The Emacs Tour is a better introduction than the tutorial.
General commands
In text mode, F10 opens the application menu.
| Key |
Action |
C-x C-f |
Visit file |
C-x C-s |
Save file |
C-x C-w |
Save as… |
C-x C-c |
Quit Emacs |
C-z sends Emacs to the background even on the desktop. Don't panic!
| Key |
Action |
Remarks |
C-g |
Cancel action |
Works in pretty much any context. |
C-u |
Universal argument |
Can be prefixed to most key combos. |
Tip: M-= shows a word count for the current file or selection.
Editing
| Key |
Action |
C-x u |
Undo |
C-SPC |
Set mark |
C-w |
Cut |
M-w |
Copy |
C-y |
Paste |
Moving and changing
| Key |
Action |
C-a |
Start of line |
C-e |
End of line |
C-s |
Search forward |
C-r |
Search backward |
C-o |
Open line |
C-k |
Cut line |
Windows and buffers
| Key |
Action |
C-x 0 |
Close this window |
C-x 1 |
Close other windows |
C-x o |
Go to next window |
C-x b |
Switch to buffer… |
C-x k |
Close named buffer |
Org Mode
| Key |
Action |
C-RET |
Add headline below |
M-RET |
Add headline here |
TAB |
Cycle view / level |
S-TAB |
Cycle global view |
Advanced
| Key |
Action |
Remarks |
C-c C-r |
Reveal context |
|
C-c C-l |
Add / edit link |
Prompts for target and label. |
C-c C-o |
Follow link |
|
C-c C-e |
Open export dialog |
Follow the prompts to finish. |
C-c C-c |
Align table |
|
C-c C-c has many other uses, such as backing out of Sparse Tree view.