C-v does not move to the next screen appears: -- VISUAL BLOCK --

Question

I'm using Emacs on mac, and I just started the tutorial. When I type C-v I see -- VISUAL BLOCK --, but the tutorial says that it should move to the next screen.

I'm just starting to use Emacs.

What I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

My crystal ball tells me you're not using a vanilla Emacs config, but that you have something like Evil enabled (are you using Spacemacs, maybe?).

Answer 2

The help files are special read only and you scroll up and down in them with <space> and <backspace>. Other key bindings in info-mode are:

h   Invoke the Info tutorial.
q   Quit Info: reselect previously selected buffer.
RET Follow a node reference near point, like <mouse-2>.
n   Move to the "next" node of this node. 
p   Move to the "previous" node of this node.
^   Move "up" from this node.
m   Pick menu item specified by name (or abbreviation).
  Picking a menu item causes another node to be selected.
d   Go to the Info directory node.
<   Go to the Top node of this file.
>   Go to the final node in this file.
[   Go backward one node, considering all nodes as forming one sequence.
]   Go forward one node, considering all nodes as forming one sequence.
TAB Move cursor to next cross-reference or menu item.
C-M-i   Move cursor to previous cross-reference or menu item.
f   Follow a cross reference.  Reads name of reference.
l   Move back in history to the last node you were at.
r   Move forward in history to the node you returned from after using 
l.
L   Go to menu of visited nodes.
T   Go to table of contents of the current Info file.

Moving within a node:
SPC Normally, scroll forward a full screen.
      Once you scroll far enough in a node that its menu appears on the
      screen but after point, the next scroll moves into its first
      subnode.  When after all menu items (or if there is no menu),
      move up to the parent node.
DEL Normally, scroll backward.  If the beginning of the buffer is
      already visible, try to go to the previous menu entry, or up
      if there is none.
b   Go to beginning of node.

Normally, in most modes (not read-only ones) C-v is scroll down and M-v is scroll up.

You should try the instructions on a parallel buffer, for example:

• split window vertically C-x 3
• Switch the new buffer to scratch (the scratch buffer is not saved and is in elisp-interaction-mode) using C-x b then type in scratch or scroll to scratch.
• experiment..