GNU Emacs Manual - Help

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# Help

Emacs provides extensive help features accessible through a single character, `C-h`. `C-h` is a prefix key that is used only for documentation-printing commands. The characters that you can type after `C-h` are called help options. One help option is `C-h`; that is how you ask for help about using `C-h`. To cancel, type `C-g`. The function key `F1` is equivalent to `C-h`.

`C-h C-h` (`help-for-help`) displays a list of the possible help options, each with a brief description. Before you type a help option, you can use `SPC` or `DEL` to scroll through the list.

`C-h` or `F1` means "help" in various other contexts as well. For example, in the middle of `query-replace`, it describes the options available for how to operate on the current match. After a prefix key, it displays a list of the alternatives that can follow the prefix key. (A few prefix keys don't support `C-h`, because they define other meanings for it, but they all support `F1`.)

Most help buffers use a special major mode, Help mode, which lets you scroll conveniently with `SPC` and `DEL`.

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