Hi, I found this custom command at http://www.crsr.net/Notes/Emacs.html : ;;; Use "%" to jump to the matching parenthesis. (defun goto-match-paren (arg) "Go to the matching parenthesis if on parenthesis, otherwise insert the character typed." (interactive "p") (cond ((looking-at "\\s\(") (forward-list 1) (backward-char 1)) ((looking-at "\\s\)") (forward-char 1) (backward-list 1)) (t (self-insert-command (or arg 1))) )) (global-set-key "%" 'goto-match-paren) I am trying to change the global-set-key to something like "\C-.", but this isn't an acceptable 'string and I don't know why. Can anyone help? regards, Rich