Emacs: Xah Fly Keys Tutorial

Pick a Layout

All keybinding shortcuts on this page changes accordingly.

Activate Command Mode, Insert Mode

• Alt+Space → xah-fly-command-mode-activate

• f or Space Space → xah-fly-insert-mode-activate

Exit Emacs

• Space , x → save-buffers-kill-terminal

Cursor Movement

move by char

    i
 j k l

move by word

• u → backward-word
• o → forward-word

Try them. Try many times. Feel your finger muscles with the cursor movement.

move by paragraph

• h → xah-beginning-of-line-or-block
• ; → xah-end-of-line-or-block

Repeated call moves by paragraph.

move to begin / end of buffer

• Space h → beginning-of-buffer
• Space n → end-of-buffer

Text Editing

• e → xah-backward-kill-word
• r → xah-kill-word

• d → xah-smart-delete Delete something to the left. It may be 1 char, or whitespace, or bracketed text.

• g → xah-delete-current-text-block Delete the current text block.

• 5 → delete-char Delete 1 character to the right.

• w → xah-shrink-whitespaces Delete whitespaces. Repeated call delete more whitespaces.

• Space g → kill-line Delete to end of line.

undo

• y → undo

To redo, do an undo, then press key to switch to command mode (or Ctrl+g), then do undo. To reverse direction, press Ctrl+g again.

💡 TIP: I recommend not to use any external undo/redo package.

Cut Copy Paste

• x → xah-cut-line-or-region. Repeated call cut more lines.
• c → xah-copy-line-or-region. Repeated call copy more lines.
• v → xah-paste-or-paste-previous Repeated call paste previous.

To paste something twice, call paste, then enter space or return or switch command mode, then paste again.

To paste something 5 times, Space . (universal-argument) 5, then call paste.

Cut All, Copy All

• Space x → xah-cut-all-or-region
• Space c → xah-copy-all-or-region

Show Copy History

• Space v → xah-show-kill-ring

Copy and Paste to Register

• Space k c → copy-to-register Copy selection to a register.
• Space k v → insert-register Paste from a register.

[see Emacs: Copy to Register]

Mark and Text Selection

• t → set-mark-command Start selection. Move cursor to expand. Press again to unmark.

Text Selection Shortcuts

• 9 → xah-select-text-in-quote selects inner text between brackets or quotes (e.g. string)
• Space a → mark-whole-buffer select all.

Call Command by Name (M-x)

• a → execute-extended-command.
• Space Return → execute-extended-command.

Search Text

• n → isearch-forward start isearch
• Space y → xah-search-current-word Search current word or selection.

When in isearch:

• Ctrl+y → paste.
• ← → → search backward/forward.
• ↑ ↓ → previous/next search history.
• Return → exit isearch and leave cursor at the current location.
• Ctrl+g exit isearch and leave cursor at original location.

There's no key to begin backward search. Just do isearch then press left arrow key.

💡 TIP: i recommend not installing external packages to jump cursor to locations.

Find Replace

• Space r → query-replace
• Space k r → query-replace-regexp

New Open Close Save

You can use the following standard keys.

• Ctrl+n → xah-new-empty-buffer
• Ctrl+o → find-file Open.
• Ctrl+w → xah-close-current-buffer
• Ctrl+s → save-buffer
• Ctrl+Shift+s → write-file Save as.
• Ctrl+Shift+t → xah-open-last-closed Open last closed

When you are comfortable with Xah Fly Keys, and do not want to use Control key, then use the following.

• Space i l → xah-new-empty-buffer
• Space i e → find-file
• Space u → xah-close-current-buffer
• Space ; → save-buffer
• Space i ; → write-file
• Space i r → xah-open-last-closed

Open Files

• Space i e → find-file Open file.
• Space i f → xah-open-file-at-cursor Open URL or file path.
• Space i c → xah-copy-file-path
• Space m → dired-jump go to dired and place cursor on file name.

(Emacs: Open Recently Opened File) Open recently opened/closed files:

• Space i j → recentf-open-files List recently opened files.
• Space i r → xah-open-last-closed
• Space i y → xah-open-recently-closed list recently closed files.

Emacs: Bookmark related for fast open files:

• Space i p → bookmark-set Add current file to bookmark.
• Space i i → bookmark-bmenu-list list bookmarks
• Space i o → bookmark-jump open a file in bookmark.

switch buffer

• Space f (switch-to-buffer)
• Space i d → ibuffer list buffers.

• Ctrl+8 or Ctrl+Tab (xah-next-user-buffer)
• Ctrl+7 or Ctrl+Shift+Tab (xah-previous-user-buffer)
• Ctrl+6 (xah-next-emacs-buffer)
• Ctrl+5 (xah-previous-emacs-buffer)

Split Buffer

3 → delete-other-windows Unsplit all.

4 → split-window-below Split top/bottom

, → xah-next-window-or-frame Switch cursor to next pane or next window (emacs frame).

Space 3 → delete-window remove current pane.

Space 4 → split-window-right split left/right.

💡 TIP: on large monitor, avoid workflow with 1 fullscreen. [see Emacs: Fullscreen vs Multiple Windows]

Working with Quote and Brackets

xah-fly-keys has a system to work with brackets. Brackets includes ()[]{}“” and all Unicode: Brackets, Quotes «»「」【】《》

Move to Brackets

• m → xah-backward-left-bracket move to left bracket.
• . → xah-forward-right-bracket move to right bracket.
• / → xah-goto-matching-bracket When cursor is on a bracket, jump to the matching one. If cursor is not on a bracket, move it to parent left bracket.

Select Brackets

when cursor is on a bracket, 8 (xah-extend-selection) selects the whole.

Delete Whole Bracketed Text

d → xah-smart-delete when the left char is a bracket, delete the bracketed text. The deleted text is automatically copied.

Delete Bracket Pair

move cursor to the right of a bracket, then Space . (universal-argument) d (xah-smart-delete)

Delete a Single Bracket

move cursor to the left of it, then press 5 (delete-char) .

Insert Brackets

• Space d k → xah-insert-paren
• Space d l → xah-insert-square-bracket
• Space d j → xah-insert-brace
• Space d u → xah-insert-ascii-double-quote
• Space d s → xah-insert-ascii-single-quote

• ALWAYS insert left/right brackets together.
• These commands insert bracket pairs.
• When cursor is at beginning of line, they put brackets around the line.
• When there is a text selection, they put brackets around it.

Now, type Space d Ctrl+h to see all other brackets and quotes you can insert.

Change Brackets

• Space r h (xah-change-bracket-pairs)

Font Size

• Ctrl+= → text-scale-increase
• Ctrl+- → text-scale-decrease

• Space l a (text-scale-adjust)

List All Leader Keys

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys, Show All Leader Key Sequences

More Advanced

ok, the above are the basics.

Now, there are about 200 commands with leader keys. These basically replace what emacs C-x does.

You might want to learn them as you go.

When in command mode, press Space Ctrl+h to list all leader key sequence commands.

Remember to use Alt+x describe-function and Alt+x describe-key to find what's the key or command name.