Absolute Beginner's Guide to Emacs 2

The three most important keyboard shortcuts to know are C-h C-h (help), C-g (quit), and M-x (run command). The help command will put you in a position to figure out how to do something if you’re stuck, and the quit command will cancel an operation (for example, if you are entering a command at the mini-buffer, C-g will quit the mini-buffer and move the point back to the buffer you were in previously – see the next section for more details on buffers and the mini-buffer). The run command will let you run any command in Emacs; you probably won’t need to use it much right away, but it’s good to know if you run into a scenario where you do need to run a command.

You can’t see the other buffers until you tell Emacs to view them through a window. To do this, use the C-x b key combination. This will move the point to the mini-buffer and display a message that looks like “Switch to buffer (default *scratch*)”:

(Remember that if you want to cancel the current operation, i.e. you decide you don’t want to switch buffers after all, you can use C-g to quit the mini-buffer).

There are a few relevant key commands for manipulating windows:

• C-x 0 : close the active window
• C-x 1 : close all windows except the active window
• C-x 2 : split the active window vertically into two horizontal windows
• C-x 3 : split the active window horizontally into two vertical windows
• C-x o : change active window to next window

Note that closing a window does NOT mean that the buffer it is displaying is closed.