MacVim is a port of the text editor Vim to Mac OS X that is meant to look better and integrate more seamlessly with the Mac than the older Carbon port of Vim.

MacVim supports multiple windows with tabbed editing and a host of other features such as:

• bindings to standard OS X keyboard shortcuts (⌘-Z, ⌘-V, ⌘-A, ⌘-G, etc.),
• transparent backgrounds,
• full-screen mode,
• multibyte editing with OS X input methods and automatic font substitution,
• ODB editor support,

and more. Most importantly, MacVim brings you the full power of Vim 7.2 to Mac OS X.

Download

The latest stable release is MacVim 7.2 stable 1.2 which was released on the 21st of August 2008. It is a universal binary which runs on Mac OS X 10.4 or later. If the download fails for some reason then try using the download mirror.

If you want a more recent version you can instead download a snapshot or build your own version from the source code. Please consider contributing to the MacVim project if you are able.

MacVim is distributed free as charityware (type ":h license" inside MacVim for details). If you find MacVim a useful addition to your life please consider helping needy children in Uganda.

Getting started

If you need help getting started with Vim then the following Vim introduction and tutorial may be of help. Also, if you've never used Vim and need some convincing before learning a new editor, then the following page may help sway you. (These are by no means the only Vim tutorials out there...use your preferred search engine to find more.)

Vim comes bundled with a tutor which can be quite helpful to go through since it encourages you to experiment as you read. At the moment it requires some trickery to get going, but once there it should be easy to follow. The tutor is a text file which needs to be copied to a folder where it can be modified. To copy the tutor to your home folder, open MacVim and type (make sure you are in normal mode first by hitting Esc):

:!cp $VIMRUNTIME/tutor/tutor ~/

then hit enter. This will place a file named tutor in your home folder. Now, to start the tutor simply open that file in MacVim, e.g. by pressing ⌘-O to show the file open dialog and then browsing to the tutor file.

How to get help

There is a fairly active mailing list called vim_mac where you can post questions about MacVim and request new features. Before posting a question, you should consult the FAQ, search the vim_mac archives, and consult the built-in Vim help by typing ":h macvim" inside MacVim.

Since the binary releases always are a couple of versions behind the source code it is also possible that any problems you encounter may already have been fixed. Check the change log for the latest updates to the source code.

Help me!

If you find a bug, then please file an Issue report but first make sure that it has not already been reported by searching for old Issues. Unless you are absolutely sure that you have really found a bug you should probably post a question on the vim_mac mailing list first. (Note that there are several people answering questions on the mailing list whereas there is only one of me responding to Issue reports.)