Emacs Keys Overview
For emacs's basic keys, see Emacs Keys Basics
Organization of Emacs Key Shortcuts
Emacs keys are often confusing to beginners. Here's a summary.
• Alt+x is to call a command by name.
• Ctrl+letter is for frequently used editing commands. For example: cursor movement next-line • Paste C-y • mark C-SPC • keyboard-quit C-g • isearch-forward C-s, etc.
• Alt+letter is for somewhat less frequently used operations, often complement to Ctrl. For example: move by words {M-f • M-b}, Copy M-w • comment-dwim M-;, etc.
• Ctrl+x … is for commands that are useful globally. For example: dired C-x d • switch-to-buffer C-x b • string-rectangle C-x r t • list-bookmarks C-x r l, etc.
• Ctrl+c … is for major-mode specific commands. For example: in org-mode, org-time-stamp C-c . inserts date.
• Ctrl+h … or F1 … is for help or getting info. For example: describe-function C-h f • apropos-command C-h a • info C-h i.
• Ctrl+Alt+key is for lisp coding related commands. For example: backward-sexp <C-M-left>.
[see Emacs: How to Edit Lisp Code]
Note
Alt+x
is technically Meta+x, ususually written as M-x. “Meta” is a physical key on lisp machine keyboards. If you are in a text terminal, and no Meta remapping has been setup, you can type Meta+x by pressing Escape x.
[see Space-cadet Keyboard and Lisp Machine Keyboards]
See also: A Curious Look at Emacs One Thousand Keybindings.
