Emacs mode provides commands for using the Emacs text editor. This editor is normally used to write and edit code, but you may find it as a useful editor for any type of text. Emacs has many features that make it ideal for voice text editing. It has a steep learning curve, but it is worth the time. Three particularly useful features are dired, shell buffer, and position marking. With dired, you can easily navigate folders and files on your computer. If you use the emacs shell, you can take advantage of all the text editing commands built into emacs. With position marking, you can easily select areas of text for copying, cutting, or moving. If you are an experienced Emacs user, you will likely want to edit and expand on these commands. See the basic keyboard shortcuts and dired keyboard shortcuts.
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| Command Name | Description |
|---|---|
| quit emacs | Quits emacs. |
| open file | Opens a file or directory. |
| save buffer | Saves the current buffer. |
| cancel command | Cancels a command that was started in the minibuffer. |
| scratch | Undo the last edit. |
| revert buffer | Revert the current buffer. |
| short yes | Types "y". |
| short no | Types "n". |
| search | Searches forward for text in the current buffer. |
| search back | Searches back for text in the current buffer. |
| jump after | Searches for word in the current buffer and jumps cursor to the right of it. |
| jump after comma | Searches for "," in the current buffer and jumps cursor to the right of it. |
| jump after period | Searches for "." in the current buffer and jumps cursor to the right of it. |
| jump before | Searches for word in the current buffer and jumps cursor to the left of it. |
| go start | Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line. |
| go finish | Moves the cursor to the end of the line. |
| go to line | Opens the minibuffer function to go directly to a specific line. Example: "go to line one twenty five". This is very useful if you enable line numbers in your emacs settings. |
| kill | Cuts the text from the cursor to the end of the line. |
| copy | Copies the selected text. |
| cut | Cuts the selected text. |
| paste | Pastes the previously cut/copied text. |
| mark spot | Marks the cursor position to begin a selection. This is similar to holding the shift key in other programs. This is very helpful when editing text by voice. |
| replace | Opens the replace function in the minibuffer. |
| toggle image | Toggle between image and text view for an image. |
| split none | If the window layout currently contains more than one buffer, the current buffer becomes the only displayed buffer. |
| split horizontal | Splits the current buffer layout horizontally. |
| split vertical | Splits the current buffer layout vertically. |
| other buffer | Jumps to the other buffer. |
| list buffers | Opens a buffer that lists all open buffers. |
| close buffer | Closes the current buffer. |
| start macro | Starts recording a macro. These macros are very useful for repetitive editing by voice. |
| finish macro | Finish recording the macro started with "start macro". |
| macro | Execute the previously recorded macro. |
| register copy first | Copy the selected text into register 1. |
| register paste first | Paste the text in register 1. |
| register copy second | Copy the selected text into register 2. |
| register paste second | Paste the text in register 2. |
| register copy third | Copy the selected text into register 3. |
| register paste third | Paste the text in register 3. |
| indent left | Indents left by an amount equal to the provided utterance argument number. |
| indent right | Indents left by an amount equal to the provided utterance argument number. |
| fill paragraph | Fills the current paragraph. Add something like this to your .emacs file: (setq-default fill-column 80) |
| fill region | Fills the current region. Add something like this to your .emacs file: (setq-default fill-column 80) |
| center cursor | Adjusts the buffer scroll to place the cursor at center. |
| copy file | For a dired directory listing, copy the file at the current line. |
| delete file | For a dired directory listing, delete the file at the current line. |
| new directory | For a dired directory listing, create a new directory. |
| rename file | For a dired directory listing, rename the file at the current line. |
| file permissions | For a dired directory listing, change Linux style permissions of selected files. Owner, group, others. Read = 4, Write = 2, Execute = 1. |
| mark file | For a dired directory listing, mark the file at the current line. |
| unmark file | For a dired directory listing, unmark the file at the current line. |
| next command | This command is specific to shell buffers. Goes to the next command in the shell command history. The optional utterance argument is the number of times the key should be pressed. If the argument is not provided, the key is pressed once. |
| prior command | This command is specific to shell buffers. Goes to the prior command in the shell command history. The optional utterance argument is the number of times the key should be pressed. If the argument is not provided, the key is pressed once. |
| insert power | This command is specific to shell buffers. Inserts "PowerShell -File ", so you can execute a PowerShell script easily. |
| run shell | This command is specific to shell buffers. Opens a shell in a new buffer. |