Here is a short list of key bindings common to many of the Salix Ratpoison edition's applications.

For a summary of Ratpoison's own shortcuts, type C-t ? .

While what is covered here should be enough to get you started, many more features of the applications and especially Ratpoison itself are described in online manuals, guides and the manpages. Once you are used to the core features and have them at your fingertips, it's worth digging around further, as well as investigating suitable applications to add to the set. Configuration may be done straightforwardly by editing the files - suggestions may be found online. One of Ratpoison's principal charms is how easily it can be tailored to fit each user's needs and taste.

One miscellaneous item is the mount manager in the System menu, which may also be called from the command line as gmountman. When needed, this deals with the mounting of removable devices, including DVDs. Also, banish may be called at any time by the shortcut C-t b.

Remember to check frequently for package updates using slapt-get.

Finally, to shut down Ratpoison, there is an entry in the Exit submenu, from where it is also possible to reboot or shut down the computer.