Emacs Shortcuts

Daniel Weibel

Created 29 Dec 2016

Session
- C-x C-c
  - Quit
- C-z
  - Suspend (go back to shell, restart Emacs session with ‘fg’)
Windows
- C-x 0
  - Close the current window
- C-x 1
  - Close all but current window
- C-x 2
  - Split current window horizontally
- C-x 3
  - Split current window vertically
- C-x 4 C-f
  - Split current window horizontally and open specific file in new window
- C-x o
  - Select the next window
- C-M-v
  - Scroll forward one screen in the next window
Files
- C-x C-f
  - Open/new file
- C-x C-s
  - Save file
- C-x C-b
  - List buffers
- C-x b
  - Switch to a certain buffer
- C-x s
  - Interactively decide to save each buffer containing unsaved changes
Navigation
- C-v PageUp
  - Scroll forward one screen
- M-v PageDown
  - Scroll backward one screen
- C-p ArrowUp
  - Previous line
- C-n ArrowDown
  - Next line
- C-b ArrowLeft
  - One character backward
- C-f ArrowRight
  - One character forward
- M-b
  - One word backward
- M-f
  - One word forward
- C-a
  - Beginning of line
- C-e
  - End of line
- M-a
  - Beginning of sentence
- M-e
  - End of sentence
- M-<
  - Beginning of buffer
- M->
  - End of buffer
- C-s
  - Start incremental search (forward)
- C-r
  - Start incremental search (backward)
- C-M-s
  - Start regular expression incremental search
- M-g g
  - Go to line (requires prefixed numeric argument)
- C-
  - Set mark
- C-u C-
  - Cycle through the last 16 marks
- C-x C-x
  - Jump to last mark
Text editing
- Notes:
  - “kill” = “cut” (text saved to clipboard)
“kill ring” = “clipboard” (but kill ring may hold multiple entries)
- - Delete character to the left of cursor
- C-d
  - Delete character to the right of cursor
- M-
  - Kill word to the left of cursor
- M-d
  - Kill word to the right of cursor
- C-k
  - Kill from cursor until end of line
- M-k
  - Kill from cursor until end of sentence
- C-w
  - Kill text in region (“cut”)
- M-w
  - Add text in region to kill ring (“copy”)
- C-y
  - Yank top entry of kill ring (“paste”)
- M-y
  - Replace yanked text with next entry of kill ring
- C-x u C-_
  - Undo
- M-q
  - Re-fill paragraph (with Auto-Fill minor mode in Text major mode)
- M-%
  - Interactive search and replace
Regions
- C-x h
  - Select the entire buffer
- M-h
  - Select the current paragraph
- C-x n n
  - Narrow buffer to the current region
- C-x n w
Named extend commands (preceded by M-x)
- replace-string
  - Find/replace after the cursor until end of file
- load-file
  - Load a file (e.g. ~/.emacs)
- re-builder
  - Testing regexes in separate window
- occur
  - Display all lines matching a regex in a separate window
- shell
  - Start a shell within Emacs
- calculator
  - One-line calculator
- pwd
  - Print working directory
- cd
  - Change working directory
- list-packages
  - List all installable packages (add package archives in init file)
- package-install
  - Install an additional Emacs package
- customize
  - Browse and set Emacs customisation variables
- customize-browse
  - Browse all Emacs customisation variables on a single screen
- customize-face
  - Browse and set faces (fonts, colours)
Help
- C-h C-h C-h ?
  - Display help options
- C-h t
  - Open tutorial
- C-h c
  - One-line description of a command
- C-h k
  - Documentation of a command in a new window
- C-h f
  - Documentation of an Elisp function in a new window
- C-h r
  - Open the Emacs manual
- C-h a
  - Show Elisp functions matching a keyword or regex
- C-h m
  - Description of major mode and enabled minor modes
- C-h C-f
  - Emacs FAQ
Misc
- C-u | M-
  - Set numeric argument for subsequent command
- C-g
  - Cancel command
- - All-purpose “get out” command
- C-x f
  - Set column margin (requires prefixed numeric argument)
- M-:
  - Evaluate Elisp expression
- M-! M-x shell-command
  - Execute a shell command and display output in new buffer
- M- M-x shell-command-on-region
  - Execute a shell command piping in the current region as input
- - Start recording macro
- - Stop recording or play back macro (accepts numeric argument)
- - Move cursor to next button or editable field
- -
  - Move cursor to previous button or editable field
Key notation
- C
  - Control
- M
  - Meta (typically Alt/Option)
- S
  - Shift
- DEL
  - Backspace (not Delete)
- RET
  - Enter
- SPC
  - Space
- ESC
  - Escape
- TAB
  - Tab