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Keys, or KeySequences, in Emacs are bound to Commands. Even a simple key like ‘s’ is bound to a command (usually command ‘self-insert-command’).
For information on setting actions to mouse buttons, the mouse wheel, or mouse movements, see CategoryMouse a subset of CategoryKeys.
For information on emulating other systems and software like ViKeys or CopyAndPaste bindings, see CategoryEmulation.
For information on using the menu for actions instead of keys, see CategoryMenus.
Introduction
Key Problems Solved
(global-set-key (kbd "<return>") (kbd "RET"))
Tools
- XModMap – Keys to work outside of Emacs as well; the X Windowing System uses xmodmap and xev, or xkeycaps
- LoadKeys – Same thing, but for the Linux console using loadkeys, dumpkeys, and showkey
- XKeyCaps – Graphical tool by JamieZawinski
- PKB (Print Key-Bindings) – A package for printing keybindings in a pretty fashion, i.e. so that bindings are listed as in a computer keyboard and grouped by base-keys.
- Show Bindings – A mode for nice display of keybindings within emacs.
Cool Bindings
- DefineKeyLazy a macro for define-key ,without writing (eval-after-load)
- next-line-2.0 A keybinding that makes C-n and C-p work well with large buffers and long, wrapped, lines.
- Lisp:setup-keys.el – Various key bindings, some for custom commands. See DrewsElispLibraries for associated command libraries.
- RepeatKeyDifferentBehaviors– Binding multiple commands to the same key, for use sequentially
- DoReMi – Use the arrow keys and mouse wheel to repeat commands, run commands in sequence, increment things, or cycle through enumerations.
- BackwardKillLine – Same effect as
‘C-u’ on a terminal; or ‘C-k’ in the opposite direction. - KillBufferUnconditionally
- QuickYes –
‘M-y’ shortcut to answer ‘yes-or-no-p’ - ReplaceRecentCharacter – To quickly correct recent typing error
- Lisp:minibuf-electric-gnuemacs.el – The one feature I used to miss under GNU Emacs, was the “electric” behavior for C-x C-f and other file-finding commands (under XEmacs, typing a slash or tilde first erases the default value in the MiniBuffer). Now it’s available for GNU Emacs too!
- BackwardDeleteWord – Binding M-backspace to delete instead of kill.
- Lisp:singlebind.el – Bind commands to single characters
- ErgoMovementMode – Ergonomic movement commands: M-jikl
- FastNav – Multiple commands to support quick jump to, replace at, kill at, etc. the next/previous occurences of characters.
- Lisp:smartrep.el – Support sequential operation which omitted prefix keys.
- Lisp:unbound.el – Find convenient unbound key sequences
- In GNU Emacs, the ignored part of the filename is visible after typing a slash or tilde, at least until completion is performed with TAB. With the CVS version of GNU Emacs, the behaviour of XEmacs can be approximated by using
(file-name-shadow-mode 1) and customizing either file-name-shadow-properties or file-name-shadow-tty-properties. – MattHodges
Bindings Inspired by MeatBall:HumaneInterface
MeatBall:HumaneInterface
There is also some very creative suggestions for keyboard tweaking in the Ratpoison (a window manager for X11) Wiki that might be of interest to Emacs users as well:
Health Issues
Keyboard layouts