### 3.4 The Command Line

The command line is a typical (topical) way of controlling an editor on character driven systems. It has some advantages over menus in terms of access speed, but it is not desirable from a user interface point of view. `ne` has a command line that should be used whenever strange features have to be accessed, or whenever you want to use a command that you are familiar with and that is not bound to any key.

You have two ways to access the command line: by activating the menu and typing a colon (‘`:`’) or by typing `<Control>-K` (or any key that is bound to the `Exec` command; see Exec). The first method will work regardless of any key binding configuration if you activate the menus with the <Escape> key since that key cannot be reconfigured. Of course, there is also a menu entry that does the same job.

Once you activate the command line, the status bar will turn into an input line (see The Input Line) with a ‘`Command:`’ prompt waiting for you to do a long input. In other words, you can now type any command (possibly with arguments), and when you press <Return>, the command will be executed.

If the command you specify does not appear in `ne`'s internal tables, it is considered to be the name of a macro. See Basic Macros, for details.