gnu emacs manual -> http://tonic.physics.sunysb.edu/docs/emacs/emacs.html

General Control Commands:

to have 1/2/2-vertical windows C-x 1/2/3
to switch windows C-x o
to open a file C-x C-f

to get help on a certain key binding C-h k

to get a shell M-x shell Ret .. to have bash-like command recall use M-<p,n> to scroll up/down through old commands
to execute a command <esc>!

Editing:

C-_ undo (repeatable)
C-x h mark/select the entire file 
C-x C-o on a blank line, delete all surrounding blank lines, leave just one

C-<space> to make a mark
C-w to cut to the mark 
M-w to copy to the mark (into the killring)
C-y to yank form your killring (M-y to cycle through old buffers after the first one)
M-^ join this line with one above

Searching/Replacing:

search forward C-s
search backward C-r
regex search forward M-C-s
regex search backward M-C-r

search & replace M-%
search & replace (regexp) C-M-%

to search/replace a control character

M-% ^Q <^char> RET 


Moving around:

C-a beginning of line
C-e end of line
C-f forward one letter
C-b backward one letter
M-f forward one word
M-b back one word
C-n down one line
C-p up one line
Shift-M > end of file
Shift-M < beginning of file
M-x goto-line <RET>

C-x r m set a bookmark
C-s r b jump to a bookmark

Useful functions:

M-x comment-region
M-x uncomment-region
M-x find-tag # to jump to a file w/o the directory tree

Modes: 

to change your editing mode ->
M-x jde-mode (ie: java mode)

Buffers:

C-x C-b show buffers
C-x b go to last buffer
C-x k kill buffer

Tags:

Building a TAGS file ->
ctags --recurse=yes -e --java-types=ci --kind-long=yes --totals=yes <SOURCE_DIRS>

M-. to follow a tag
M-/ to complete your current expression


Syntax help:

C-m \ indent a marked region

Configuring .emacs:

to evaluate the current buffer: M-x eval-buffer (doesn't unset old values)

turn on line-wrap -> (setq truncate-partial-width-windows nil) 

; never exit through keystrokes.
(global-set-key "\C-X\C-C" 'nil)
(global-set-key [C-XC-C] 'nil)


to get the alt key to work as meta, under x ->
xmodmap -e "keysym Multi_key = Multi_key Meta_L"