Quick Guide to Emacs

Here is a quick guide to emacs. These are a collection of commonly used keystrokes. See also:

Key Definitions

  • Ca-Cb : Press [Control][a] follow by [Control][b].
  • Ma-b : Press [Esc][a] follow by [b].
  • F1-t : Press function key [F1] follow by [t].

Tutorial

  • Please go through the Emacs tutorial If you haven’t done so: Ch-t or F1-t

Useful things to put in .emacs

  • Show line number : (line-number-mode 1)
  • Show column number : (column-number-mode 1)
  • Show time : (display-time)
  • Change color theme: (load-theme ‘deeper-blue t)
  • The list of default color themes besides “deepter-blue” includes:
    • adwaita
    • deeper-blue
    • dichromacy
    • leuven
    • light-blue
    • manoj-dark
    • misterioso
    • tango
    • tango-dark
    • tsdh-dark
    • tsdh-light
    • wheatgrass
    • whiteboard
    • wombat

Navigations

  • Quit : Cx-Cc
  • Move between windows : Cx-o
  • Goto a line : Mg

Editing

  • Cut : Ck
  • Paste : Cy
  • Select/mark region : C[space]
  • Exchange mark and point : CxCx
  • Cut rectangle region : Cx-Rk
  • Paste rectangle region : Cx-Ry

Search

  • Quick search forward : Cs
  • Quick search backward : Cr

Keystroke Record/Playback

  • Record : Cx-(
  • Playback : Cx-)

Various Different useful modes

You can enhance XEmacs with various useful features. The following two packages can be installed with minimal effort. Email me if you require any help in installing them.

  • Flyspell : On-the-fly spelling checker.
  • X-Symbol : Enables the showing of superscript, subscript and greek characters in LaTex.

To check for grammar errors in Latex, the best way is to convert your Latex document to HTML and use one of the online Grammar checkers.

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