Editing commands

Beyond raw motion, Macros provides the core Emacs editing commands — region-aware where Emacs is, and each command's edits coalesce into a single undo group so they undo as a unit.

The region and the kill ring#

Set the mark with C-Space, then move point; the text between mark and point is the region. Commands that say "region" act on it (or fall back sensibly when there's no active region).

Key	Command	Action
C-Space	set-mark	Start a selection
C-w	kill-region	Cut the region to the kill ring
M-w	kill-ring-save	Copy the region
C-y	yank	Paste the latest kill
M-y	yank-pop	Cycle through earlier kills (after a yank)
C-x C-x	exchange-point-and-mark	Swap point and mark
C-x C-h / cmd-a	mark-whole-buffer	Select all

The kill ring and the system clipboard are kept in sync by the clipboard commands (cmd-c/x/v), so copying in Macros and pasting in another app just works.

Killing & transposing#

Key	Command
C-k	kill-line
M-d / M-Backspace	kill-word / backward-kill-word
M-z	zap-to-char
C-t	transpose-chars
C-x C-t	transpose-lines
M-^	join-line
C-o	open-line

Search#

Incremental search, Emacs-style:

Key	Command
C-s	isearch-forward
C-r	isearch-backward

Type to extend the match; C-s / C-r again to jump to the next/previous hit; C-g to cancel and return to where you started.

Replace#

Key	Command
M-%	query-replace — ask at each match of a literal string
C-M-%	query-replace-regexp — same, for a regexp
M-x replace-string / replace-regexp	replace every match without asking
C-c p r / C-c p %	projectile-replace / projectile-replace-regexp — across the project

All of them run from point to the end of the buffer, or inside the active region (an evil Visual selection counts). An empty search string reuses the previous pair. An all-lower-case search matches any case, and a lower-case replacement then follows the match's case (FOO → BAR, Foo → Bar). In the regexp versions \1…\9 insert capture groups, \& the whole match, \n / \t a newline / tab.

At each match of a query session:

Key	Action
y / SPC	replace and go on
n / DEL	skip
!	replace all remaining
.	replace this one and stop
,	replace, but stay to look at the result
u / U	undo the last / every replacement
^	back to the previous match
E	edit the replacement string
q / RET	stop (any other key stops too)
?	help

The whole session is a single undo step. The keys work the same under evil and helix (M-% falls through the modal keymaps).

The project versions find the files with ripgrep (gitignore-aware), then run a query session through each file in turn: ! finishes the current file, Y replaces everything in all remaining files, N skips to the next file. At the end you're asked whether to save the files that changed. With evil, bind them on your leader, e.g. (evil-leader-set "n R" 'projectile-replace).

Occur#

C-c o (occur) prompts for a regexp (an all-lower-case one ignores case) and opens an *occur* window listing every matching line with its line number, matches highlighted. n / p move between hits; Enter, o or a click jumps to the match in the source; q closes.

Editing results (occur-edit / wgrep)#

In *occur* and in the project grep buffer (C-c p G), press e or C-c C-p (i under evil/helix) to make the results editable. Only the text after each file:line: prefix can change — the prefixes are read-only. Then:

• C-c C-c applies every changed line. Sources open in a buffer are edited in that buffer and left modified for you to review and save; files that aren't open are patched directly on disk. A line that changed since the search is skipped and reported.
• C-c C-k throws the edits away.

Comment toggling#

M-; (comment-dwim) toggles a line comment on the current line (or region). The comment prefix is a buffer-local string set per mode (comment-string), defaulting to // ; modes like steel-mode set their own.

Sorting & case#

These act on the region, or the whole buffer when there's no region:

• sort-lines — sort the lines.
• upcase-region / downcase-region / capitalize-region — case conversion.

Run them by name with M-x, or bind them in your init.scm.

Undo & redo#

Key	Command	Action
C-/	undo	Undo the last change
C-?	redo	Redo

Undo is branching (Emacs undo-tree): undoing and then making a new edit starts a branch rather than discarding the redone edits, so no work is ever lost. M-x vundo opens a read-only view of the undo tree (g refreshes, q closes); navigate the history itself with C-/ and C-?.

Expanding the selection#

Grow the region outward along tree-sitter syntax boundaries — word, then expression, statement, block (Emacs expand-region). It works in any buffer with a tree-sitter grammar, no language server needed.

Key	Command	Action
C-=	er/expand	Widen the selection to the enclosing node
M-=	er/contract	Step back to the previous, narrower selection

In evil visual state, + and - do the same.

Multiple cursors#

Edit in many places at once (Emacs mc.el). Add secondary cursors, then typed text, Enter, and Backspace are replicated at every cursor.

Key	Command	Action
C-c C-n	mc-add-cursor-below	Add a cursor on the next line
C-c C-p	mc-add-cursor-above	Add a cursor on the previous line
C-c C-d	mc-mark-next-like-this	Add a cursor at the next occurrence of the word at point
C-g	mc-clear	Collapse back to a single cursor

Plain motions move only the primary cursor — add the cursors first, then type or delete.

Jumping to a character#

Jump anywhere on screen in a couple of keystrokes (Emacs avy / ace-jump).

Key	Command	Action
C-c j	avy-goto-char	Type a character; every visible occurrence is tagged with a hint letter — press the letter to jump

In evil normal state this is g s. C-g cancels the jump.

The buffer list#

C-x C-b (ibuffer) opens a buffer manager (Emacs ibuffer) listing every open buffer. Enter switches to the buffer on the line, d or x kills it, g refreshes. (To pick a buffer through Helm instead, use C-x b.)