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Quick Guide to Emacs

Quick Reference Guide Quick Guide to Emacs A collection of commonly used keystrokes and configuration tips for GNU Emacs. Covers navigation, editing, buffers, search, and macros. Note: This guide was originally published in 2006 and has been updated in May 2026 with corrected key notation, additional sections, and improved formatting, with assistance from Claude (Anthropic).…

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Malcolm Low
Quick Reference Guide

Quick Guide to Emacs

A collection of commonly used keystrokes and configuration tips for GNU Emacs. Covers navigation, editing, buffers, search, and macros.

Note: This guide was originally published in 2006 and has been updated in May 2026 with corrected key notation, additional sections, and improved formatting, with assistance from Claude (Anthropic).

See Also — Other Quick Guides

Quick guide to n8n  |  Quick guide to NSCC ASPIRE2A  |  Quick guide to Docker  |  Quick guide to CVS  |  Quick guide to nawk  |  Quick guide to GNUPlot  |  Quick guide to Git

Key Notation

Emacs key bindings are written in a standard shorthand throughout this guide:

NotationMeaningExample
C-xHold Ctrl and press xC-x C-s means hold Ctrl, press x, then press s
M-xHold Meta (Alt/Esc) and press xOn most keyboards, Meta is the Alt key
C-SPCHold Ctrl and press SpacebarSets the mark for region selection

To run the built-in Emacs tutorial at any time: C-h t

Useful Settings for .emacs

Add these to ~/.emacs or ~/.emacs.d/init.el to configure Emacs on startup:

(line-number-mode 1)       ; show line number in mode line
(column-number-mode 1)     ; show column number in mode line
(display-time)             ; show clock in mode line
(load-theme 'deeper-blue t); set colour theme

To reload your config without restarting: M-x load-file RET ~/.emacs RET

File Operations

ActionKeystroke
Open / find fileC-x C-f
Save fileC-x C-s
Save as (write to new file)C-x C-w
Quit EmacsC-x C-c

Navigation

ActionKeystroke
Go to line numberM-g g
Go to beginning of bufferM-<
Go to end of bufferM->
Move between windowsC-x o
Scroll down / upC-v / M-v

Editing

ActionKeystroke
Set mark (start region selection)C-SPC
Exchange mark and pointC-x C-x
Kill (cut) lineC-k
Yank (paste)C-y
UndoC-/ or C-_
Kill (cut) rectangle regionC-x r k
Yank (paste) rectangle regionC-x r y
Toggle comment on regionM-;

Buffers and Windows

ActionKeystroke
List all open buffersC-x C-b
Switch to bufferC-x b
Kill (close) bufferC-x k
Split window horizontallyC-x 2
Split window verticallyC-x 3
Close current windowC-x 0
Close all other windowsC-x 1

Search and Replace

ActionKeystroke
Incremental search forwardC-s
Incremental search backwardC-r
Query replace (interactive find and replace)M-%
Replace all (no prompt)M-x replace-string

During incremental search, press C-s again to jump to the next match, or RET to exit search at the current position.

Keystroke Macros

Macros let you record a sequence of keystrokes and replay them. Useful for repetitive edits across many lines.

ActionKeystroke
Start recording macroC-x (
Stop recording macroC-x )
Playback last macroC-x e

Useful Packages and Modes

Emacs can be extended with packages. These two are easy to install and immediately useful:

PackageWhat it does
FlyspellOn-the-fly spell checking as you type, similar to spell check in word processors
X-SymbolRenders superscript, subscript and Greek characters visually in LaTeX buffers

Modern Emacs (26+) ships with a built-in package manager. To browse and install packages: M-x package-list-packages. For LaTeX grammar checking, convert your document to HTML first and use an online grammar checker, as LaTeX-native grammar tools are limited.

For the complete built-in reference, use C-h k (describe key) or C-h f (describe function) at any time within Emacs. The official manual is available at gnu.org/software/emacs/manual.

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