Ace Jump Mode

Ace jump mode is a minor mode of Emacs, which helps you to move the cursor within Emacs. You can move your cursor to ANY position (across windows and frames) in Emacs by using only 3 key presses. Have a try and I am sure you will love it.

Usage

With the keys from Installation:

M-a ==> ace-jump-word-mode

Go to a word by entering its first character, then selecting the highlighted key to move to it. Go to a line by pressing RET instead of a character.

C-u M-a ==> ace-jump-char-mode

Go to a character by entering that character, then selecting the highlighted key to move to it.

C-u C-u M-a ==> ace-jump-line-mode

Go to a line by selecting the highlighted key to move to it.

C-c M-a ==> ace-jump-mode-pop-mark

Jump back to where the last jump started. Repeat it to go further back.

When there are more candidates than keys, the first key narrows the choice, and a second one jumps. An upper case character searches case-sensitively.

Watch Emacs Rocks! Episode 10: Jumping around to see it in action.

Installation

Install ace-jump-mode from MELPA, for instance with use-package:

(use-package ace-jump-mode
  :ensure t
  :bind (("M-a" . ace-jump-mode)               ; instead of `backward-sentence'
         ("C-c M-a" . ace-jump-mode-pop-mark))
  :config
  (ace-jump-mode-enable-mark-sync))

To follow the latest commit instead, replace :ensure t in Emacs 30 or later with

:vc (:url "https://github.com/winterTTr/ace-jump-mode" :rev :newest)

or, with straight.el, with

:straight (:host github :repo "winterTTr/ace-jump-mode")

Any other free keys will do as well, C-c j for one. ace-jump-mode-enable-mark-sync keeps ace-jump-mode-pop-mark in sync with the Emacs mark rings, and the other way round.

If you use evil or viper:

(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "SPC") 'ace-jump-mode)
(define-key viper-vi-global-user-map (kbd "SPC") 'ace-jump-mode)

Customization

M-x customize-group RET ace-jump RET lists the options: the move keys, the scope of a jump (all the windows of all the frames by default, or the selected window only), case sensitivity and so on. See also the FAQ in the wiki.

The labels use the face ace-jump-face-foreground, and the grayed text ace-jump-face-background. If they don't suit your color theme or terminal, change them with M-x customize-face, or leave the text as it is with (setq ace-jump-mode-gray-background nil).

In a ghostel terminal, a jump has to leave the live input, or the next redraw takes point back to the terminal cursor. Leaving it may take point back as well, so restore it afterwards:

(add-hook 'ace-jump-mode-end-hook
          (lambda ()
            (when (derived-mode-p 'ghostel-mode)
              (let ((target (point)))
                (ghostel-maybe-leave-input)
                (goto-char target)))))

ghostel makes / a word constituent, so that a double click selects a path as a whole. Word mode then finds no word inside a path: in /bin/emacs, neither b nor e starts a word. To jump to them, let word mode find the word starts with the standard syntax table:

(add-hook 'ghostel-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (setq-local ace-jump-word-mode-syntax-table
                        (standard-syntax-table))))

License

Copyright © 2011-2026 winterTTr winterTTr@gmail.com and contributors

Distributed under the GNU General Public License 3.0+