3.2 How do I find out how to do something in
Emacs?
There are several methods for finding out how to do things in
Emacs.
- The complete text of the
Emacs manual is available via the Info hypertext reader. Type
C-h r to display the manual in Info mode. Typing
h immediately after entering Info will
provide a short tutorial on how to use it.
- To quickly locate the
section of the manual which discusses a certain issue, or
describes a command or a variable, type C-h i m emacs
RET i topic RET, where topic is the name of
the topic, the command, or the variable which you are looking
for. If this does not land you on the right place in the
manual, press , (comma) repeatedly until you find
what you need. (The i and , keys invoke
the index-searching functions, which look for the
topic you type in all the indices of the Emacs
manual.)
- You can
list all of the commands whose names contain a certain word
(actually which match a regular expression) using C-h
a (M-x command-apropos).
- The command
C-h F (
Info-goto-emacs-command-node)
prompts for the name of a command, and then attempts to find
the section in the Emacs manual where that command is
described.
- You can list all of
the functions and variables whose names contain a certain word
using M-x apropos.
- You can list all of the functions and variables whose
documentation matches a regular expression or a string, using
M-x apropos-documentation.
- You can order a hardcopy of the manual from the FSF. See
Getting
a printed manual.
- You can
get a printed reference card listing commands and keys to
invoke them. You can order one from the FSF for $2 (or 10 for
$18), or you can print your own from the
etc/refcards/refcard.tex or
etc/refcards/refcard.pdf files in the Emacs
distribution. Beginning with version 21.1, the Emacs
distribution comes with translations of the reference card into
several languages; look for files named
etc/refcards/lang-refcard.*, where
lang is a two-letter code of the language. For
example, the German version of the reference card is in the
files etc/refcards/de-refcard.tex and
etc/refcards/de-refcard.pdf.
- There are many other commands in Emacs for getting help and
information. To get a list of these commands, type
‘?’ after C-h.