(emacs.info) Indentation Commands

 
 Indentation Commands and Techniques
 ===================================
 
    To move over the indentation on a line, do `M-m'
 (`back-to-indentation').  This command, given anywhere on a line,
 positions point at the first nonblank character on the line.
 
    To insert an indented line before the current line, do `C-a C-o
 <TAB>'.  To make an indented line after the current line, use `C-e C-j'.
 
    If you just want to insert a tab character in the buffer, you can
 type `C-q <TAB>'.
 
    `C-M-o' (`split-line') moves the text from point to the end of the
 line vertically down, so that the current line becomes two lines.
 `C-M-o' first moves point forward over any spaces and tabs.  Then it
 inserts after point a newline and enough indentation to reach the same
 column point is on.  Point remains before the inserted newline; in this
 regard, `C-M-o' resembles `C-o'.
 
    To join two lines cleanly, use the `M-^' (`delete-indentation')
 command.  It deletes the indentation at the front of the current line,
 and the line boundary as well, replacing them with a single space.  As
 a special case (useful for Lisp code) the single space is omitted if
 the characters to be joined are consecutive open parentheses or closing
 parentheses, or if the junction follows another newline.  To delete
 just the indentation of a line, go to the beginning of the line and use
 `M-\' (`delete-horizontal-space'), which deletes all spaces and tabs
 around the cursor.
 
    If you have a fill prefix, `M-^' deletes the fill prefix if it
 appears after the newline that is deleted.   Fill Prefix.
 
    There are also commands for changing the indentation of several lines
 at once.  `C-M-\' (`indent-region') applies to all the lines that begin
 in the region; it indents each line in the "usual" way, as if you had
 typed <TAB> at the beginning of the line.  A numeric argument specifies
 the column to indent to, and each line is shifted left or right so that
 its first nonblank character appears in that column.  `C-x <TAB>'
 (`indent-rigidly') moves all of the lines in the region right by its
 argument (left, for negative arguments).  The whole group of lines
 moves rigidly sideways, which is how the command gets its name.
 
    `M-x indent-relative' indents at point based on the previous line
 (actually, the last nonempty line).  It inserts whitespace at point,
 moving point, until it is underneath an indentation point in the
 previous line.  An indentation point is the end of a sequence of
 whitespace or the end of the line.  If point is farther right than any
 indentation point in the previous line, the whitespace before point is
 deleted and the first indentation point then applicable is used.  If no
 indentation point is applicable even then, `indent-relative' runs
 `tab-to-tab-stop' ( Tab Stops).
 
    `indent-relative' is the definition of <TAB> in Indented Text mode.
  Text.
 
     Format Indentation, for another way of specifying the
 indentation for part of your text.
Info Catalog
(emacs.info) Indentation
(emacs.info) Tab Stops
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