Emacs manuals use a compact notation for keyboard instructions. Read this section before trying the commands below. You do not type the notation as text: it tells you which keys to press.
A modifier is a key held while you press another key. C- means Control, usually labelled Ctrl. For C-n, hold Control, press lowercase n, then release both keys. The hyphen is part of the notation, not a key to press.
M- means Meta, usually the Alt key. Some macOS configurations use Option or Command for Meta. For M-x, hold the key your Emacs uses for Meta, press x, and release both. You can also press Escape, release it, then press x; do not hold Escape. This alternative is useful when Alt is intercepted.
S- means Shift. For S-TAB, hold Shift while pressing Tab. C-M-f means hold Control and Meta together while pressing f. When several modifiers are joined by hyphens, hold them for that one keypress.
Spaces between keys separate successive keypresses. They do not mean to press the space bar. For example, C-x C-f means press Control-x, release it, then press Control-f. Keeping Control held for those two letters also works, because both steps require it.
The distinction matters in C-e H:
Do not keep Control held for H. The capital H is a letter, not the name of another modifier. Lowercase h and uppercase H are different instructions. With the Emacsvox defaults, C-e h repeats Help, while C-e H opens settings. C-h is different again: hold Control and press h; it begins Emacs’s Help commands.
A longer route such as C-e H v p starts the same way. After capital H, press lowercase v, then lowercase p, with no modifier held. That route opens Voice Palettes when used from an ordinary working buffer. Letters offered inside a menu belong to that menu; typing p in a document normally inserts p.
A prefix key starts an unfinished sequence. After pressing one, Emacs waits for the next key. You may pause between steps; the notation does not ask you to hold the whole sequence down at once.
RET means Return or Enter, TAB means Tab, SPC means the space bar, and ESC means Escape. Press the named key, not the letters of its name. <down> means the Down Arrow key; the angle brackets are not typed. "Shift-left" means hold Shift and press Left Arrow. Where this manual says "left/right", it offers either arrow, not a slash to type.
DEL in Emacs instructions normally means Backspace, not the separate forward-Delete key. Check live Help when a terminal reports those keys differently. Later guides also use M-<, M-> and M-%: hold Meta while typing the less-than, greater-than or percent symbol. Add Shift if your keyboard needs it to produce that symbol; do not type the surrounding notation.
Some instructions run a command by name. In
M-x describe-mode RET, press Meta-x, release it, type describe-mode
with its hyphen, then press Enter. The name is ordinary text entered at the
command prompt, unlike the modifier notation. An instruction written
M-x describe-mode also means to finish the name with Enter.
C-g means hold Control and press g. It normally cancels an unfinished key sequence or prompt. In Emacsvox’s settings menus it goes back one menu; C-q closes the menu sequence. These are cancellation and navigation commands, not undo: changes already applied remain in effect. An editor may ask what to do with unsaved work, so read that prompt before answering.
C-u before another command supplies a prefix argument. This is different from an unfinished prefix key. Some commands repeat; others change their scope or behaviour. Do not add it unless the instructions call for it.
Once speech works, C-h k followed by a key sequence explains its binding in the current buffer without invoking that command. To check the menu entry, enter C-h k C-e H: Control-h, lowercase k, Control-e, then capital H. Custom bindings and operating-system shortcuts can affect what reaches Emacs. For more detail, see Kinds of user input, Keys, and Prefix arguments in the GNU Emacs Manual.