GNU Info

Info Node: (emacs)Echo Area

(emacs)Echo Area


Next: Mode Line Prev: Point Up: Screen
Enter node , (file) or (file)node

The Echo Area
=============

   The line at the bottom of the frame (below the mode line) is the
"echo area".  It is used to display small amounts of text for several
purposes.

   "Echoing" means displaying the characters that you type.  Outside
Emacs, the operating system normally echoes all your input.  Emacs
handles echoing differently.

   Single-character commands do not echo in Emacs, and multi-character
commands echo only if you pause while typing them.  As soon as you pause
for more than a second in the middle of a command, Emacs echoes all the
characters of the command so far.  This is to "prompt" you for the rest
of the command.  Once echoing has started, the rest of the command
echoes immediately as you type it.  This behavior is designed to give
confident users fast response, while giving hesitant users maximum
feedback.  You can change this behavior by setting a variable (Note:
Display Custom).

   If a command cannot be executed, it may display an "error message"
in the echo area.  Error messages are accompanied by beeping or by
flashing the screen.  The error also discards any input you have typed
ahead.

   Some commands display informative messages in the echo area.  These
messages look much like error messages, but they are not announced with
a beep and do not throw away input.  Sometimes the message tells you
what the command has done, when this is not obvious from looking at the
text being edited.  Sometimes the sole purpose of a command is to show
you a message giving you specific information--for example, `C-x ='
displays a message describing the character position of point in the
text and its current column in the window.  Commands that take a long
time often display messages ending in `...' while they are working, and
add `done' at the end when they are finished.

   Echo-area informative messages are saved in an editor buffer named
`*Messages*'.  (We have not explained buffers yet; see Note: Buffers,
for more information about them.)  If you miss a message that appears
briefly on the screen, you can switch to the `*Messages*' buffer to see
it again.  (Successive progress messages are often collapsed into one
in that buffer.)

   The size of `*Messages*' is limited to a certain number of lines.
The variable `message-log-max' specifies how many lines.  Once the
buffer has that many lines, each line added at the end deletes one line
from the beginning.  Note: Variables, for how to set variables such as
`message-log-max'.

   The echo area is also used to display the "minibuffer", a window that
is used for reading arguments to commands, such as the name of a file
to be edited.  When the minibuffer is in use, the echo area begins with
a prompt string that usually ends with a colon; also, the cursor
appears in that line because it is the selected window.  You can always
get out of the minibuffer by typing `C-g'.  Note: Minibuffer.


automatically generated by info2www version 1.2.2.9