From the manual(:h tab-page-intro): "Tabs are also a nice way to edit a buffer temporarily without changing the current window layout. Open a new tab page, do

From the manual(:h tab-page-intro): "Tabs are also a nice way to edit a buffer temporarily without changing the current window layout. Open a new tab page, do whatever you want to do and close the tab page." Therefore a built-in alternative is `:tabe %` to open the current file in a new tab, and `:tabc` to return to your elaborate multi-window view. Edit: Not that I'm plugin averse, quite the opposite. Just offering an option from built-in functionality.