ARCHIVED: In Emacs, how do I switch modes?

To change a buffer's mode while using Emacs, enter:

  M-x mode-name

M-x indicates pressing the Meta key (if you have one) and x. If you don't have a Meta key, press and release the Esc key, and then press x. Replace mode-name with the name of the mode to which you want to switch. For more information about keystrokes in Emacs, see How keystrokes are denoted in Emacs

What follows is a list of some of the major modes and their functions. The phrases in the "Mode-name" column can be used with the command above to switch modes.

Note that these are all major modes. A file in a buffer can only be in one major mode at a time. There are also numerous minor modes, such as overwrite-mode (for overwriting instead of inserting text), and auto-fill-mode (for automatically wrapping text as you write it). A buffer may have multiple minor modes. To get a list of the all the available modes, both major and minor, on your system's version of Emacs, look up "mode" using Emacs' apropos command. Do this by pressing C-h a and entering the word mode.

If you wish to set up Emacs to automatically enter a certain mode when opening a certain file type, see ARCHIVED: In Emacs, how can I make the program start in a given mode?