Emacs Keys: Layout Diagram

By Xah Lee. Date: 2006. Last updated: 2026-05-20.

Emacs Keybinding Layout (QWERTY)

work in progress

Esc

F10

F11

F12

Backspace

Tab

[

]

Caps Lock

;

Enter

Shift

Ctrl

Win

Alt

Space

Alt

Ctrl

Key Symbols

↑: previous-line
↓: next-line
←: backward-char
→: forward-char
←w: backward-word
→w: forward-word
←s: backward-sentence
→s: forward-sentence
←¶: backward-paragraph
→¶: forward-paragraph
⇤: move-beginning-of-line
⇥: move-end-of-line
↤▮: back-to-indentation
⇞: scroll-down (PageUp)
⇟: scroll-up (PageDown)
⤒: beginning-of-buffer
⤓: end-of-buffer
search←: isearch-backward
search→: isearch-forward
⌫: delete-backward-char
⌦: delete-char
⌫w: backward-kill-word
⌦w: kill-word
|⌫: kill-line-backward
⌦|: kill-line
⌦tochar: zap-to-char
⌦s: kill-sentence
⌦␣⌫: delete-horizontal-space

↩: newline
↩↑: open-line
↩↦cmt: indent-new-comment-line
⇥: tab-to-tab-stop (insert tab or spaces)
↦: indent-for-tab-command
#n: digit-argument
#-n: negative-argument
#arg: universal-argument
center▮↕: move-to-window-line
center↕: recenter
⇋: transpose-chars
⇋w: transpose-words
undo: undo
copy: kill-ring-save
cut: kill-region
cancel: keyboard-quit
iconify: iconify-or-deiconify-frame
mark¶: mark-paragraph
paste: yank
paste↖: yank-pop
M-x: execute-extended-command

Older version of this page in images: layout and legend.

Top Row Symbols

~ nil not-modified	` nil tmm-menubar
! nil shell-command	@ set-mark-command mark-word	# nil nil	$ nil ispell-word	% nil query-replace

nil

delete-indentation

nil

pop-tag-mark

(

nil

insert-parentheses

)

nil

move-past-close-and-reindent

nil

Ctrl Alt

Function Keys

F1 is help prefix. Same as C-h.
F2 is 2C-two-columns
F3 is kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter
F4 is kmacro-end-or-call-macro
F10 is menu-bar-open
F11 is toggle-frame-fullscreen

No Ctrl nor Meta are defined with function keys by default.

Home/End Key Cluster

Ins overwrite-mode	Home ⇤	PgUp ⇞
Del ⌦	End ⇥	PgDn ⇟

no modifier

Ins kill-ring-save nil	Home \|◀ \|◀-other-window	PgUp scroll-right scroll-other-window-down
Del ⌦w ⌫w	End ▶\| ▶\|-other-window	PgDn scroll-left scroll-other-window

Ctrl Alt

<insert> → overwrite-mode
<delete> → delete-forward-char
<home> → move-beginning-of-line
<end> → move-end-of-line
<prior> → scroll-down-command
<next> → scroll-up-command

C-<insert> → kill-ring-save
C-<home> → beginning-of-buffer
C-<end> → end-of-buffer
C-<prior> → xah-previous-user-buffer
C-<next> → xah-next-user-buffer

C-M-<home> → beginning-of-defun
C-M-<end> → end-of-defun
C-S-<prior> → xah-previous-emacs-buffer
C-S-<next> → xah-next-emacs-buffer

M-<prior> → scroll-other-window-down
M-<next> → scroll-other-window

S-<insert> → yank

Arrow Keys

<up> → previous-line
<down> → next-line
<left> → left-char
<right> → right-char

C-<up> → backward-paragraph
C-<down> → forward-paragraph
C-<left> → left-word
C-<right> → right-word

M-<left> → left-word
M-<right> → right-word

C-M-<up> → backward-up-list
C-M-<down> → down-list
C-M-<left> → backward-sexp
C-M-<right> → forward-sexp