[EMACS is a text editor. It has over 2,000 built-in commands and allows the user to combine these commands into macros to automate work (Wikipedia). This document refers to microEMACS: the latest version (5.0) is available here and includes a Windows installer. –R.F.]

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GETTING STARTED

• Invoke with emacs [filename] at the Windows Command prompt.



• F6 calls up some extra. Repeating F6 exits it, removing it from the screen, while <Control-g> exits, leaving it on the screen.



• The letter M in the Emacs documentation stands for the <ESC> key. Here, ESC is written out in each instance.



• Keystrokes notations in the text below: all keystrokes are contained inside angle brackets, e.g, <Del>.
  • If two different keys are placed within one pair of brackets, then both keys are meant to be pressed simultaneously. E.g., <Control-d>: the Control key is held down while pressing the letter d (lower case – without the Shift key)
  • Similarly, double keystrokes while holding down Control could be written within one pair of brackets as in <Control-x Control-w> or even <Control x w>.
  • If two different keys are placed within separate pairs of brackets, the first is to be pressed, released, and then the second key pressed. E.g., <ESC> <Shift-R>: press ESC, release it and then press Capital R, i.e., with the Shift key.
  
  
• Enter text as normal.

SAVING

• When saving, make sure you have the filename you want.



• If it is a new file or a file you're re-editing and need to save to a new name, use:<Control-x> <Control-w>
  <Control-x w> also works (i.e., while holding down Control, press first the x and then the w).
  You then see the prompt: 'Write file: ' and you need to enter a filename.

  Remember, 8 characters plus an extension only, unless you have a newer version of EMACS. Whatever extension you give it (3 letters max) will be used without complaint or alteration by EMACS – this is a useful feature when creating the various CDP files, with varying extensions, such as .brk, .tun etc.

• Save work as you go with <Control-x> <Control-s>
  <Control-x s> also works (i.e., while holding down Control, press first the x and then the s).
• Exit with <Control-x> <Control-c> (be sure you've saved first as above).
  <Control-x c> also works (i.e., while holding down Control, press first the x and then the c).

DELETION

• Delete text backwards with <Del> or <Backspace>.



• Delete text forwards with <Control-d>



• Kill (delete from cursor position to end of line) <Control-k>
  NB - This saves to a buffer and you can get it back with <Control-y>
  
  
• Delete a whole block of text:
  1. Set cursor to beginning of block and set a mark by pressing <ESC-Spacebar>,
     i.e., press Spacebar while holding down ESC. This sets a 'mark'.
     You will 'wipe' from the mark to the current cursor position, so now:
  2. Move cursor to end of block and press <Control-w> (i.e., 'Wipe')
  3. Get it back again with <Control-y> (i.e., 'Yank')

MOVING ABOUT IN THE FILE

• Move down a specified number of lines with <Control-u> – enter the number of lines for u if not the default 4 – followed by <Shift-DownArrow>
  (If you accidentaly press <Shift-Return>, you will get u blank lines. You can recover from this by moving the cursor to the start of the blank lines and repeating the procedure, this time using <Shift-Del> instead of <Shift-DownArrow>.)



• Move to beginning of a line with <Control-a>
• Move to end of a line with <Control-e>



• Move to next line down with <Control-n>
• Move to next line up with <Control-p>



• Move forward one character with <Control-f>
• Move back one character with <Control-b>



• Reverse the order of the previous two letters with <Control-t> – e.g., 'ea' becomes 'ae'.



• Move one word at a time to the Right with <Control-RightArrow>
• Move one word at a time to the Left with <Control-LeftArrow>



• Scroll down one page with <Control-v>
• Scroll up one page with <Control-z>



• Move to top of file with <Home> or <ESC-< > (i.e., ESC followed by Shift <).
• Move to bottom of file with <End> or <ESC-> > (i.e., ESC followed by Shift >).
• <PageUp> and <PageDn> work OK

SEARCH

• Forwards: press <Control-s> or F1, enter the text for which to search, then press <ESC>.
• Backwards: press <Control-r> or F2, enter the text for which to search, then press <ESC>.

SEARCH & REPLACE (a very powerful and useful feature)

• Replace all instances of first typed-in string with the second typed-in string, ending each string with <ESC>.
  Thus: <ESC> <Shift-R> enter string... <ESC> enter string... <ESC>. E.g.,
  1. Press <ESC>, release it and then press <Shift-R>.
  2. Now enter the text to be replaced.
  3. Press <ESC>.
  4. Now enter the new text that is to replace the previous text.
  5. Finally, press <ESC> again to make the replacement(s).

MACROS (run a whole sequence of operations)

• Start recording: <Control-x> <Shift-(>
• Then perform the sequence of operations to be repeated
• End recording: <Control-x> <Shift-)>



• Execute 1 instance of the sequence: <Control-x> <e> – release Control-x before pressing e.
• Execute n instances of the sequence: <Control-u> enter number of times,
  and then press <Control-x> <e> to run the sequence – release Control-x before pressing e.

  NB - If you for example enter <Control-u> 10 for 10 instances of a sequence and then press <RETURN> instead of <Control-x e>, you will get 10 blank lines.
  You can recover from this by returning the cursor to the beginning of the blank section and entering <Control-u> 10 and then press the <Delete> key.

WINDOWS

• Open two windows with <Control-x> <2> – release Control-x and then press 2.



• Move to previous window with <Control-x> <p> – release Control-x and then press p.
• Move to new window with <Control-x> <o> – release Control-x and then press o.



• Open another file, e.g. in the same or (having moved to a second window, with <Control-x> <Control-f>
  <Control-x f> also works (i.e., while holding down Control, press first the x and then the f).

  You see the prompt: 'Find file: ', enter the name of the file you want to open and then press <Return>.
  
  If you have two windows open with two different files, you can now CUT and PASTE between the two open files.

BUFFERS

• Show existing buffers with <Control-x> <Control-b>
  <Control-x b> also works (i.e., while holding down Control, press first the x and then the b).

  If there is one window open, a new window is created, displaying the list of buffers.
  If two windows are open it displays the list of buffers in the opposite one.

• Change name of current buffer with <ESC> <Control-n>.

  Note that this only changes the buffer name, but does not change the name of the file itself.
  Use <Control-x w> to do that, i.e., Write the file to a new name.