Vim – Using Nerdtree with Current Directory

nerdtreevim

How can I achieve this situation?

Open vim in my home folder.
Navigate somewhere with NERDTree
Run the :!ls command and see the contents of the directory in that NERDTree is displaying

Try :help NERDTreeChDirMode. Setting it to 2 will do what you want.

autocmd BufEnter * lcd %:p:h

Now all what you have to do after opening a file in a new tab is :NERDTreeToggle in the new tab itself.

When you press ? in the NERDTree sidebar, you'll get a help of all the available commands.

Among them (in their default config) are i for a split and s for a vertical split.

You can read all about those in the detailed :help NERDTreeMappings; it's also possible to re-assign them, should those keys not match your taste.