Emacs Keyboard Shortcuts & Navigation Cheat Sheet

A quick reference guide to essential keybindings and commands for the GNU Emacs editor.

[!NOTE] C- represents the Control key, while M- represents the Meta key (Alt on PC, Option or Esc on macOS).

Shortcut	Action
`C-p` / `C-n`	Previous line / Next line (Up / Down)
`C-b` / `C-f`	Backward / Forward one character (Left / Right)
`M-b` / `M-f`	Backward / Forward one word
`C-a` / `C-e`	Beginning of line / End of line
`M-a` / `M-e`	Beginning of sentence / End of sentence
`M-<` / `M->`	Beginning of buffer / End of buffer
`C-v` / `M-v`	Scroll down one screen / Scroll up one screen

Shortcut	Action
`C-x C-f`	Find file (open / create)
`C-x C-s`	Save active buffer
`C-x C-w`	Write buffer to alternative file (Save As)
`C-x b`	Switch buffer
`C-x k`	Kill buffer (close active file)
`C-x C-c`	Exit Emacs

Shortcut	Action
`M-x`	Execute named extended command
`C-g`	Cancel current command / prompt
`C-h t`	Open Emacs tutorial
`C-h k`	Describe key binding documentation

M-x package-install RET evil RET

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