Xah Emacs Tutorial

Xah Lee, 2005, …, 2012

This emacs tutorial is designed for programers and scientists who wish to learn emacs to get things done quickly, without spending a lot time on learning Emacs's special terminologies and methods.

If you are a programer by profession, knowing emacs benefits you for life.

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Emacs Lisp Tutorial

Emacs Tutorial

General Tips

• Emacs Basics
• Which Emacs to Download?
• Emacs Intermediate
• How to Make Emacs Use Modern User Interface
• Emacs and MS Windows Tips
• Emacs Advanced Tips
• Emacs Less-known Tips
• Fun Things To Do With Emacs

• New Features in Emacs 23
• Emacs Online Resources and Communities 2011

Working With Files

• Dired Basics ◇ dired Tips ◇ Opening Files in External Apps ◇ Dired+ mode
• Using Bookmarks
• Renaming Multiple Files
• Find ＆ Replace on Multiple Files

Common Tasks

• Searching for Text (grep, find)
• Using shells #! $ > &

• Writing Outline: org-mode
• Insert Templates for Any Language (YASnippet)
• Lookup References for Any Language
• Working with Unicode ⇒ λ ∞ π § ☺ ♀ ♂ ♥

Working with HTML

• Emacs and HTML Tips
• Inserting HTML Tags with Emacs
• Working with HTML/CSS/X11 Color Values

All about Find ＆ Replace

• All about Find ＆ Replace Find → Replace
• Emacs Regex
• Emacs: Newline Representations ^M ^J ^L

Keyboarding ⌨

• Using Keyboard Macro to Record/Playback Keystrokes
• Keyboard Macro Example: Adding HTML Attribute
• Keyboard Macro Example: Insert All Unicode Bullets

• Emacs's Keyboard Shortcut Layout
• How to Define Your Own Keyboard Shortcuts
• Keybinding Syntax Examples
• How to define Super ＆ Hyper Keys
• Emacs: How to Override Minor Mode Keybinding
• Info-mode Keys and How to Add Web Browser Keys

• Why Emacs's Keyboard Shortcuts are Painful
• A Ergonomic Keyboard Shortcut Layout
• How to Avoid the Emacs Pinky Problem
• Emacs's Key Notations Explained (/r, ^M, C-m, RET, <return>, M-, meta)
• Emacs: Commands and Keys to Navigate Brackets

Productivity

• Long Term Emacs Productivity Tips
• Using Emacs's Abbrev Mode for Abbreviation
• Defining Alias to Increase Productivity
• Add Custom Keys to Enhance Productivity
• Emacs: How to Copy/Cut Current Line
• Emacs: Single Key to Delete Whole Line
• Emacs: Insert Brackets by Pair

Misc

• Make Whitespaces Visible
• Emacs Misc Tips
• How to Turn a Mode on/off/toggle?
• list-matching-lines, delete-matching-lines
• unfill-paragraph, unfill-region, compact-uncompact-block
• Working With Tables
• manipulate Column Text, string-rectangle, ASCII-Art
• Aligning Text and Sorting by Fields
• Emacs as Word Processor: Bold and Highlight Text

Customization

• A Guide on Emacs 24 Package System
• The Best Redo Mode for Emacs
• How to Install Packages
• How to Associate a File with a Major Mode?
• Organize Your .emacs File in 5 Minutes
• What's Emacs Custom System and Should You Use It?

Misc Enhancements

• Preserve Your Split-Panes Configulation with winner-mode

• How to Define Templates In YASnippet ◇ Emacs YASnippet Tip: Expand Whole hyphenated-word as Input
• How to Add Menu in Emacs
• Emacs Regex Quirk: Matching Beginning/End of Line/String/Buffer
• Emacs: perl-mode vs cperl-mode

Emacs Modernization

Emacs Related Essays

About the author, Acknowledgement

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