MicroEMACS lets you have multiple windows on the screen. Each window has its own mode line, its own value of dot and mark, and its own associated buffer. If you have a buffer displayed in more that one window and you edit a line, it is updated in all windows.

A window is as only wide as can fit on your terminal. If a text line is too long to be displayed in a window, the last column is displayed as a $ character. However, MicroEMACS will let you view long lines by automatically scrolling the window left or right if you move the cursor past the left or right edges of the window. When MicroEMACS performs a horizontal scroll, it will attempt to reframe the window so that the cursor is centered horizontally.

C-L (refresh)

This command clears the screen, and completely redisplays all of the text is all of the windows. It is useful if a line error has garbaged your screen.

If you give C-L an argument, it will attempt to split the screen vertically into that number of side-by-side pages. This has the effect of giving you a screen that has more rows but fewer columns than normal. To restore the screen to normal, give an argument of 1. Currently this feature only works with the ncurses display code; see Building a MicroEMACS.

C-X 2 (split-window)

This is the basic window making command. The current window is split in two. Each window is displaying the same buffer, and has the same value of dot and mark. The window must be at least three lines high, otherwise there isn't enough room for two text lines and the new mode line. Any argument is ignored.

After the you create a window, you usually switch it to a private buffer using C-X B or (perhaps more often) C-X C-V. Note that because both windows are displaying the same buffer, reading a file in one window with C-X C-R probably does not do what you want.

C-X 1 (only-window)

This is the basic window destroying command. All windows but the current window are removed from the screen. The current window grows to fill the vacated screen space. Any argument is ignored. On PCs, this command is also bound to F10.

C-X N, C-X O (forw-window)

Move to the next window down the screen. If the current window is the bottom window, move to the top window. Ignores any argument.

C-X P (back-window)

Move to the previous window up the screen. If the current window is the top window, move to the bottom window. Ignores any argument.

C-X Z (enlarge-window)

The current window is enlarged, if possible. Any argument is used as a "number of lines by which to grow". The default argument is 1. Screen space is stolen from the window immediately below the current window. If the current window is the bottom window on the screen then space is stolen from the window immediately above the current window. You cannot steal all of the lines away from a window.

C-X C-N (down-window)

Scroll the current window down. Any argument is used as a "number of lines by which to scroll" count. The default argument is 1. On PCs, this command is also bound to C-PgDn.

C-X C-P (up-window)

Scroll the current window up. Any argument is used as a "number of lines by which to scroll" count. The default argument is 1. On PCs, this command is also bound to C-PgUp.

C-X C-Z (shrink-window)

The current window is shrunk, if possible. Any argument is used as a "number of lines by which to shrink". The default argument is 1. Screen space is given to the window immediately below the current window. If the current window is the bottom window on the screen, the space is given to the window immediately above the current window. You cannot shrink a window out of existence.

M-! (reposition-window)

This command is used to control the line of a window upon which dot is displayed. If its argument is positive, then that number is taken to be the origin 1 line number of the current window upon which the line containing dot should be placed. If its argument is 0, then dot is moved to the center of the window. If the number is less then zero then it is taken to be the negation of the origin 1 line number of the current window starting at the bottom upon which the line containing dot should be placed. If no argument is supplied, a default argument of 1 is used; This lets M-! function as a "move dot to the top of the window" command, which is very useful.

C-X + (balance-windows)

This command adjusts the windows so that they all have approximately the same height. This is useful after several split-window commands have created some windows that are too small.