One of the really nice features of Emacs is its builtin help system, which often results in Emacs being described as the self documenting editor. Experienced Emacsers usually take it for granted but it’s really a wonderful thing. There’s no need for storing or losing manuals; it’s all there all the time as part of the application.
Old hands take advantage of this documentation without thinking about it but n00bs may wonder how to get started. Davide Mastromatteo has an excellent tutorial on how to access the Emacs help system and use it effectively. He starts by mentioning the builtin tutorial and recommends that everyone go through it at least once. Fortunately, Emacs will remember where you left off so you don’t to complete it in a single sitting.
Next he mentions that the Emacs manual is also built in (in info format) and easily accessed with the Ctrl+h r sequence. I find it more convenient to access the Web version of the manual but it’s nice to have it available when I don’t have Internet connectivity.
From there Mastromatteo moves on to the three help commands most of us use the most: describe-key, describe-function, and describe-variable bound to Ctrl+h k, Ctrl+h f, and Ctrl+h v respectively.
Finally, he mentions the appropos command (Ctrl+h a) to do fuzzy searches of the help commands. If you’ve been using Emacs for a while, you’ve doubtlessly internalized these commands by now. If you’re new to Emacs, Mastromatteo’s post is definitely worth your while.