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In emacs, sometimes I will be in the middle of finding a file or switching buffers or doing something in the minibuffer, and I will click somewhere else for some reason. When I go back, the only way to make the minibuffer prompt active again is to click inside the minibuffer, which is annoying because it is a thin area. Is there any way to switch back to an active minibuffer prompt without using the mouse?

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+1 I had the same question. –  Geoff Mar 3 '12 at 22:11

3 Answers 3

up vote 17 down vote accepted

This will do what you want. Bind to the key of your choice:

(defun switch-to-minibuffer-window ()
  "switch to minibuffer window (if active)"
  (when (active-minibuffer-window)
    (select-window (active-minibuffer-window))))
(global-set-key (kbd "<f7>") 'switch-to-minibuffer-window)
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Another option is using switch-window

I find it to be a really useful package: it allows you to quickly move to any Emacs window, visually (and I do use a lot of open windows in Emacs).

But I just find out it also allows you to move to the minibuffer, if it is active:

enter image description here

Hope it helps.

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C-x o 

Repeat as necessary.

C-x o runs the command other-window, which is an interactive built-in function in `C source code'.

If you do not want to cycle through windows, you can add a function in your init file and bind it to a key. Something like this might work:

(defun select-minibuffer ()
 "Make the active minibuffer the selected window."
 (when (active-minibuffer-window)
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Why would you want to include RET like that? It would automatically accept whatever was in the minibuffer (assuming a single C-x o switched to the minibuffer). Generally, one may need to use C-x o multiple times if there are (in Emacs parlance) multiple windows open in the frame (in normal GUI terms: multiple panes in the window). –  Chris Johnsen Apr 18 '10 at 19:39
You're right. My bad. –  Richard Hoskins Apr 18 '10 at 20:10
Is there any way to get directly to the minibuffer without potentially cycling through all windows? Should I just write a loop that does other-window until current window is minibuffer? –  Ryan Thompson Apr 18 '10 at 21:29

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