auctex: Editing Facilities
1.3.1 Functions for editing TeX files
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1.3.1.1 Making your TeX code more readable
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AUCTeX can do syntax highlighting of your source code, that means
commands will get special colors or fonts. You can enable it locally by
typing 'M-x font-lock-mode RET'. If you want to have font locking
activated generally, enable 'global-font-lock-mode', e.g. with 'M-x
customize-variable RET global-font-lock-mode RET'.
AUCTeX will indent new lines to indicate their syntactical
relationship to the surrounding text. For example, the text of a
'\footnote' or text inside of an environment will be indented relative
to the text around it. If the indenting has gotten wrong after adding
or deleting some characters, use <TAB> to reindent the line, 'M-q' for
the whole paragraph, or 'M-x LaTeX-fill-buffer RET' for the whole
buffer.
1.3.1.2 Entering sectioning commands
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Insertion of sectioning macros, that is '\chapter', '\section',
'\subsection', etc. and accompanying '\label' commands may be eased by
using 'C-c C-s'. You will be asked for the section level. As nearly
everywhere in AUCTeX, you can use the <TAB> or <SPC> key to get a list
of available level names, and to auto-complete what you started typing.
Next, you will be asked for the printed title of the section, and last
you will be asked for a label to be associated with the section.
1.3.1.3 Inserting environments
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Similarly, you can insert environments, that is '\begin{}'-'\end{}'
pairs: Type 'C-c C-e', and select an environment type. Again, you can
use <TAB> or <SPC> to get a list, and to complete what you type.
Actually, the list will not only provide standard LaTeX environments,
but also take your '\documentclass' and '\usepackage' commands into
account if you have parsing enabled by setting 'TeX-parse-self' to 't'.
If you use a couple of environments frequently, you can use the up and
down arrow keys (or 'M-p' and 'M-n') in the minibuffer to get back to
the previously inserted commands.
Some environments need additional arguments. Often, AUCTeX knows
about this and asks you to enter a value.
1.3.1.4 Inserting macros
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'C-c C-m', or simply 'C-c RET' will give you a prompt that asks you for
a LaTeX macro. You can use <TAB> for completion, or the up/down arrow
keys (or 'M-p' and 'M-n') to browse the command history. In many cases,
AUCTeX knows which arguments a macro needs and will ask you for that.
It even can differentiate between mandatory and optional arguments--for
details, see 
Completion.
An additional help for inserting macros is provided by the
possibility to complete macros right in the buffer. With point at the
end of a partially written macro, you can complete it by typing 'M-TAB'.
1.3.1.5 Changing the font
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AUCTeX provides convenient keyboard shortcuts for inserting macros which
specify the font to be used for typesetting certain parts of the text.
They start with 'C-c C-f', and the last 'C-' combination tells AUCTeX
which font you want:
'C-c C-f C-b'
Insert bold face '\textbf{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-i'
Insert italics '\textit{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-e'
Insert emphasized '\emph{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-s'
Insert slanted '\textsl{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-r'
Insert roman \textrm{-!-} text.
'C-c C-f C-f'
Insert sans serif '\textsf{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-t'
Insert typewriter '\texttt{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-c'
Insert SMALL CAPS '\textsc{-!-}' text.
'C-c C-f C-d'
Delete the innermost font specification containing point.
If you want to change font attributes of existing text, mark it as an
active region, and then invoke the commands. If no region is selected,
the command will be inserted with empty braces, and you can start typing
the changed text.
Most of those commands will also work in math mode, but then macros
like '\mathbf' will be inserted.
1.3.1.6 Other useful features
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AUCTeX also tries to help you when inserting the right "quote" signs for
your language, dollar signs to typeset math, or pairs of braces. It
offers shortcuts for commenting out text ('C-c ;' for the current region
or 'C-c %' for the paragraph you are in). The same keystrokes will
remove the % signs, if the region or paragraph is commented out yet.
With 'TeX-fold-mode', you can hide certain parts (like footnotes,
references etc.) that you do not edit currently. Support for Emacs'
outline mode is provided as well. And there's more, but this is beyond
the scope of this Quick Start Guide.
Info Catalog
auctex: Quick Start
auctex: Processing Facilities