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Emacs survival guide

Emacs Survival Guide

Notation:

C means Control, S means SHIFT, M means Alt (Meta)

For example, C-x means hold down the Control key while typing x.

Boon

Command-mode

command	action
v	Switch to Insert-mode
j	move by word to the left
;	move by word to the right
k	move by character backward
l	move by character forward
i	move up by line
o	move down by line
u	start of line
p	end of line
K	move backward by sentence
L	move forward by sentence
I	move backward by paragraph
O	move forward by paragraph
d l	delete character to the right
d k	delete character to the left
d j	delete word to the right
d ;	delete word to the left
d SPACE	delete line
d region	delete region
d <number> action	delete times action, i.e. d 4 l delete four character to the left
`	toggle case between Capitalcase and lowercase. Works with regions
q <character>	insert character
t <character>	change character under cursor to character
w	show word-count, and—if tracktable present—words written towards goal
n	narrow to subtree
N	widen view (un-narrow)
M	toggle Doom modeline
s	toggle centered writing-mode where the cursor stays in the middle

Insert-mode

command	action
C-;	Switch to Command-mode

Regular

Navigate

normal	boon	action
C-f / C-b	k / l	move forward/backward by character
M-f / M-b	j / ;	move forward/backward by word
C-n / C-p	o / i	move forward/backward by line
C-a / C-e	u / p	go to line beginning/end
M-a / M-e	K / L	go to sentence beginning/end
M-{ / M-}	I / O	go to paragraph beginning/end
C-x [ / C-x ]		go to page beginning/end
M-< / M->	< / >	Move to document start / end
C-v	-none-	scroll to next screen
M-v	-none-	scroll to previous screen
C-M-p		scroll-down-line
C-M-n		scroll-up-line
C-l	-none-	scroll current line to center, top, bottom
M-r		reposition cursor to center, top, bottom
M-m		go to first non-whitespace on line, forward or backward

Editing

Files

normal	boon	action
C-x C-f		Find and open an existing file, or create a new file
C-x d		Open directory
C-c r		Open recently opened file
C-x C-r		Find and open file read-only
C-x i		Insert file
C-x C-s		Save file
C-x C-w		Save file as
C-x C-c		Exit Emacs

Formatting

normal	boon	action
C-j		perform ENTER followed by TAB
C-o		insert blank line
C-q C-l		Insert page break
C-x C-o		remove all blank lines except one
M-\		delete all white space around point
M-x canonically-space-region		fix up spacing and casing in region

Case change

normal	boon	action
M-u		upcase word
M-l		lowercase word
M-c		capitalize word
M– M-l		Convert last word to lower case. Note ‘Meta–’ is Meta-minus.
M– M-u		Convert last word to all upper case.
M– M-c		Convert last word to lower case with capital initial.
C-x C-u		uppercase region
C-x C-l		lowercase region

Search and replace

normal	boon	action
M-%		Search and replace

Frames and Windows

normal	boon	action
C-x 1	x 1	delete other windows
C-x 2	x 2	split window, above and below
C-x 3	x 3	split window, side by side
C-M-v		scroll other window
C-x o	x o	switch cursor to another window
C-x 4 b	x 4 b	select buffer in other window
C-x 4 C-o	x 4 C-o	display buffer in other window
C-x 4 f	x 4 f	find file in other window
C-x 4 d	x 4 d	run dired in other window
C-RIGHT		grow window narrower
C-LEFT		grow window wider
C-DOWN		make window taller
C-UP		make window smaller
M-x follow-mode		toggle follow mode
C-x 4 0	x 4 0	kill current buffer and delete window

Other

Transposing

normal	boon	action
C-t		transpose two characters
M-t		transpose two words
C-x C-t	x C-t	transpose two lines
M-x ts		transpose sentences
M-x tp		transpose paragraphs

Read-only mode

normal	boon	action
C-x C-q	x C-q	Toggle read-only mode

Numeric argument

normal	boon	action
C-u num	num	repeat following instruction num times

Abbrevs

normal	boon	action
C-x a g	x a g	Add global abbrev
C-x a l	x a l	Add local abbrev
C-x a i g	x a i g	Add global inverse abbrev
C-x a i l	x a i l	Add local inverse abbrev

Spell check

normal	boon	action
F12		spellcheck buffer
S-F12		spellcheck word
i		add word to private dictionary
r		change word
a		skip word for this session
SPACE		skip word
x		end spellchecking session
q		abort spell checking session
C-h		show options screen for spellchecking session
M-x ispell-change-dictionary		change current dictionary

Tabs

normal	boon	action
C-j		perform ENTER followed by TAB
M-i		indent from the point to the next TAB-point

Killing and deleting

normal	boon	action
C-w	d	kill region
M-w	D	copy region to kill buffer
C-y	y	yank back last thing killed
M-y		replace last yank with previous kill, cycle kill ring
M-z char		zap to char

Marking

normal	boon	action
C-@ / C-SPACE	SPACE	set mark here
C-x C-x		Exchange mark and point
M-@		mark arg words away
M-h		mark paragraph
C-x h	x h	mark entire buffer

Narrowing

normal	boon	action
C-x n b	x n b	narrow to block
C-x n e	x n e	narrow to element

Undo / Redo

normal	boon	action
C-x u		undo
C-g C-x u		redo
C-/		undo
C-g C-/		redo
M-x revert-buffer		revert buffer to its original contents

Registers

normal	boon	action
C-x r s	x r s	save region in register
C-x r i	x r i	insert register contents into buffer
C-x r SPACE	x r SPACE	save value of point in register
C-x r j	x r j	jump to point saved in register
C-x r w	x r w	save window configuration in register
C-x r m	x r m	set bookmark
C-x r b	x r b	jump to bookmark
C-x r l	x r l	visit bookmark list buffer

Keyboard Macros

normal	boon	action
F3		record keyboard macro
F4		end record keyboard macro / run keyboard macro

Counting words

normal	boon	action
M-x count-words		count words in region
M-x count-words-region		count words in whole buffer

Magit

normal	boon	action
C-x g		run Magit
s		stage
u		unstage
k		revert
c c		commit
C-c C-c	c c	Execute commit, after having written the commit message
P p		push
F p		pull
h		show Magit keyboard commands
q		exit Magit

Draftmode

normal	boon	action
M-x draft-mode		Turn on draft-mode

Yasnippet

normal	boon	action
TAB		expand snippet
C-c & n		new snippet
C-c & C-v		visit snippet file

Transparency

normal	boon	action
C-c t s		toggle transparency

Zoom

normal	boon	action
C-x C-+		Zoom in / make the text larger
C-x C–		Zoom out / make the text smaller
C-x C-0		Reset zoom level

Org-roam

normal	boon	action
C-c n f		find node, or insert new node
C-c n i		insert link to node
C-c n I		insert link to node, without creating a node
C-c n p		find project
C-c n t		capture task
C-c n b		capture inbox
C-c n d		roam dailies

Org-tracktable

normal	boon	action
M-x tt-insert		insert tracktable
Mx-tt-update		write new tracktable entry
M-x tt-status	w	show tracktable status

Hint: use C-c & to get back to where you were prior to updating the tracktable. Use tag nowc or noexport tags for the headings which content you do not want to be counted by the tracktable.

Deft

normal	boon	action
C-c n d		run deft
C-c C-q		quit deft

Org-mode

Visibility

normal	boon	action
TAB		rotate current subtree between states
S-TAB		rotate entire buffer between states
C-c C-x C-v	c TAB	toggle visibility of inline images

Navigate

normal	boon	action
C-c C-n/p	c n/p	next/previous heading
C-c C-f/b	c f/b	next/previous heading, same level
C-c C-u	c u	backward to higher level heading
C-c C-j		jump to another place in document

Edit

normal	boon	action
M-RET		insert new heading/item at current level
C-RET		insert new heading after subtree
C-c -		turn line into item, cycle item type
C-c *		turn item/line into headline
M-LEFT/RIGHT		promote/demote heading
M-S-LEFT/RIGHT		promote/demote current subtree
M-UP/DOWN		move subtree item up/down
C-c C-x c		clone a subtree
C-c C-x v		copy visible text
C-c C-x C-w/M-w		kill/copy subtree
C-c C-x C-y or C-y		yank subtree

Marking

normal	boon	action
M-h		mark the element at point.
C-c @		mark subtree

Other

Narrowing

normal	boon	action
C-x n s		org-narrow-to-subtree

Tags

normal	boon	action
C-c C-c		set tags for heading
C-c C-q		set tags for current heading
C-u C-c C-q		realign tags in all headings

Links

normal	boon	action
C-c C-o		open link at point
C-u C-c C-l		add link to a file

Capturing / Refiling

normal	boon	action
C-c c		Run Org-capture
C-c C-w		Run Org-refile

Export

normal	boon	action
C-c C-e		run org-mode export dialog

Timer

normal	boon	action
C-c C-x t		set timer
C-c C-x p		pause or restart timer
C-c C-x a		activate timer
C-c C-x e		end timer