Writing Keyboard Macros

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Writing Keyboard Macros

Keyboard macros are really easy to write and they can save a great amount of time. Using the registers for file positions or text, the search and jump functions described above, you can write powerful macros that, for example, collect information in different files and write them to another file. Useful macros can be saved in the .emacs file and assigned to a key shortcut. Table 7 summarizes the most useful commands.

Macro

Key, Action Explanation

C-x ( Start recording a keyboard macro

C-x ) End the recording

C-x e Calls the last created macro

M-x name-last-kbd-macro Assigns a name to last created keyboard macro. This is necessary, if you would like to insert the macro into a buffer (or into the .emacs file).

M-x insert-kbd-macro Inserts the keyboard macro into the current buffer. Usually, when a useful macro was created and inserted into the .emacs, a keyboard redefinition such as (global-set-key " C-cn" 'prototype_to_function) is very useful.

Table 7:

**Table 7:**
Macro
Key, Action	Explanation
C-x (	Start recording a keyboard macro
C-x )	End the recording
C-x e	Calls the last created macro
M-x name-last-kbd-macro	Assigns a name to last created keyboard macro. This is necessary, if you would like to insert the macro into a buffer (or into the .emacs file).
M-x insert-kbd-macro	Inserts the keyboard macro into the current buffer. Usually, when a useful macro was created and inserted into the .emacs, a keyboard redefinition such as `(global-set-key " C-cn" 'prototype_to_function)` is very useful.

Adrian Perrig
Wed Jun 12 00:18:25 MET DST 1996