pretend-type-mode

pretend-type-mode is a playful Emacs minor mode that hides the content of a buffer and "reveals" it as you pretend to type. Your keystrokes do not insert any text; instead, the hidden text is gradually revealed. This is perfect for demos, presentations, or just for fun.

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Features

• Hides all buffer content on activation.
• "Inserting" printable characters reveals one character at a time.
• "Inserting" whitespace characters (space, tab, newline) reveal all consecutive whitespace at once.
• <tab> reveals the next word, including leading whitespace.
• <return> and C-j reveals text up to the next newline.
• <DEL> hides the previous character.
• <M-DEL> hides the previous word.
• All other Emacs commands remain fully functional.
• Automatically disables when the entire buffer is revealed.

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Installation

1. Save pretend-type.el to your Emacs load-path.
2. Add the following to your Emacs configuration:

(require 'pretend-type)

Usage

Simply open a buffer and enable pretend-type-mode, then type away.

Tip: You can add eval: (pretend-type-mode) in your list of local variables to have the minor mode auto-enabled when you open a file, for maximum sneakiness.

Similar packages

• reveal-next is similar as it reveals the next character or line, except less sneaky.
• hacker-typer is also similar buts only adds text at a constant or random rate. It also works by inserting the text of a file in a new buffer. pretend-type uses the same open buffer (without modifying it).