Controlling the Display

Since only part of a large buffer fits in the window, Emacs tries to show the part that is likely to be interesting. The display control commands allow you to specify which part of the text you want to see.

C-l

Clear screen and redisplay, scrolling the selected window to center point vertically within it (recenter).

C-v

Scroll forward (a windowful or a specified number of lines) (scroll-up).

NEXT

Likewise, scroll forward.

M-v

Scroll backward (scroll-down).

PRIOR

Likewise, scroll backward.

arg C-l

Scroll so point is on screen line arg (recenter).

C-x <

Scroll text in current window to the left (scroll-left).

C-x >

Scroll to the right (scroll-right).

C-x $

Make deeply indented lines invisible (set-selective-display).

The names of all scroll commands are based on the direction that the text moves in the window. Thus, the command to scrolling forward is called scroll-up, since the text moves up.

• Scrolling: Moving text up and down in a window.
• Horizontal Scrolling: Moving text left and right in a window.
• Selective Display: Hiding lines with lots of indentation.
• European Display: Displaying (and entering) European characters.
• Optional Mode Line: Optional mode line display features.
• Display Vars: Information on variables for customizing display.