I want to simply browse the VIM user-manual, but the only way I get access is by opening a session of vim and the typing: help user-manual. The problem with this is that this ends up creating a screen split which is not comfortable for reading, especially when I don't even need the empty file below.

I know that Ctrl+W will fix this issue, but I'm running Linux from my Chromebook and Chrome overrides the Ctrl+W shortcut (close current tab).

So would there be a way I can open up the user-manual by itself? And if not, could anyone suggest a clever hack?

One thing I did try to do was create a copy of the manual and open that up in vim, but this didn't allow any of the links to function.