Emacs Text Editor

Getting Started

Emacs keybindings use a shorthand notation: C- means hold Ctrl, and M- means hold Alt (Meta). For example, C-x C-s means press Ctrl+x, then Ctrl+s.

$ emacs textfile.txt

Key	Description
C-x C-f	Open a file
C-x C-s	Save current file
C-x C-w	Save as (write to a different file)
C-x C-c	Quit Emacs
C-g	Cancel current command or operation
C-x u	Undo last change

Navigation

Movement commands come in pairs: C- moves by small units, M- moves by larger units.

Key	Description
C-f	Move forward one character
C-b	Move backward one character
M-f	Move forward one word
M-b	Move backward one word
C-n	Move to next line
C-p	Move to previous line
C-a	Move to beginning of line
C-e	Move to end of line
M-a	Move to beginning of sentence
M-e	Move to end of sentence
M-{	Move to beginning of paragraph
M-}	Move to end of paragraph
C-M-a	Move to beginning of function
C-M-e	Move to end of function

Editing

Mark a region with C-SPACE to set the start point, then move the cursor to select text.

Key	Description
C-SPACE	Set mark (start of selection)
C-x h	Select the entire buffer
C-w	Cut (kill) selected region
M-w	Copy selected region
C-y	Paste (yank) last killed text
C-k	Kill from cursor to end of line
TAB	Indent current line
C-x C-+	Increase text size
C-x C--	Decrease text size

Search and Replace

Emacs uses incremental search — results appear as you type.

Key	Description
C-s	Search forward (incremental)
C-r	Search backward (incremental)
M-%	Search and replace (query mode)

Buffers and Windows

Emacs can split the screen into multiple windows, each showing a buffer.

Key	Description
C-x 2	Split window horizontally
C-x 3	Split window vertically
C-x 1	Close all windows except current
C-x 0	Close current window
C-x o	Switch to the next window
C-x b	Switch to a different buffer by name
C-x k	Kill (close) a buffer
C-x d	Open the directory browser (Dired)

Commands

Run extended commands by name with M-x followed by the command name.

Key	Description
M-x eshell	Open a terminal shell inside Emacs
M-x goto-line	Jump to a specific line number
M-x toggle-word-wrap	Toggle word wrapping
M-x flyspell-mode	Toggle spell checking
M-x linum-mode	Toggle line numbers
M-x visual-line-mode	Toggle visual line wrapping
M-x compile	Run a compile command
M-x package-list-packages	Browse and install packages