"Kill" text in a "rectangle" and save its contents C-x r k Switch to the scratch buffer (think there's a missing RET at the end) C-x b *scr C-I "Yan

"Kill" text in a "rectangle" and save its contents C-x r k Switch to the scratch buffer (think there's a missing RET at the end) C-x b *scr C-I "Yank" the "rectangle" saved in the first command C-x r y Moves to the start of the buffer and sets a "mark" M-< Literals that are entered at the start of the buffer (+ Move to the end of the buffer M-> Another literal ) Executes the buffer (or at least the LISP expression at the cursor). Note the scratch buffer allows you to type arbitrary LISP stuff and execute it with C-j. C-j So, suppose the initial buffer contained 1 1 2 3 Then the scratch buffer would get turned into (+1 1 2 3 ) And when executed this would add the list of numbers and look like this: (+ 1 1 2 3) 7