“C-” is your CTRL key. “M-” is your Meta key, usually ALT or ESC.

Hover over a section to expand it, or:

• Buffers (they’re like Tabs)
  • Close (kill) buffer ==> C-x k
  • List buffers ==> C-x C-b
  • Switch to next buffer ==> C-x RIGHT
  • Switch to other buffer ==> C-x b
  • Switch to previous buffer ==> C-x LEFT
• Coding
  • You have to be in outline-minor-mode for many of these. To get there type ==> M-x outline-minor-mode
  • The keystroke shortcuts for these functions have changed quite a bit recently. To check yours, type “C-h b” and look for the command.
  • Collapse all functions  ==>  M-x hide-other
  • Evaluate the Lisp S-expression before the cursor and print result in mini-buffer ==> C-x C-e
  • Hide body of one function ==> M-x hide-subtree
  • Show all functions ==> M-x show-all
  • Show body of one collapsed function ==> M-x show-subtree
• Debugging
  • After all of the following commands type ENTER and
    the name of the file you want to debug and ENTER.
  • Run DBX (cli) ==> M-x dbx
  • Run GDB (graphic like IDE interface) ==> M-x gdb
  • Run Java debugger ==> M-x jdb
  • Run Perl interpreter in debug mode ==> M-x perldb
  • Run Python debugger ==> M-x pdb
  • Run SDB (cli) ==> M-x sdb
  • Run XDB (cli) ==> M-x xdb
• Editing
  • Copy region (after you marked ‘beginning’ w C-SPACE) ==> M-W
  • Cut (after you marked ‘beginning’ w C-SPACE) ==> C-W
  • Kill (delete) rest of line ==> C-k
  • Kill (delete) rest of sentence ==> M-k
  • Kill (delete) rest of word ==> M-d
  • Paste marked region (yank) ==> C-y
  • Set mark begin here (for copy, paste, etc.) ==> C-SPACE
  • Set mark and highlight marked area ==> C-SPACE C-SPACE
  • Spell check entire file (buffer) ==> M-x spell-buffer
  • Spell check word ==> M-$
• Files
  • Compare differences between two files ==> M-x ediff
  • Insert file into buffer ==> C-x i
  • Open a file ==> C-x C-f
  • Quit and Save ==> C-x C-c
  • Refresh buffer after file has been edited elsewhere ==> M-x revert-buffer
  • Replace this with other file ==> C-x C-v
  • Save all ==> C-x s
  • Save file ==> C-x C-s
  • Show directory explorer (dired) ==> C-x d
  • Show number of lines in file ==> C-x l (letter “el”)
  • Suspend and exit to shell (type %emacs in shell to resume) ==> C-z
• Fonts
  • Interactively change fonts ==> M-x customize-face
• Formatting
  • Indent line appropriately (according to mode) ==> TAB
  • Indent marked (see Editing) region ==> C- M- \
  • Tabbing (to next Tab stop) ==> M-i
• Help
  • Describe function run by keystrokes in a window (more info)
    ==> C-h k [COMMAND]
  • RUN TUTORIAL ==> C-h t
  • Show all keyboard shortcuts (key bindings) in effect ==> C-h b
  • Show commands containing a word you type (apropos) ==> C-h a
  • Show function run by keystrokes in echo area (quick info)
    ==> C-h c [COMMAND]
  • Show manual section for function run by kestrokes
    ==> C-h K [COMMAND]
• Modes (using Emacs for different stuff)
  • Debugging (gdb) mode ==> M- x gdb
  • Shell mode ==> M- x shell
• Movement
  • Beginning of file ==> C-x [
  • Beginning of line ==> C-a
  • Beginning of sentence ==> M-a
  • Center cursor vertically ==> C-l (letter "el")
  • End of file ==> C-x ]
  • End of line ==> C-e
  • End of sentence ==> M-e
  • Go to line ==> M- x goto-line
  • Next word ==> M- f or M-RIGHT
  • Previous word ==> M- b or M-LEFT
  • Next screen (scroll down) ==> C-v
  • Previous screen (scroll up) ==> M-v
  • Scroll down OTHER window ==> C- M- v
• Search / Search and Replace
  • Interactive / Incremental Search (highlight as you type) ==> C-s
  • Keep going with current search after editing ==> C-s C-s
  • Next highlighted item ==> C-s
  • Previous highlighted item ==> C-r
  • Search and replace (from cursor to end of file). Type ? for help in replacing. ==> M-%
  • Search using a regular expression ==> M-C-s
  • Select next search string (while in incremental search mode)
    ==> M-n
  • Select previous search string (while in incremental search mode)
    ==> M-p
• Undo
  • Undo is very good in Emacs, you should look into it in detail
  • Abort command ==> C-g
  • Undo a change ==> C-x u or C-_
• Windows
  • Close all other windows ==> C-x 1
  • Close this window (“zero”) ==> C-x 0
  • Make window narrower ==> C-x {
  • Make window wider ==> C-x }
  • Make window taller ==> C-x ^
  • Make window shorter ==> M-x shrink-window
  • Move cursor to other window (letter “oh”) ==> C-x o
  • Split this window with a horizontal line ==> C-x 2
  • Split this window with a vertical line ==> C-x 3
• Some of my own keystroke definitions
  • To make these definitions work, you would have to define them yourself. I include them as a seed for ideas.
  • Go to line # ==> C-c g
  • Move down five lines ==> C-n
  • Move up five lines ==> C-p
  • Outline-minor-mode hide-other ==> C-c c
  • Outline-minor-mode hide-subtree ==> C-c h
  • Outline-minor-mode show-all ==> C-c a
  • Outline-minor-mode show-subtree ==> C-c s
  • Trigger word auto completion ==> TAB
  • Twittering mode (for an Emacs Twitter client) ==> C-c t
  • Woman (in color manual pages) ==> C-c w

*This is a work in progress – Content and presentation are evolving*
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