Indent several lines in Emacs

Question

In my Emacs, space key can indent correctly 1 line. If I select several lines, and press space key, the indenting does not work.

By following this link, I try C-M-\ or C-M-q, but C-M deletes directly the whole block selected.

Here is my .emacs, could anyone help?

Answer 1

If you want Emacs to correctly indent multiple lines, then the command is C-META \ also known as C-M-\. In other words, it's not Control - M, but Control - Meta - Backslash (Control + Alt + \ on most keyboards)