The ability to split emacs windows is highly useful, whether you are using it to view related information in the same window or others. However, after the initial 50-50 split, splitting again will result in 50-25-25, 50-12.5-12.5-12.5-12.5, etc; this becomes unsightly quickly. The solution is the `balance-windows` command, bound by default to C-x++. This equalizes the sizes of all windows, without you needing to reach for the mouse to drag window boundaries.

One of my chief desires in upgrading my org-mode recently was to be able to export into markdown, as described in the documentation. Imagine my surprise when the export list didn’t mention it, it didn’t appear to be an extra package, and the shortcut didn’t work. Thankfully, a user on Stack Overflow had the answer. In short, the plethora of org-mode export options listed here are not all loaded to begin with.

I was several years into my Emacs usage before mis-types revealed the glory of the “narrow” and “widen” functions to me. Actually, it was one of those nightmares: “Whoa! Where’d my document go!? And why isn’t “undo” bringing it back?” When the tears subsided, I soon realized how useful these commands are. By selecting a region and narrowing it you focus your editing and attention on a portion of what might otherwise be massive files; by so doing, your search/replace commands and your commands to jump to buffer boundaries are contained in a useful area.

The package of org-mode that ships with my latest emacs (Fedora 20) is version 7.9. It works great, of course, but it turns out the major version revision adds a lot of extra functionality. Unfortunately, on two separate occasions my attempt to install the newest orgmode from the package gave me real problems, especially with un-initialized variables. You can see my plea for help here: org-mode broken dynamic clock: Symbol’s function definition is void: org-defvaralias.

I do most–nay, all–of my writing in Emacs, and realize that one of the things people will miss the most when coming from something like Microsoft Word or Libre Office is a spell checker. There are several great reasons not to worry about it. 1 Exercise Your Brain The fact is, dependance on spell checkers is bad for us. Just as handwriting is suffering because of the prevalence of typing, spelling is suffering because of dependence upon spell checkers.