How to Set Emacs's User Interface to Modern Conventions

Turn on the CUA mode. Put the following in your emacs init file:

(cua-mode 1)

The CUA mode will do 4 things:

1. {Cut Copy Paste Undo} have {X C V Z} keys.
2. Typing while a region is selected will delete it or over-ride it.
3. Text selection will be highlighted. (this is default starting with emacs 23) 〔☛ New Features in Emacs 23〕
4. Text selection can be done by holding down the ⇧ Shift key and press a arrow key. (default behavior starting with emacs 23)

Use the package ErgoEmacs Keybinding.

You need to install a redo mode. See: Emacs: Best Undo/Redo Mode.

See: Emacs: How to Copy/Cut Current Line.

Put this in your emacs init file:

(transient-mark-mode 1) ; highlight text selection
(delete-selection-mode 1) ; delete seleted text when typing

Starting with Emacs 23.2, transient-mark-mode is on by default. 〔☛ New Features in Emacs 23〕

This is on by default starting with emacs 22 (released in 2007). If not on, put the following in your emacs init file:

(global-font-lock-mode 1) ; turn on syntax coloring

Put the following code in your emacs init file:

(show-paren-mode 1) ; turn on paren match highlighting
(setq show-paren-style 'expression) ; highlight entire bracket expression

〔☛ How to Edit Lisp Code with Emacs〕

Use the menu: 〖Options ▸ Set Font〗, then 〖Options ▸ Save Options〗.

See also:

• Emacs: How to List ＆ Set Font
• Emacs: How to Quickly Switch Fonts
• Best Unicode Fonts for Programing

You can have line numbers displayed in the left vertical margin. To turn it on, call linum-mode. To have it on by default, put the following in your emacs init file:

(global-linum-mode 1) ; display line numbers in margin. Emacs 23 only.

Call column-number-mode. After you turned it on, the cursor's line position and column position will show in the status bar, like this: (166,3). The first is line number, the second is position from the beginning of line.

To always have it on, put the following code in your emacs init file.

(column-number-mode 1)

Put the following in your emacs init file.

(setq make-backup-files nil) ; stop creating those backup~ files
(setq auto-save-default nil) ; stop creating those #autosave# files

Call recentf-mode to turn it on. Then, call recentf-open-files to list and open recently opened file. You can give it a single key keyboard shortcut. 〔☛ Emacs: How to Define Keys〕

To turn it on for future sessions, put this in your emacs init file:

(recentf-mode 1) ; keep a list of recently opened files

Detail: Emacs: Open File Fast: recentf-mode

Call ruler-mode.

You need to install tabbar-mode. You can get it from MELPA repository. Call list-packages. See: A Guide on Emacs 24 Package System.

You can also install “tabbar-ruler” to make it pretty.

This is default with emacs 23. 〔☛ New Features in Emacs 23〕

(setq line-move-visual nil) ; use t for true, nil for false

Pull the menu 〖Options ▸ Line Wrapping in this Buffer〗, or call visual-line-mode.

To toggle globally, call global-visual-line-mode. To set it on or off permanently, use:

(global-visual-line-mode 1) ; 1 for on, 0 for off.

You can use this command:

(defun toggle-margin-right ()
  "Toggle the right margin between `fill-column' or window width.
This command is convenient when reading novel, documentation."
  (interactive)
  (if (eq (cdr (window-margins)) nil)
      (set-window-margins nil 0 (- (window-body-width) fill-column))
    (set-window-margins nil 0 0) ) )

Call toggle-truncate-lines.

Note: the command name is misleading. It doesn't really truncate lines. Proper name would be “toggle-softwrap”.

Put the following elisp code in your emacs init file for easy toggle.

(defun toggle-line-spacing ()
  "Toggle line spacing between no extra space to extra half line height."
  (interactive)
  (if (eq line-spacing nil)
      (setq-default line-spacing 0.5) ; add 0.5 height between lines
    (setq-default line-spacing nil)   ; no extra heigh between lines
    )
  (redraw-display))

This is useful for switching between reading source code and reading novels.

Note that the spacing height between lines also depends on font. See: Emacs: How to List ＆ Set Font ◇ How to Quickly Switch Fonts in Emacs.

Call fill-paragraph 【Alt+q】 to reformat the current block of text your cursor is on. Call fill-region to reformat a text selection.

To have emacs automatically insert a newline char when your line reaches to the right, call auto-fill-mode.

You can set the width used in the above commands. Call set-variable, then given variable fill-column.

Note: these commands actually insert newline characters into your file. This type of wrapping is called hard-wrap. Hard-wrap convention of 80 chars came from Punched card. You should avoid hard-wrap when possible; add newline char only at logical positions. (Rant: The Harm of hard-wrapping Lines.)

See: Emacs unfill-paragraph, unfill-region, compact-uncompact-block.

Call hl-line-mode to toggle on/off. Call global-hl-line-mode to toggle globally.

(global-hl-line-mode 1) ; turn on highlighting current line

Call scroll-lock-mode. When on, up/down arrow keys move the page, instead of the cursor.

This only turns it on in current buffer.

See: Emacs: Tabs, Space, Indentation Setup.

Put this code in your emacs init file:

(setq pop-up-frames t) ; t for true, nil for false

Start emacs with emacs --reverse-video. (-rv for short.)

This is useful when working in bright sunlight. See also: Emacs: Playing with Color Theme.