The grey area at the bottom of the window is called the mode line and provides information about the editing session: the name of the buffer being edited, the mode you are in (Emacs has many different modes, each of which customizes Emacs for editing text of a particular sort), and where you are in the file. The cursor is also called 'point' or 'dot'. A cursor marks your position in the file. The Emacs window contains three major areas: the largest area which takes up most of the window is where you enter your text. Type C-x C–w to write this temporary buffer to a permanent file. Note: *scratch* buffers are not saved when you exit Emacs. Emacs then puts you in an empty buffer (a buffer is a temporary workspace that may be saved later as a file) called *scratch*. This will go away as soon you press a key. If you type emacs with no file, you'll get a window with copyright information. If you use a filename that does not exist, Emacs creates a new file. Where file is the name of the file you want to edit. Then press the Tab key and Emacs will complete the filename for you. For example, if you are typing the name of a file after issuing a command such as find-file ( C-f), you need only type the first few letters of the name, enough to make a unique filename. Any command can be executed by typing M-x and then the full name of the command, and some commands can only be executed in this way.Įmacs has a very helpful feature known as completion. Other commands are executed by typing C-x and then the command (for example, to quit the program you type C-x C-c). Slightly less common commands are assigned to Meta. The most commonly used commands involve the Control key. So to execute a command described as M-x, press Esc (and let go), then press x. Rather than holding down Esc, you press it once and then press the key you want. The alternative is to use Escape ( Esc), but in this case it works a bit differently. SecureCRT has an option to use Alt as the Meta key, but if you do so you can't use Alt to send commands to SecureCRT itself. On a PC, it depends on the terminal program you're using and how it is configured. Some keyboards have a Meta key, though none of SSCC's do.

In addition, the documentation refers to the Meta key ( M- key). For example, C- key, means hold down CTRL and press key ( so C-x means Ctrl-x in the way you're probably used to these combinations being described). But the Emacs documentation has its own way of describing them. Emacs CommandsĪll Emacs commands involve key combinations. Using Linstat covers what you need to know to work this way. This is a very popular way to run programs like Stata or SAS on Linux without spending the time to learn Linux or Linux tools like Emacs.

If you're more comfortable in a Windows environment, keep in mind you can use a Windows text editor, such as TextPad, and then save your files on the Linux file system where Linux programs can access them.

However, it does not follow the conventions for Windows programs. In this article we'll use Emacs to refer to both Emacs and XEmacs, unless the difference is important.Įmacs is not hard to learn. The differences between the two are either cosmetic or subtle enough to be beyond the scope of this article. Both versions have the option to use a text-only mode, which is useful if you do not have the ability to display Xwindows graphics. Originally Emacs was text-only and XEmacs used Xwindows graphics. There are actually two versions of Emacs available, and each can run in two different modes. If you find you need to learn more, Emacs has a comprehensive online help facility where you can get more information. A GNU Emacs Reference Card is attached to the end of this article which lists many of the most frequently used Emacs commands along with a short description of what each command does. This article serves only as an introduction, helping you get started using Emacs. Emacs has too many specialized commands and features to cover completely here.

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