Mail Archives: djgpp/1999/12/01/09:11:23
On Wed, 1 Dec 1999, Leon wrote:
> i know that there are lots of manuals and other bits of info re
> subject - but finding the right info can take a lot longer than
> asking a pro...
Sorry, this is a wrong attitude. This is not a free help line, people
who answer your questions have other things to do. We take time from
our other duties to help you, but our time is _not_ less valuable than
yours; please don't forget that.
Please do NOT abuse our help; please make a good-faith effort to find
the solution to your problems *before* you pop up the question here.
I know it is much easier to write a question and then watch all the
helpful souls go out of their way to supply a detailed answer, than to
search the docs. But these helpful people are not here to replace the
docs, they are here to supplement it.
Besides, the Emacs manual is right there under your fingertips, it is
part of the distribution. Just type `C-h i m emacs RET', or choose
"Browse Manuals" from the Help item on the menu bar, and you will see
it. Also, doing so will benefit you in the long run, because you will
be able to find solutions on your own instead of forever being
dependent on ``the pro's''.
> well i mean ( and please forgive my novicenesssss ;-) hmm - i select a
> region then want to shift the whole thing to the left rather then right...
> (usually by tab number of spaces but could also want to do it by i
> space...)
Mark the region, then type `C-x TAB'. You can give this command a
numeric argument to tell Emacs how many columns to indent; a negative
argument means to outdent. For example `M- -1 C-x TAB' outdents one
column ("M- -1" means hold the META key, which is Alt on a PC, and
press the keys `-' and `1'). This is explained in the chapter named
"Indentation" in the Emacs manual.
> while we are on the subject - i noticed that selecting a region then
> applying command to it (like tab) performs that command - but then
> deselects the region (ie makes it inactive) so that if i wanted to do
> something to that region again - i have to select the thing again
The region is still active, so you can still operate on it without
selecting it again. It's just that its colorization is removed,
because Emacs has many commands which operate on a region which have
nothing to do with cut-and-paste, and having the region highlighted
at all times is annoying.
Simply perform the operation, and it will work, even though the region
is not highlighted.
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