Binding Keys in Emacs

In Emacs, the keys can be rebound to call any function one desires.One of the many uses of rebinding is to call frequent functions that are operated on the buffer one is working on. And the key bindings can be local or global depending upon whether the functionality makes sense across all buffers or only to the type of buffers worked on (text, tex etc.)

Here for example is what I have mapped for TeX mode. I have outline-mode enabled by default for LaTeX files.

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook
         (function (lambda ()
                     (setq fill-column 68)
                     (auto-fill-mode t)
                     (flyspell-mode 1)
                     (TeX-PDF-mode 1) ;;turn on PDF mode.
                     (outline-minor-mode t)
                     (ruler-mode t)
                     (local-set-key "\C-cf" 'beamer-template-frame)
                     (setq ispell-extra-args '("--mode=tex"))
                     (paren-toggle-matching-quoted-paren 1)
                     (paren-toggle-matching-paired-delimiter 1))))

Now, this puts an outline-mode menu on the menu-bar whose keybindings
are atrocious! :-)

Now in outline-mode, the most frequently used functions are

Show All
Show Entry
Hide Body
Hide Entry

at least by me.

Now, I'd like to map the keys as follows

Hide Body F7
Show All S-F7 shift F7
Hide Entry F8
Show Entry S-F8 shift F8

Next, open a LaTeX file and enable outline-mode, if it has not been done so. Then, M-x local-set-key RET f7 hide-body. Test it by hitting F7. If it works, then do C-x ESC ESC, you should see the following form in the minibuffer. Copy it to the scratch buffer. Repeat the above M-x local-set-key with S-F7 to bind it to show-all and copy the form to the scratch buffer.

You should have something like this in your scratch buffer.

(local-set-key (quote [f7]) (quote hide-body))
(local-set-key (quote [S-f7]) (quote show-all))

Repeat the above actions for hide-entry and show-entry to use F8. Of course you can bind it to any other key than the suggested F7 & F8 function keys. If you're happy with it, you could add it to the LaTeX-mode-hook function after the outline-mode is enabled.

Note that the idea of C-x ESC ESC ( repeat-complex-command) to get the key bindings is got from here. As the post suggests, it's far easier to let Emacs generate the correct key binding forms instead of doing it by hand.

And it might be a good idea to associate some logic to the key bindings. I use the key and shift key to toggle between two opposite actions. At least that sounds logical to me.