Next Previous Contents 3. Emacs modes are simply libraries of Lisp code that extend, modify, or enhance Emacs is some way. The distinction isn't the easiest thing to grasp until you've worked with a few of them off and on, but let's give it a shot. Only one major mode can be active at a given time.
Many minor modes can be active at a given time.
Major modes tend to be language or task-specific, while minor modes are smaller and less specific utilities that cut across many tasks. There's a mode that I use quite often when I'm writing plain old text files. It's called text-mode . It understands how to identify words and paragraphs and generally makes sure that it does what I expect when I use the normal navigation keystrokes. When I'm writing text for human consumption, I typically want it to look good.