Diary of an Emacs tragic

Tag: keyboard shortcuts

  • removing historical buffer names from the ido buffer list

    ido-mode in emacs has this great feature where it remembers old buffers you have had open in the past and offers then as choices when switching buffer using C-x b. The problem is that sometimes it will have names in the list you’d rather it didn’t remember. The solution is easy, simply hit C-k to instantly kill the entry under point.

  • Converting lines of text into a numbered list in org-mode

    Recently I had a list of things in a org buffer that I wanted to turn into a numbered list but couldn’t find an elegant way to do it.
    The solution I came up with was to use a regex-replace to insert 1. in front of each line. Then I used org-mode’s C-c C-c to renumber the lines.
    I also asked on #org-mode on irc. Two interesting solutions were suggested.

    1. use string-rectangle

      2. use the string-rectangle function via the keyboard shortcuts: C-x r t 1 . <SPC>
      string-rectangle is new to me but seems as though it could be very useful. Thanks quicksilver for that suggestion.

    2. use org-mode’s org-toggle-item

      3. which is described as:
      Insert separator line in table or modify bullet status of line.
      Also turns a plain line or a region of lines into list items.
      Calls `org-table-insert-hline', `org-toggle-item', or
      `org-cycle-list-bullet', depending on context.
      The trick is to prefix it with C-u which supplies ARG to the function org-toggle-item which changes each line in a region into an item.
      ∴ C-u C-c - then S-right until you get to the list type you want.
      Thanks Thumper_ for that suggestion.

    UPDATE: zhen pointed me to rectangle-number-lines, which I did look at before but it’s default option numbers the lines without the full stop after each number. As I wanted this for org-mode, I really wanted the numbers to be formatted as “1. “. After reading the help on rectangle-number-lines though, I found that if you prefix it with the argument command C-u it will ask you for a starting number and the format of the numbers.
    ∴ Select a rectangle at least one column wide of the lines you want to number then
    C-u C-x r N <ENTER><backspace>.<spc><ENTER>

  • Delete white space around insertion point in emacs

    A while ago I discovered M-\ deletes white space between point and text.
    Now I just discovered M-spc replaces tabs and spaces around point with just 1 space.
    M-SPC runs the command just-one-space, which is an interactive
    compiled Lisp function in `simple.el'.
    It is bound to M-SPC.
    (just-one-space &optional N)
    Delete all spaces and tabs around point, leaving one space (or N spaces).
    If N is negative, delete newlines as well.