Tip #235: Toggle highlight word under cursor, to find cursor.

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Rating 15/11, Viewed by 1038

created:		April 11, 2002 7:27		complexity:		basic
author:		HughSasse		as of Vim:		6.0

When the screen has scrolled such as during a search, it may be difficult to find the cursor. :help %# explains the pattern one can use to highlight the word around the cursor, which gives a bigger target to look for on the screen. I have this in my .vimrc: function VIMRCWhere() if !exists("s:highlightcursor") match Todo /\k*\%#\k*/ let s:highlightcursor=1 else match None unlet s:highlightcursor endif endfunction map <C-K> :call VIMRCWhere()<CR> This means that in "normal" mode ctrl-k will toggle the highlight. Todo is a hightlight group whch is particularly easy to see. For further information see ":help s:", ":help match", ":help exists()" and ":help funtion".

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Additional Notes

[email protected], April 12, 2002 20:44

Good trick. Another way to find the cursor is to hit zz, which moves the current line to the center of the screen.

[email protected], April 12, 2002 23:43

I found that often the highlighting didn't help, because the cursor was either not on a word or on a single-letter word. Therefore, I chaged the function to make it highlight the entire line. To do this, change the appropriate line in the function to "match Todo /^.*\%#.*$/".

[email protected], April 12, 2002 23:43

I found that often the highlighting didn't help, because the cursor was either not on a word or on a single-letter word. Therefore, I changed the function to make it highlight the entire line. To do this, change the appropriate line in the function to "match Todo /^.*\%#.*$/".

Anonymous, April 13, 2002 2:15

jk Do this quickly, you'll see the cursor because it's moving.




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