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5 Common requests ¶

• How do I set up an init file properly?
• How do I start using Customize?
• How do I get colors and syntax highlighting on a TTY?
• How do I debug an init file?
• How do I make Emacs display the current line (or column) number?
• How can I modify the titlebar to contain the current file name?
• How do I turn on abbrevs by default just in mode mymode?
• How do I make Emacs use a certain major mode for certain files?
• How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
• How do I control Emacs’s case-sensitivity when searching/replacing?
• How do I search for, delete, or replace unprintable (eight-bit or control) characters?
• How do I input a newline character in isearch or query-replace?
• How do I copy text from the kill ring into the search string?
• How do I make Emacs wrap words for me?
• How do I turn on auto-fill-mode by default?
• How do I change load-path?
• How do I use an already running Emacs from another window?
• How do I make Emacs recognize my compiler’s funny error messages?
• How do I change the indentation for switch?
• How to customize indentation in C, C++, and Java buffers?
• How do I make Emacs “typeover” or “overwrite” instead of inserting?
• How do I stop Emacs from beeping on a terminal?
• How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X?
• How do I tell Emacs to automatically indent a new line to the indentation of the previous line?
• How do I show which parenthesis matches the one I’m looking at?
• In C mode, can I show just the lines that will be left after #ifdef commands are handled by the compiler?
• How do I repeat a command as many times as possible?
• What are the valid X resource settings (i.e., stuff in .Xdefaults)?
• How do I execute (“evaluate”) a piece of Emacs Lisp code?
• How do I change Emacs’s idea of the TAB character’s length?
• How do I insert <some text> at the beginning of every line?
• How do I make Emacs behave like this: when I go up or down, the cursor should stay in the same column even if the line is too short?
• How do I tell Emacs to iconify itself?
• How do I use regexps (regular expressions) in Emacs?
• How do I perform a replace operation across more than one file?
• Where is the documentation for etags?
• How do I disable backup files?
• How do I disable auto-save-mode?
• Making Emacs write all auxiliary files somewhere else
• How can I go to a certain line given its number?
• How can I create or modify new pull-down menu options?
• How do I delete menus and menu options?
• How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
• How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the bottom of the screen?
• How can I edit MS-DOS files using Emacs?
• How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after each period?
• Why these strange escape sequences from ls from the Shell mode?
• How can I start Emacs in fullscreen mode on MS-Windows?
• How can I alleviate the limitations of the Linux console?