Minimal number of screen lines to keep above and below the cursor. This will make some context visible around where you are working. If you set it to a very large value (999) the cursor line will always be in the middle of the window (except at the start or end of the file or when long lines wrap). After using the local value, go back the global value with one of these two:

setlocal scrolloff<
setlocal scrolloff=-1

For scrolling horizontally see 'sidescrolloff'. NOTE: This option is set to 0 when 'compatible' is set.

(default 0, set to 5 in defaults.vim)