27.3.2 Naming and Saving Keyboard Macros

To save a keyboard macro for longer than until you define the next one, you must give it a name using M-x name-last-kbd-macro. This reads a name as an argument using the minibuffer and defines that name to execute the macro. The macro name is a Lisp symbol, and defining it in this way makes it a valid command name for calling with M-x or for binding a key to with global-set-key (see Keymaps). If you specify a name that has a prior definition other than another keyboard macro, Emacs prints an error message and nothing is changed.

Once a macro has a command name, you can save its definition in a file. You can then use it in another editing session. First visit the file you want to save the definition in. Then use the command:

M-x insert-kbd-macro RET macroname RET

This inserts some Lisp code that, when executed later, will define the same macro with the same definition it has now. You need not understand Lisp code to do this, because insert-kbd-macro writes the Lisp code for you. Then save the file. You can load the file with load-file (see Lisp Libraries). If the file you save in is your initialization file (see Init File), then the macro will be defined each time you run Emacs.

If you give insert-kbd-macro a prefix argument, it creates additional Lisp code to record the keys (if any) that you have bound to the keyboard macro, so that the macro is reassigned the same keys when you load the file.