Enable Spell Checking in Vim for Markdown and Git Commit Messages

October 21, 2019

I had a ridiculous typo in a Git commit message recently, so I decided to explore spell checking in Vim. As it turns out, it’s extremely easy. I only wanted it enabled for Git commit messages and markdown, so I added the following to my vimrc / init.vim: <div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight viml"><code>" Spell-check Markdown files and Git Commit Messages autocmd FileType markdown setlocal spell autocmd FileType gitcommit setlocal spell </code></pre></div> By doing this, it highlights potential misspellings in red underline. You can see a list of potential corrections by moving the cursor over the word in normal mode and pressing <code>z=</code>. Or you can add the word to the dictionary by pressing <code>zg</code>. While trying this out, I also discovered that you can enable dictionary auto-completion using Vim’s normal <code>ctrl-n</code> and <code>ctrl-p</code>. To enable this (again, for select file types), add the following to your vimrc / init.vim: <div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight viml"><code>" Enable dictionary auto-completion in Markdown files and Git Commit Messages autocmd FileType markdown setlocal complete+=kspell autocmd FileType gitcommit setlocal complete+=kspell </code></pre></div> Then, while in insert mode, type part of a word and hit <code>ctrl-n</code> to start cycling through potential matches and <code>ctrl-p</code> to cycle through in reverse. Here’s a quick demonstration of both spell check and dictionary auto completion: <img src="/assets/images/vim_spell_check_and_dictionary_auto_complete-1155dd19.gif" alt="Vim Spell-Checking and Auto Complete" />

#vim #til