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22.4 Displaying in Another Window ¶

C-x 4 is a prefix key for a variety of commands that switch to a buffer in a different window—either another existing window, or a new window created by splitting the selected window. See How display-buffer works, for how Emacs picks or creates the window to use.

C-x 4 b bufname RET

Select buffer bufname in another window (switch-to-buffer-other-window). See Creating and Selecting Buffers.

C-x 4 C-o bufname RET ¶

Display buffer bufname in some window, without trying to select it (display-buffer). See Displaying a Buffer in a Window, for details about how the window is chosen.

C-x 4 f filename RET

Visit file filename and select its buffer in another window (find-file-other-window). See Visiting Files.

C-x 4 d directory RET

Select a Dired buffer for directory directory in another window (dired-other-window). See Dired, the Directory Editor.

C-x 4 m

Start composing a mail message, similar to C-x m (see Sending Mail), but in another window (compose-mail-other-window).

C-x 4 . ¶

Find the definition of an identifier, similar to M-. (see Find Identifier References), but in another window (xref-find-definitions-other-window).

C-x 4 r filename RET

Visit file filename read-only, and select its buffer in another window (find-file-read-only-other-window). See Visiting Files.

C-x 4 4 ¶

A more general prefix command affects the buffer displayed by a subsequent command invoked after this prefix command (other-window-prefix). It requests the buffer displayed by a subsequent command to be shown in another window.

C-x 4 1

This general prefix command requests the buffer of the next command to be displayed in the same window.