Emacs: Visual Line Mode

- Alt+x
visual-line-mode
- Turn on/off line wrap for current buffer. By default, this is off. To set it on or off permanently, put in your emacs init file:
(global-visual-line-mode 1)
- Alt+x
global-visual-line-mode
- Toggle globally
Visual line mode actually does several things. From a user's point of view, it:
- Makes lines wrap at word boundaries. (controlled by var truncate-lines and word-wrap.)
- Makes up/down arrow keys move by a visual line. (controlled by the var line-move-visual.)
- Makes the
kill-line
command delete by a visual line, as opposed to a logical line. - Turns off the display of little return arrow at the edge of window. (controlled by the var fringe-indicator-alist.)
Toggle Word Wrap
If all you want is to have soft wrap that doesn't cut words in middle, see Emacs: Toggle Word Wrap