Now you know the basic commands for starting and stopping Emacs and for working with files. Chapter 2 builds on these commands to give you the skills you need for editing with Emacs. Table 1-4 summarizes the commands we covered in this chapter.
Table 1-4. File handling commands
Keystrokes |
Command name |
Action |
---|---|---|
C-x C-f File → Open File |
find-file |
Find file and read it in a new buffer. |
C-x C-v |
find-alternate-file |
Read an alternate file, replacing the one read with C-x C-f. |
C-x iFile → Insert File |
insert-file |
Insert file at cursor position. |
C-x C-sFile → Save (current buffer) |
save-buffer |
Save file. |
C-x C-wFile → Save Buffer As |
write-file |
Write buffer contents to file. |
C-x C-cFile → Exit Emacs |
save-buffers-kill-emacs |
Exit Emacs. |
C-h |
help-command |
Enter the online help system. |
C-h fHelp → Describe Function |
describe-function |
Gives online help for a given command name. |
C-h kHelp → Describe Key |
describe-key |
Gives online help for a given keystroke sequence. |
C-h tHelp → Emacs Tutorial |
help-with-tutorial |
Start the Emacs tutorial. |
C-h iHelp → Browse Manuals |
info-goto-emacs-command-node |
Start the |
Emacs doesn't do what this book says or look like our screenshots. Make sure that you have GNU Emacs 21.3.5 or later running by typing M-x version Enter or selecting Help→ About Emacs. Read the section "Making Emacs Work the Way You Want" in Chapter 2. You may need to install a graphical version of Emacs if you are running in a terminal window; see Chapter 13 for details.
The toolbar icons are completely different. The icons changed between Emacs 21.3.1 and Emacs 21.3.5. The older icons do the same thing; the newer ones are substantially better looking and more intuitive. Upgrade Emacs using instructions in Chapter 13.
You can't access menus using the mouse. Use the text-based menus instead by pressing F10 or M-`. Better yet, install a graphical version of Emacs using the instructions in Chapter 13.
PgUp doesn't work properly when using text-based menus. PgUp is probably bound to some application-specific function, such as scrolling in the Mac OS X Terminal application. Press Shift-PgUp, F10, or M-` to access the menus.
You can't see a mode line or minibuffer. Your Emacs window is bigger than your display. See Chapter 10 for information on how to get Emacs to start with a reasonable window size. As a temporary workaround, resize the window. (On some Windows systems, maximizing the window ironically makes it smaller, solving the problem.)