comparison man/fixit.texi @ 83464:49f9dd4bb117

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83463:38c49afb29d9

characters.  Consecutive repetitions of the undo command undo earlier
and earlier changes, back to the limit of the undo information
available.  @xref{Undo}, for more information.

@menu
* Kill Errors:: Commands to kill a batch of recently entered text.
* Transpose::   Exchanging two characters, words, lines, lists...
* Fixing Case:: Correcting case of last word entered.
* Spelling::    Apply spelling checker to a word, or a whole file.
@end menu

@node Kill Errors
@section Killing Your Mistakes

@table @kbd

@end table

  The @key{DEL} character (@code{delete-backward-char}) is the most
important correction command.  It deletes the character before point.
When @key{DEL} follows a self-inserting character command, you can think
of it as canceling that command.  However, avoid the mistake of thinking
of @key{DEL} as a general way to cancel a command!

  When your mistake is longer than a couple of characters, it might be
more convenient to use @kbd{M-@key{DEL}} or @kbd{C-x @key{DEL}}.
@kbd{M-@key{DEL}} kills back to the start of the last word, and @kbd{C-x

@cindex checking spelling
@cindex correcting spelling

  This section describes the commands to check the spelling of a single
word or of a portion of a buffer.  These commands work with the spelling
checker program Ispell, which is not part of Emacs.
@ifinfo
@xref{Top, Ispell, Overview ispell, ispell, The Ispell Manual}.
@end ifinfo

@table @kbd
@item M-x flyspell-mode
Enable Flyspell mode, which highlights all misspelled words.

Check and correct spelling of each word in the region.
@item M-x ispell-message
Check and correct spelling of each word in a draft mail message,
excluding cited material.
@item M-x ispell-change-dictionary @key{RET} @var{dict} @key{RET}
Restart the Ispell process, using @var{dict} as the dictionary.
@item M-x ispell-kill-ispell
Kill the Ispell subprocess.
@end table

@cindex Flyspell mode
@findex flyspell-mode
  Flyspell mode is a fully-automatic way to check spelling as you edit

@item A
Accept the incorrect word---treat it as correct, but only in this
editing session and for this buffer.

@item i
Insert this word in your private dictionary file so that Ispell will
consider it correct from now on, even in future sessions.

@item u
Insert the lower-case version of this word in your private dic@-tion@-ary
file.

reload your private dictionary if you edit the file outside of Ispell.
@end ignore

@cindex @code{ispell} program
@findex ispell-kill-ispell
  Once started, the Ispell subprocess continues to run (waiting for
something to do), so that subsequent spell checking commands complete
more quickly.  If you want to get rid of the Ispell process, use
@kbd{M-x ispell-kill-ispell}.  This is not usually necessary, since the
process uses no time except when you do spelling correction.

@vindex ispell-dictionary
  Ispell uses two dictionaries together for spell checking: the
standard dictionary and your private dictionary.  The variable
@code{ispell-dictionary} specifies the file name to use for the
standard dictionary; a value of @code{nil} selects the default
dictionary.  The command @kbd{M-x ispell-change-dictionary} sets this
variable and then restarts the Ispell subprocess, so that it will use
a different standard dictionary.

@vindex ispell-complete-word-dict
  Ispell uses a separate dictionary for word completion.  The variable
@code{ispell-complete-word-dict} specifies the file name of this
dictionary.  The completion dictionary must be different because it
cannot use root and affix information.  For some languages
there is a spell checking dictionary but no word completion
dictionary.

@ignore
   arch-tag: 3359a443-96ed-448f-9f05-c8111ba8eac0

83464:49f9dd4bb117

characters.  Consecutive repetitions of the undo command undo earlier
and earlier changes, back to the limit of the undo information
available.  @xref{Undo}, for more information.

@menu
* Undo::        The Undo commands.
* Kill Errors:: Commands to kill a batch of recently entered text.
* Transpose::   Exchanging two characters, words, lines, lists...
* Fixing Case:: Correcting case of last word entered.
* Spelling::    Apply spelling checker to a word, or a whole file.
@end menu

@node Undo
@section Undo
@cindex undo
@cindex changes, undoing

  The @dfn{undo} commands undo recent changes in the buffer's text.
Each buffer records changes individually, and the undo command always
applies to the current buffer.  You can undo all the changes in a
buffer for as far as back these records go.  Usually each editing
command makes a separate entry in the undo records, but some commands
such as @code{query-replace} divide their changes into multiple
entries for flexibility in undoing.  Meanwhile, self-inserting
characters are usually grouped to make undoing less tedious.

@table @kbd
@item C-x u
@itemx C-_
@itemx C-/
Undo one entry in the current buffer's undo records (@code{undo}).
@end table

@kindex C-x u
@kindex C-_
@kindex C-/
@findex undo
  To begin to undo, type the command @kbd{C-x u} (or its aliases,
@kbd{C-_} or @kbd{C-/}).  This undoes the most recent change in the
buffer, and moves point back to where it was before that change.

  Consecutive repetitions of @kbd{C-x u} (or its aliases) undo earlier
and earlier changes in the current buffer, back to the limit of the
current buffer's undo records.  If all the recorded changes have
already been undone, the undo command just signals an error.

  If you notice that a buffer has been modified accidentally, the
easiest way to recover is to type @kbd{C-_} repeatedly until the stars
disappear from the front of the mode line.  At this time, all the
modifications you made have been canceled.  Whenever an undo command
makes the stars disappear from the mode line, it means that the buffer
contents are the same as they were when the file was last read in or
saved.

  If you do not remember whether you changed the buffer deliberately,
type @kbd{C-_} once.  When you see the last change you made undone, you
will see whether it was an intentional change.  If it was an accident,
leave it undone.  If it was deliberate, redo the change as described
below.

@findex undo-only
  Any command other than an undo command breaks the sequence of undo
commands.  Starting from that moment, the previous undo commands
become ordinary changes that you can undo.  Thus, to redo changes you
have undone, type @kbd{C-f} or any other command that will harmlessly
break the sequence of undoing, then type undo commands again.  On the
other hand, if you want to resume undoing, without redoing previous
undo commands, use @kbd{M-x undo-only}.  This is like @code{undo}, but
will not redo changes you have just undone.

@cindex selective undo
@kindex C-u C-x u
  Ordinary undo applies to all changes made in the current buffer.  You
can also perform @dfn{selective undo}, limited to the region.

  To do this, specify the region you want, then run the @code{undo}
command with a prefix argument (the value does not matter): @kbd{C-u
C-x u} or @kbd{C-u C-_}.  This undoes the most recent change in the
region.  To undo further changes in the same region, repeat the
@code{undo} command (no prefix argument is needed).  In Transient Mark
mode (@pxref{Transient Mark}), any use of @code{undo} when there is an
active region performs selective undo; you do not need a prefix
argument.

  Some specialized buffers do not make undo records.  Buffers
whose names start with spaces never do; these buffers are used
internally by Emacs and its extensions to hold text that users don't
normally look at or edit.

@vindex undo-limit
@vindex undo-strong-limit
@vindex undo-outer-limit
@cindex undo limit
  When the undo records for a buffer becomes too large, Emacs
discards the oldest undo records from time to time (during garbage
collection).  You can specify how much undo records to keep by
setting three variables: @code{undo-limit}, @code{undo-strong-limit},
and @code{undo-outer-limit}.  Their values are expressed in units of
bytes of space.

  The variable @code{undo-limit} sets a soft limit: Emacs keeps undo
data for enough commands to reach this size, and perhaps exceed it,
but does not keep data for any earlier commands beyond that.  Its
default value is 20000.  The variable @code{undo-strong-limit} sets a
stricter limit: a previous command (not the most recent one) which
pushes the size past this amount is itself forgotten.  The default
value of @code{undo-strong-limit} is 30000.

  Regardless of the values of those variables, the most recent change
is never discarded unless it gets bigger than @code{undo-outer-limit}
(normally 3,000,000).  At that point, Emacs discards the undo data and
warns you about it.  This is the only situation in which you cannot
undo the last command.  If this happens, you can increase the value of
@code{undo-outer-limit} to make it even less likely to happen in the
future.  But if you didn't expect the command to create such large
undo data, then it is probably a bug and you should report it.
@xref{Bugs,, Reporting Bugs}.

  The reason the @code{undo} command has three key bindings, @kbd{C-x
u}, @kbd{C-_} and @kbd{C-/}, is that it is worthy of a
single-character key, but @kbd{C-x u} is more straightforward for
beginners to remember and type.  Meanwhile, @kbd{C--} on a text-only
terminal is really @kbd{C-_}, which makes it a natural and easily
typed binding for undoing.

@node Kill Errors
@section Killing Your Mistakes

@table @kbd

@end table

  The @key{DEL} character (@code{delete-backward-char}) is the most
important correction command.  It deletes the character before point.
When @key{DEL} follows a self-inserting character command, you can think
of it as canceling that command.  However, avoid the confusion of thinking
of @key{DEL} as a general way to cancel a command!

  When your mistake is longer than a couple of characters, it might be
more convenient to use @kbd{M-@key{DEL}} or @kbd{C-x @key{DEL}}.
@kbd{M-@key{DEL}} kills back to the start of the last word, and @kbd{C-x

@cindex checking spelling
@cindex correcting spelling

  This section describes the commands to check the spelling of a single
word or of a portion of a buffer.  These commands work with the spelling
checker programs Aspell and Ispell, which are not part of Emacs.
@ifinfo
@xref{Top, Aspell,, aspell, The Aspell Manual}.
@end ifinfo

@table @kbd
@item M-x flyspell-mode
Enable Flyspell mode, which highlights all misspelled words.

Check and correct spelling of each word in the region.
@item M-x ispell-message
Check and correct spelling of each word in a draft mail message,
excluding cited material.
@item M-x ispell-change-dictionary @key{RET} @var{dict} @key{RET}
Restart the Aspell or Ispell process, using @var{dict} as the dictionary.
@item M-x ispell-kill-ispell
Kill the Aspell or Ispell subprocess.
@end table

@cindex Flyspell mode
@findex flyspell-mode
  Flyspell mode is a fully-automatic way to check spelling as you edit

@item A
Accept the incorrect word---treat it as correct, but only in this
editing session and for this buffer.

@item i
Insert this word in your private dictionary file so that Aspell or Ispell will
consider it correct from now on, even in future sessions.

@item u
Insert the lower-case version of this word in your private dic@-tion@-ary
file.

reload your private dictionary if you edit the file outside of Ispell.
@end ignore

@cindex @code{ispell} program
@findex ispell-kill-ispell
  Once started, the Aspell or Ispell subprocess continues to run
(waiting for something to do), so that subsequent spell checking
commands complete more quickly.  If you want to get rid of the
process, use @kbd{M-x ispell-kill-ispell}.  This is not usually
necessary, since the process uses no time except when you do spelling
correction.

@vindex ispell-dictionary
  Ispell and Aspell use two dictionaries together for spell checking: the
standard dictionary and your private dictionary.  The variable
@code{ispell-dictionary} specifies the file name to use for the
standard dictionary; a value of @code{nil} selects the default
dictionary.  The command @kbd{M-x ispell-change-dictionary} sets this
variable and then restarts the subprocess, so that it will use
a different standard dictionary.

@vindex ispell-complete-word-dict
  Aspell and Ispell use a separate dictionary for word completion.
The variable @code{ispell-complete-word-dict} specifies the file name
of this dictionary.  The completion dictionary must be different
because it cannot use root and affix information.  For some languages
there is a spell checking dictionary but no word completion
dictionary.

@ignore
   arch-tag: 3359a443-96ed-448f-9f05-c8111ba8eac0