Fall
2001
Useful basic Commands in XEmacs
XEmacs provides hundreds of commands for a variety of functions such as editing. While a few commands are basic and straightforward, others are nontrivial and only for selective use. Since about 30 basic commands are considered to be enough for a beginner to get started with it, we made a quick reference on those commands.
Some of Commands on menu bar will be explained with corresponding short-keys. Users of xemacs tend to use more shert-keys than commands on menu bar as they are getting familiar with the environment because it's quicker. This reference can be used such that you can go to a explanation page by clicking on a corresponding command or links.
Above is the menubar of the xemacs followed by icons in case you don't know what the menu bar is.
For short-keys, C stands for control key. For example, C-x C-s(Save the current buffer) can be executed by press <ctrl>- x, <ctrl>- s sequentially. Likewise, M stands for Meta(or Alt) key.
Use C-g to terminate an Xemacs command.
From the image above we can see that C-x C-c will exit Xemacs.
"Open" command allows you to create a new file when it can't find the filename you want to open. For example, in current directory there isn't a file whose name is "test", then when you ask Xemacs to open "test", it will create a new file, whose name is "test.
In Edit menu you can finish most of the manipulation with text, such as move a block of text, clear a block of text, copy and paste a block of text, search, replace...etc.
For example, if you want to copy a paragraph to some other place in your article rather than retype it, you should first mark that block of text you want to copy (you can mark it by hold down your mouse key at the beginning of the paragraph, and release the key at the end of the paragraph, then the block will be highlighted). Then choose "copy" from "Edit" menu, set the cursor at the place you want to copy that paragraph to, choose "paste". The paragraph will be copied to there.
If you don't mark the block of text to manipulate, the command "copy", "cut" will not be activated.
"Search" command will let you input a phrase you want to find in the article, and it will mark the first appearance of that phrase. "Search backward" command does the same work, except that it goes from the cursor backward.
"Replace" command will let you input two phrases, it will replace the first one with the second one.
Apps Menu
There are many useful and interesting commands in "Apps" menu.
You can read your email using "Read Email" command, and read newsgroup using "Usenet News" command.
You can check the spelling of your article using "Spell-Check Buffer" command.
You can find interesting games in "Games" sub-menu.
