---

21.4 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 the next command invoked immediately after this prefix command. It requests the buffer of the next command to be displayed 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.