Is there a way to turn gvim into fullscreen mode?

Solution 1:

The system settings do not work for me on Ubuntu 12.04 (as happens to miloshadzic) because gvim catches the F11 key and does not pass it on to the system.

There is a solution though, that I found in this blog

make sure you have wmctrl installed. If you have that, then add the following to your vimrc:

map <silent> <F11>
\    :call system("wmctrl -ir " . v:windowid . " -b toggle,fullscreen")<CR>

And on save of the .vimrc and restart of gvim F11 now has the desired effect.

Solution 2:

With gnome you can set a shortucut to the "fullscreen" action. Use gnome-keybinding-properties, select Window Managaer and choose Change to Fullscreen, then select a shorcut (F11 for example). This shortcut will set the current Gnome Window in fullscreen mode.

This doesn't work unless the Enable Extra WM Actions plugin is checked in the Compiz Settings Manager