This chapter talks about various topics relevant to adapting the behavior of Emacs in minor ways. See The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for how to make more far-reaching changes.
All kinds of customization affect only the particular Emacs session that you do them in. They are completely lost when you kill the Emacs session, and have no effect on other Emacs sessions you may run at the same time or later. The only way an Emacs session can affect anything outside of it is by writing a file; in particular, the only way to make a customization `permanent' is to put something in your `.emacs' file or other appropriate file to do the customization in each session. See Init File.
| Minor Modes | Each minor mode is one feature you can turn on independently of any others. |
| Variables | Many Emacs commands examine Emacs variables to decide what to do; by setting variables, you can control their functioning. |
| Keyboard Macros | A keyboard macro records a sequence of keystrokes to be replayed with a single command. |
| Key Bindings | The keymaps say what command each key runs. By changing them, you can "redefine keys". |
| Keyboard Translations | If your keyboard passes an undesired code for a key, you can tell Emacs to substitute another code. |
| Syntax | The syntax table controls how words and expressions are parsed. |
| Init File | How to write common customizations in the `.emacs' file. |