On both version 4.3.12 on Interix and version 5.2 on FreeBSD, "f" followed by a character works perfectly fine in "vi" mode and Control-X Control-F followed by

On both version 4.3.12 on Interix and version 5.2 on FreeBSD, "f" followed by a character works perfectly fine in "vi" mode and Control-X Control-F followed by a character, as per the zshzle manual, works perfectly fine in "emacs" mode. What were you doing wrong?