How do I use tab pages in Vim to organize multiple files?

Explanation

Vim's tab pages let you organize your workspace into separate views, each containing its own window layout. Unlike browser tabs that map to single files, a Vim tab page is a viewport — each tab can hold multiple splits and buffers. Once you learn the core commands, tabs become a powerful way to separate concerns during editing sessions.

How it works

• :tabnew or :tabnew {file} opens a new tab page (optionally with a file)
• :tabe {file} (short for :tabedit) opens a file in a new tab
• gt moves to the next tab page
• gT moves to the previous tab page
• {N}gt jumps directly to tab number N (1-indexed)
• :tabclose or :tabc closes the current tab
• :tabonly or :tabo closes all tabs except the current one

Example

A typical workflow — you're editing main.go and want to reference a config file in a separate tab:

:tabe config.yaml

Now you have two tabs. Press gT to go back to main.go, or gt to return to config.yaml. Open a third tab for tests:

:tabe main_test.go

Jump directly to the first tab with 1gt, the second with 2gt, or the third with 3gt.

Each tab can have its own splits:

:vsplit utils.go

Now the current tab has two side-by-side windows, while the other tabs remain untouched.

Tips

• Use :tabs to list all open tab pages and their contents
• :tabmove N moves the current tab to position N (0-indexed) — :tabmove 0 makes it the first tab, :tabmove $ makes it the last
• <C-w>T moves the current window into a new tab — great when a split deserves its own workspace
• Use :tabdo {cmd} to run a command in every tab: :tabdo %s/old/new/ge substitutes across all tabs
• Map tab navigation for convenience: nnoremap <C-Tab> gt and nnoremap <C-S-Tab> gT (terminal support varies)
• Tabs are best used for separate contexts (e.g., source code vs. tests vs. docs), not as a 1:1 file-to-tab mapping — use buffers and splits for individual files within each tab
• Open files from the command line directly into tabs: vim -p file1.go file2.go file3.go
• Use :tab help {topic} to open a help page in its own tab instead of a split