2.4.1 The File Menu

The File menu bar item contains the items New Frame, Open File..., Save Buffer, Save Buffer As..., Revert Buffer, Print Buffer, Delete Frame, Kill Buffer and Exit Emacs on the pull-down menu. If you select a menu item, Emacs executes the equivalent command.

Open File, New Frame...

Prompts you for a filename and loads that file into a new buffer in a new Emacs frame, that is, a new X window running under the same Emacs process. You can remove the frame using the Delete Frame menu item. When you remove the last frame, you exit Emacs and are prompted for confirmation.

Open File...

Prompts you for a filename and loads that file into a new buffer. Open File... is equivalent to the Emacs command find-file (C-x C-f).

Insert File...

Prompts you for a filename and inserts the contents of that file into the current buffer. The file associated with the current buffer is not changed by this command. This is equivalent to the Emacs command insert-file (C-x i).

Save Buffer

Writes and saves the current Emacs buffer as the latest version of the current visited file. Save Buffer is equivalent to the Emacs command save-buffer (C-x C-s).

Save Buffer As...

Writes and saves the current Emacs buffer to the filename you specify. Save Buffer As... is equivalent to the Emacs command write-file (C-x C-w).

Revert Buffer

Restores the last saved version of the file to the current buffer. When you edit a buffer containing a text file, you must save the buffer before your changes become effective. Use Revert Buffer if you do not want to keep the changes you have made in the buffer. Revert Buffer is equivalent to the Emacs command revert-file (M-x revert-buffer).

Kill Buffer

Kills the current buffer, prompting you first if there are unsaved changes. This is roughly equivalent to the Emacs command kill-buffer (C-x k), except that kill-buffer prompts for the name of a buffer to kill.

Print Buffer

Prints a hardcopy of the current buffer. Equivalent to the Emacs command print-buffer (M-x print-buffer).

New Frame

Creates a new Emacs frame displaying the *scratch* buffer. This is like the Open File, New Frame... menu item, except that it does not prompt for or load a file.

Delete Frame

Allows you to close all but one of the frames created by New Frame. If you created several Emacs frames belonging to the same Emacs process, you can close all but one of them. When you attempt to close the last frame, Emacs informs you that you are attempting to delete the last frame. You have to choose Exit Emacs for that.

Split Frame

Divides the current window on the current frame into two equal-sized windows, both displaying the same buffer. Equivalent to the Emacs command split-window-vertically (C-x 2).

Un-split (Keep This)

If the frame is divided into multiple windows, this removes all windows other than the selected one. Equivalent to the Emacs command delete-other-windows (C-x 1).

Un-split (Keep Others)

If the frame is divided into multiple windows, this removes the selected window from the frame, giving the space back to one of the other windows. Equivalent to the Emacs command delete-window (C-x 0).

Exit Emacs

Shuts down (kills) the Emacs process. Equivalent to the Emacs command save-buffers-kill-emacs (C-x C-c). Before killing the Emacs process, the system asks which unsaved buffers to save by going through the list of all buffers in that Emacs process.