3 Basic Editing Commands

This chapter will introduce you to some basic editing commands. You can also learn the basic editing commands by typing Control-h t (help-with-tutorial OR by selecting Emacs Tutorial from the Help menu on the menu bar. Most of the Emacs commands will use the CONTROL key or the META key. The following abbreviations will be used for the CONTROL and META key in this manual:

C-<chr>

This means that you should hold down the CONTROL key while typing <chr>. For example, if the command is C-g, you should hold the CONTROL key and type g.

M-<chr>

This means that you should hold down the META key while typing <chr>. If there is no META key on your keyboard, use the ESC key instead. For example, if the command is M-x, then type ESC, release it and type x.

The following abbreviations will be used for some other keys:

SPC

Space bar.

RET

Return key.

LFD

Linefeed key.

TAB

Tab.

ESC

Escape.

SFT

Shift.