How to Install Gvim on Ubuntu 20.04

Assuming you are a developer, you comprehend the significance of a decent content tool application. A considerable lot of us invest a great deal of energy sitting before a PC and hitting the keys of the console the entire day. A content tool with extraordinary elements can fundamentally help your efficiency. There are a lot of word processors accessible on the web, and picking one that suits you is by and large not a simple errand. Be that as it may, assuming you are searching for a productive arrangement, we propose you attempt the Vim word processor.
Vim, which means “Vi Improved”, is a traditional content tool which is principally utilized by developers. It is for the most part called “developer’s supervisor”. Albeit assembled some time in the past, it is as yet a well known supervisor and surpasses numerous contenders. It tends to be utilized from general content editing occupations to overseeing setup records.

Vim is accessible for major working frameworks like Mac, Windows, Linux, or Unix. Vim can run in the GUI and non-GUI console mode. For instance, on Mac, you can introduce MacVim for the GUI rendition of Vim. Additionally, for Windows, you can utilize the “gvim” executable installer. Linux additionally has a graphical variant of Vim known as gvim. Like different clones of the “vi” manager, Gvim on Linux has numerous strong GUI highlights.

1. Installing Gvim From the Ubuntu Software Center

For installing software, the simplest way and recommended method for any new Ubuntu user is the Ubuntu software center. It is as simple as finding an application and hitting the install button. After launching the Ubuntu software center, search for “gvim”. Most likely, it will be listed on the first result. Open and hit the install button. This will install Gvim on your system:

2. Installing Gvim From the Command Line

Another way is to use the command line interface. Like any other software, one can install Gvim with the “apt install” command. Ubuntu provides Gvim from two packages:

Let us see the details of each package. Open your terminal and enter the command for:

Sample Output:

We can see both packages have the same version of Gvim, and either of them can be used to install Gvim. If you use the first package, the install command will be:

If you are using the second package, the command will be:

Launching Gvim

Now that Vim is installed on our system, we are all set to start it. You can launch it directly from the applications list in the Activities menu. Click the “Activities” menu on the top left corner and type “gvim”. You can click its icon to start it from here:

Another way is to start it directly from the command line by entering “gvim” as shown below:

The current version at the time of writing this guide is 8.1.2269. You can check your Gvim version by clicking “Help -> About”.

Using Gvim

Now, Gvim is installed. Let us quickly see how to use it. To create a new file named “abc.txt”, enter:

A new window will open now with tilde symbols, and the name of the file will be mentioned at the top as shown here:

By default, when a file is opened in Vim, we must click the insert button or the “i” key to insert text in the file.

We can also open multiple files and tabs in Gvim using the File menu options as shown here:

We can also change the color scheme from the Edit menu using “Edit -> Color Scheme”. If we want a different Font style, you can select a new one from the Font menu inside the Edit menu. To explore more possibilities with Gvim, use “Help-> Overview -> Getting Started” in the Help section, or simply enter the following command on the terminal: