MacVim Open File In Existing Window

davertron picture davertron · Aug 13, 2010 · Viewed 19.7k times · Source

Is there a way to set up MacVim to open a new file in the current window in a running MacVim instance? I currently have the MacVim preference "Open new files in a new tab in the current window" set, but ideally I'd just like to open new files the way ":e new_file" works, without the tabs.

My main motivation is that I currently use NERDTree and Bufexplorer for my workflow and don't need the tabs at all. I'm also using PeepOpen, which is awesome except it always opens files based on MacVim's preferences, so the best I can do is get it to open in the current MacVim window with a new tab.

Answer

Björn Winckler picture Björn Winckler · Oct 15, 2010
  1. Update to MacVim 7.3
  2. Go into the General Preferences
  3. Under "Open files from applications:" choose "in the current window"
  4. In the pull down menu below this option select "and set the arglist"