I was hated to use emacs because of the stupid copy, paste and selection. But i sometimes use it because of it rectangle selection. But in general, i avoid to use it.

recently, I found a way to make the emacs can be handled like common editor.

For the cut/copy/paste/selection, if you are using emacs under version 21, you should download the CUA mode.

you can get it from http://www.cua.dk/cua.el

I pasted it on the home directory. (i.e. ~/cus.el)

then, edit ~/.emacs (if you don’t have it, create it by $touch ~/.emacs), inside, you put.

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/")
(require 'cua)
(CUA-mode t)

For the rectangle selection, use “Shift-Enter” to start/cancel the selection.
and cut/copy and paste are the same. But the paste is like replace.

there are other command to remember by using the “command” or the “M” key in Mac.

[M-o] insert blank on the rectangle and push the rest to right.
[M+ string] when single column selected: insert on the left.
            when more then 1 columns selected: insert on the right.
[M-s] replace the selection by string

may be that is. enjoy.