Linux

12.5    Editing Multiple Files Simultaneously

In default mode, (:) e filename loads a new file. The new file replaces the currently edited file, which you must save prior to that, as otherwise Vim will abort the operation. You can force loading the new file using (:) e! filename, but then you will lose all changes made to the last current file.

Of course, you can also edit multiple files at the same time in Vim. Before that, however, you should understand the not particularly intuitive concept of how Vim internally manages and displays text. Each text displayed in the editor is internally located in a buffer.

This applies to both files and help texts. So long as there is only one buffer, it will be displayed in the entire Vim workspace. To ...