^ stands for Ctrl or Control - Usually found in the lower left of the keyboard
M stands for Meta (Esc key) - Usually found in the upper
left corner of the keyboard
Hints
- The Meta (Esc) is always pressed prior (i.e. sequentially) to the
following key
- Do not hold down the Meta (Esc) key
- ^x^f is different from ^xf. In the second case, do not hold down the control key while pressing f
Miscellaneous commands
- ^x^c quit emacs; you will be prompted to save any changed files
- ^x^s saves file without quitting
- ^xi inserts file at cursor position: you will be prompted
for a file name and location
- ^xu undo, will continue to undo until the last save
- ^g aborts command in progress (quite useful at times)
Moving around
- arrow keys move the cursor around; (in some cases, such as
telnetting from home, you will need to use ^p, ^n, ^b, and ^f to move up, down, left and right)
- M< top of document
- M> end of document
- Mv previous screenfull
- ^v next screenfull
Cutting and Pasting
- Delete key (sometimes Backspace) to delete the character to the
left of the cursor
- ^k kills (cuts) to the end of the line (a second ^k will cut
the carriage return). Yank it back (paste) with ^y
- ^2 at the top of some text and ^w at the end wipes out (cuts) a
region . Yank it back (paste) with ^y
- ^y yanks back text from the last kill (several kills in a row count as one kill unless another command or some typing somes between them)
Search and Replace
- ^s search starting at cursor point (you'll be prompted for search string) Repeated ^s commands will find the next occurance.
- M% prompts for a string and replacement and will ask for
confirmation (you'll need to type y) before replacing at each instance
- M (Esc) or any other command or mouse click will terminate a search
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© Gary Thompson 1996