Emacs Keys: Overview

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. e.g.

• right-word 【→】
• next-line 【↓】
• (paste) yank 【Ctrl+y】
• (cut) kill-region 【Ctrl+w】
• set-mark-command 【Ctrl+Space】
• keyboard-quit 【Ctrl+g】
• isearch-forward 【Ctrl+s】

Alt+letter is for somewhat less frequently used operations, often complement to Ctrl. e.g.

• forward-word 【Meta+→】
• (Copy) kill-ring-save 【Meta+w】
• comment-dwim 【Meta+;】

Ctrl+x keys is for commands that are useful globally. e.g.

• dired 【Ctrl+x d】
• switch-to-buffer 【Ctrl+x b】
• string-rectangle 【Ctrl+x r t】
• list-bookmarks 【Ctrl+x r l】

Ctrl+c keys is for major-mode specific commands. e.g.

• in org-mode, org-time-stamp 【Ctrl+c .】 inserts date.

Ctrl+h keys is for help or getting info. e.g.

• describe-function 【Ctrl+h f】
• describe-key 【Ctrl+h k】
• apropos-command 【Ctrl+h a】

Ctrl+Alt+key is for lisp coding related commands. e.g.

• backward-sexp 【Ctrl+Meta+←】 [see Emacs: Navigate Lisp Code as Tree]

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]