Tip #1495: Wrap a Visual hilight in an arbitrary HTML tag

created:		January 29, 2007 16:00		complexity:		intermediate
author:		Max Cantor		as of Vim:		5.7

There are a bunch of HTML wrapper tips and tricks out there, but I couldn't find any that suited my desire to be able to quickly wrap an arbitrary Visual hilight in an arbitrary HTML tag.

I haven't tested the function below TOO thoroughly, but it works in every Visual mode, even if you're doing per-character Visual mode and end your selection on a different line.  I like to make all of my HTML tags uppercase, but if you don't bother, you can change the line:

let a:tag = toupper( input( "Tag to wrap block: ") )

to...

let a:tag = input( "Tag to wrap block: ")

There may be a quicker way to input the arbitrary tag than with an input() call, but I kind of like this one.

Here's the function, and a mapping to go with it:

" Wraps visual selection in an HTML tag
vmap ,w <ESC>:call VisualHTMLTagWrap()<CR>

function! VisualHTMLTagWrap()
    let a:tag = toupper( input( "Tag to wrap block: ") )
    let a:jumpright = 2 + len( a:tag )
    normal `<
    let a:init_line = line( "." )
    exe "normal i<".a:tag.">"
    normal `>
    let a:end_line = line( "." )
    " Don't jump if we're on a new line
    if( a:init_line == a:end_line )
" Jump right to compensate for the characters we've added
exe "normal ".a:jumpright."l"
    endif
    exe "normal a</".a:tag.">"
endfunction


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