Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

Working with Frames

By now you know that Emacs calls GUI windows "frames." In this section, we'll cover how to create frames, navigate between frames, and delete frames.

Creating a New Frame

To open a new frame, type C-x 5 2 (for make-frame). Emacs makes a new frame containing the current buffer and puts it on top of the current frame.

If your new frame completely overlaps your current frame, you may need to size the new frame to tell them apart. For a more convenient solution, add these lines to your .emacs file:

(setq initial-frame-alist '((top . 10) (left . 30)
                            (width . 90) (height . 50)))
(setq default-frame-alist '((width . 80) (height . 45)))

These lines set up sizes for the width and height of Emacs frames. The first frame is the size set in initial-frame-alist (in this example, 90 characters wide by 50 lines high with top and left defining an inset), and subsequent frames, specified by default-frame-alist, will be 80 characters wide and 45 lines high. Depending on your display, you can make these numbers smaller or larger.

Here we edit a bit of Henry James.

Type: C-x 5 2

Emacs opens a new frame titled james

Frame Names

Note the title of your new frame. The first frame in your session, your initial Emacs frame, displays Emacs@ system name at the top (or Emacs's best guess at the system name). Any other frames you create display the buffer name at the top. In fact, once you ...