Essential Emacs Commands (by Gary M. Zoppetti) ======================== (C = Control, M = Meta = ESC) Invoking Emacs (from the shell) ------------------------------- emacs & run Emacs in the background in a window (only possible in graphical environment) emacs -nw run Emacs in a terminal window (cannot use menus) File Handling ------------- C-x C-f find file (to open or create a file) C-x C-s save buffer C-x C-w save buffer as C-x b switch to another buffer C-x i insert file into current buffer C-x k kill current buffer C-x C-c exit Emacs (will prompt if files need saving) Programming ----------- C-c c compile C-x ` visit next error of compile M-x shell run a shell within Emacs Copy/Cut/Paste -------------- C-k kill from cursor to end of line (cut) C-y yank most recently killed or copied text (paste) C- set mark at cursor M-w copy region from mark to cursor (copy) Miscellaneous ------------- C-g quit minibuffer (area at bottom of window) use C-g a couple times if stuck in a command C-s incremental search forward ( to quit) C-x 1 unsplit window