2.4.2 The Edit Menu

The Edit pull-down menu contains the Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, and Clear menu items. When you select a menu item, Emacs executes the equivalent command. Most commands on the Edit menu work on a block of text, the X selection. They appear faded until you select a block of text (activate a region) with the mouse. See Using X Selections, see Killing, and see Yanking for more information.

Undo

Undoes the previous command. Undo is equivalent to the Emacs command undo (C-x u).

Cut

Removes the selected text block from the current buffer, makes it the X clipboard selection, and places it in the kill ring. Before executing this command, you have to select a region using Emacs region selection commands or with the mouse.

Copy

Makes a selected text block the X clipboard selection, and places it in the kill ring. You can select text using one of the Emacs region selection commands or by selecting a text region with the mouse.

Paste

Inserts the current value of the X clipboard selection in the current buffer. Note that this is not necessarily the same as the Emacs yank command, because the Emacs kill ring and the X clipboard selection are not the same thing. You can paste in text you have placed in the clipboard using Copy or Cut. You can also use Paste to insert text that was pasted into the clipboard from other applications.

Clear

Removes the selected text block from the current buffer but does not place it in the kill ring or the X clipboard selection.

Start Macro Recording

After selecting this, Emacs will remember every keystroke you type until End Macro Recording is selected. This is the same as the Emacs command start-kbd-macro (C-x ().

End Macro Recording

Selecting this tells emacs to stop remembering your keystrokes. This is the same as the Emacs command end-kbd-macro (C-x )).

Execute Last Macro

Selecting this item will cause emacs to re-interpret all of the keystrokes which were saved between selections of the Start Macro Recording and End Macro Recording menu items. This is the same as the Emacs command call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e).