiest way to do this is:
<pre>
:set textwidth=0
:set wrapmargin=0
</pre>

If you want to keep your existing 'textwidth' settings for most lines in your file, but not have Vim automatically reformat when typing on existing lines, you can do this with:
<pre>
:set formatoptions-=t
</pre>

To make settings permanent, without the need to type this every time you use Vim, just add the commands to your [[vimrc]].

==References==
*{{help|'wrap'}}
*{{help|'linebreak'}}
*{{help|ins-textwidth}}
*{{help|'showbreak'}} to show the difference between soft and hard wrapped lines

==See also==
*[[VimTip38|Move cursor by display lines when wrapping]]
*[[VimTip308|Move through wrapped lines]]
*[[VimTip850|Automatic word wrapping]]

==Comments==
I'm not certain whether 'wrapmargin' is always turned off when it is set equal to zero, but it seems to work. Is this always the case?

--[[User:Fritzophrenic|Fritzophrenic]] 17:47, June 15, 2010 (UTC)
:I do not use wrapmargin but surely its meaning implies that it only does something when set to a value above zero. I think it's pretty safe to assume the tip is ok. [[User:JohnBeckett|JohnBeckett]] 11:32, June 16, 2010 (UTC)
----
This doesn't work. With the settings saved, I restarted vim and created a new file. If I hold down the "a" key and randomly press the space bar. Eventually vim still inserts line feed characters into the text. This is not a visual wrap, but the actual '\n' character. Which shouldn't happen. --October 2, 2012
----
It can be useful to do a word wrap without line breaks only when editing text (not programming code), using LaTeX for example. I've added these lines in my .vimrc to reach this :
<pre>
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt,*.tex set wrap linebreak nolist textwidth=0 wrapmargin=0
</pre>
--Eduardoconto 20:48, February 8, 2013 (UTC)
:That works, but where possible, it is probably better to use the technique shown at [[Keep your vimrc file clean]]. [[User:JohnBeckett|JohnBeckett]] ([[User talk:JohnBeckett|talk]]) 07:01, February 9, 2013 (UTC)
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 <pre>
 :set formatoptions-=t
-</pre>
-If you want Vim to adjust textwidth automatically ''most of the time'' but you have a few long lines that you don't want to change, use:
-<pre>
-:set formatoptions+=l
 </pre>