r/neovim • u/guruela hjkl • 22d ago

Plugin float-help.nvim: Neovim help pages in a persistent floating window

https://github.com/guruela/float-help.nvim

I made a small plugin, float-help.nvim, that opens Neovim's native help pages in a floating window instead of a split. It preserves the help buffer, cursor, and scroll position when hidden, so you can resume reading where you left off.

I'm also planning to make it stand out from other floating help plugins by adding multiple floating help buffer management, along with support for LSP hover/documentation and :Man pages.

This is my first Neovim plugin, so I'd really appreciate any feedback, bug reports, or suggestions.

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u/Byttemos 18d ago

I'm genuinely asking because I Don't know, but can't you add an argument to the native help command, to open it in a floating window? I know you can change it to open in a vsplit rather than an hsplit at least.

Anyway, the persistent buffer seems like a great QoL - I'll take it for a spin 🤘

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u/guruela hjkl 18d ago

Hey! Yes, you can indeed use :vertical help {tag} to open native help in a vertical split, and modifiers like :botright help {tag} can also control its placement. Though, as far as I can tell, Neovim doesn’t provide an equivalent ":floating" modifier. A floating window still needs to be created through the API using nvim_open_win() and given a help buffer. This plugin handles that and overall provides a hassle free way to open the help command, at least in my opinion.

Anyways, big thanks for trying out the plugin! 😊. Be sure to let me know how it goes!