NERDTree Opening Files

[Carson Evans]

Hello I'm not a vim pro or anything so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

A friend of mine uses a highly customized vim with NERDTree.  To get going quicker I chose to use spf13.

When my friend opens a file from NERDTree with either the mouse/keys(o,s,etc) they open in the current "window?" and the NERDTree stays visible. He can also continue to open more files and it automagically splits the window to view the file.

When I open files the same way, I get what seems to be a brand new "window?" and NERDTree has disappeared.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for configuration that will act the way my friends vim does?