Common Commands
In a graphics environment, the common commands are available via the menus. Many of the menu items also have control-key equivalents which are displayed in the menu. For instance the File menu contains an item "Save Buffer (C-x C-s)" ("C-" means 'hold the Ctrl key down"). It's worth learning the short cuts for common operations, even if you're at a graphics terminal. Here's a list of some useful ones.
C-g | cancel |
C-s | incremental search forwards |
C-r | incremental search backwards |
C-k | kill line |
C-y | yank line |
C-x C-f | load in a file |
C-x C-s | save a file |
C-x C-w | write to a new file |
C-x C-i | insert a file |
With 'incremental searching', searching commences as soon as you begin to type in the target string. Hitting the Backspace key will remove the last letter from the current target string unless you have repeatedly used a search command with the same target, in which case emacs will go back to the last instance of the target found.