Emacs: Setup Standard Copy Cut Paste Keys
Set standard keyboard shortcuts for Copy and Paste
If you prefer standard keys such as
Ctrl+c
for
copy,
Ctrl+x
for cut
Ctrl+v
for paste, then turn on CUA mode.
Alt+x cua-mode
to toggle it on/off.

cua-mode
activates the following keyboard shortcuts:
- Ctrl+x for cut
- Ctrl+c for copy
- Ctrl+v for paste
- Ctrl+z for undo (Emacs 23.1 Features (released 2009-07) or later)
To have cua-mode
always on,
put this in your Emacs Init File:
;; make {copy, cut, paste, undo} have {C-c, C-x, C-v, C-z} keys (cua-mode 1)
standard keyboard shortcuts for {Open, Close, Save, Save As, Select All, etc}
Put this in your Emacs Init File:
(progn ;; make emacs use standard keys ;; Select All. was move-beginning-of-line (global-set-key (kbd "C-a") 'mark-whole-buffer-buffer) ;; Find. was forward-char (global-set-key (kbd "C-f") 'isearch-forward) ;; New. was next-line (global-set-key (kbd "C-n") 'xah-new-empty-buffer) ;; New Window. was nil (global-set-key (kbd "C-S-n") 'make-frame-command) ;; Open. was open-line (global-set-key (kbd "C-o") 'ido-find-file) ;; Save. was isearch-forward (global-set-key (kbd "C-s") 'save-buffer) ;; Save As. was nil (global-set-key (kbd "C-S-s") 'write-file) ;; Paste. was scroll-up-command (global-set-key (kbd "C-v") 'yank) ;; Close. was kill-region (global-set-key (kbd "C-w") 'kill-buffer) ;; Redo. was yank. (undo-redo is new in emacs 28) (global-set-key (kbd "C-y") 'undo-redo) ;; Undo. was suspend-frame (global-set-key (kbd "C-z") 'undo) ;; )
For the command xah-new-empty-buffer
, get it at Emacs: New Empty Buffer 🚀.
For the command redo, you need emacs 28's undo-redo
[see Emacs Version History]
, install redo mode.
Note: The customization above don't always work, because some Major Mode or Minor Mode override global keys, and also you lost some default emacs cursor movement keys.
A robust solution is to install the package ergoemacs-mode at https://ergoemacs.github.io/ or Emacs: Xah Fly Keys
Customize Emacs Keys
For detail, see Emacs Keys
Emacs Copy/Paste
Emacs Init
Init Basics
Keys
Font
Text Editing
- Type Overwrite Selection
- Tab/Space/Indent Setup
- electric-pair-mode
- Isearch Whitespace Setup
- Move Cursor by camelCase
Completion
File
Restore Things
Backup/AutoSave
Line
- Show Line Numbers
- Show Cursor Column Position
- Highlight Current Line
- Setup Soft-Wrap Lines
- Hard-Wrap Lines
- Arrow Key Move by Logical Line
Appearance
- Highlight Brackets
- Set Color Theme
- Show Formfeed as Line
- Line Spacing
- Show lambda as λ
- Default Window Size
Misc
Advanced Init Tips
- What is Major Mode
- What is Minor Mode
- Show Variable Value, List Variables
- M-x customize
- Organize Init File
- Byte Compile Elisp
- What is Hook
- Avoid Lambda in Hook
- Environment Variables in Emacs
- Check OS, Version, Host Name