Emacs Study Notes (3): Help System

Most GNU software has rich help systems. When learning GNU software, you must first learn how to use it to help the system, and often get twice the result with half the effort. Emacs has many help documents, most of which are in the key combinations starting with C-h.

The first is C-h ?, Help for the help system ". The change command will open a new Frame, such:

Common help functions are extracted from this document as follows:

Shortcut Key	Command	Description
C-h?		For help of the help system, you can scroll through the SPC and DEL keys and exit through ESC
C-h t	M-x help-with-tutorial	Go to the Emacs Quick Guide
C-h r	M-x info-emacs-manual	Emacs User Manual
C-h I	M-x info	Emacs description
C-h	M-x apropos-command	SEARCH Command
C-h v	M-x describe-variable	View variable description
C-h f	M-x describe-function	View Function Description
C-h m	M-x describe-mode	View related documents of the current mode, including commands and shortcut keys in the mode.
C-h k KEYS	M-x describe-key KEYS	View the commands corresponding to the shortcut key and their brief descriptions. For example, C-h k C-x C-c will tell you what C-x C-c is doing.
C-h c KEYS	M-x describe-key-briefly	View key binding instructions
C-h w	M-x where-is	View the shortcut key corresponding to a command
C-h B	M-x describe-bindings	View the list of all shortcut keys of the Current buffer
Keys c-h		View the list of shortcut keys starting with a sequence of shortcut keys in the current buffer, such as C-c-h
	M-x apropos	View anything that matches a keyword, such as a function, variable, command, mode, etc.

1. C-h t the Emacs Quick Guide is the best document to get started quickly.

2. When using help, other frames may be split and can be closed through C-x 1.