Emacs has an online tutorial. You call the tutorial from within Emacs by typing CTRL-h followed by t. The beginning of the tutorial introduces you to the basics of cursor movement, screen editing, and the Emacs windowed environment. Later, more advanced topics such as major and minor modes, searching, and finding more help are covered.

Emacs' on-line help is accessed by typing CTRL-h. After pressing CTRL-h, follow the directions given in the echo area to select what you want help on. For example, for help on how to use help, type CTRL-h followed by "?" and then another CTRL-h. (This tells Emacs that you want help and then tells help that you want help on the subject help.) If you don't know what to type next in "help," look first in the echo area for directions. If there are no directions, try typing a question mark.