This chapter talks about various topics relevant to adapting the behavior of Emacs in minor ways.
All kinds of customization affect only the particular Emacs job that you do them in. They are completely lost when you kill the Emacs job, and have no effect on other Emacs jobs you may run at the same time or later. The only way an Emacs job can affect anything outside of it is by writing a file; in particular, the only way to make a customization ‘permanent’ is to put something in your init file or other appropriate file to do the customization in each session. See Init File.
| • Minor Modes: | Each minor mode is one feature you can turn on independently of any others. | |
| • Variables: | Many Emacs commands examine Emacs variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning. | |
| • Keyboard Macros: | A keyboard macro records a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed with a single command. | |
| • Key Bindings: | The keymaps say what command each key runs. By changing them, you can "redefine keys". | |
| • Syntax: | The syntax table controls how words and expressions are parsed. | |
| • Init File: | How to write common customizations in the init file. | |
| • Audible Bell: | Changing how Emacs sounds the bell. | |
| • Faces: | Changing the fonts and colors of a region of text. | |
| • Frame Components: | Controlling the presence and positions of the menubar, toolbars, and gutters. | |
| • X Resources: | X resources controlling various aspects of the behavior of SXEmacs. |