I would expect that split-window-preferred-function would accept split-window-horizontally and split-window-vertically. At the very least, there should be an easy way to set this to "always split vertically", "always split horizontally", and "intelligently split". -- MJF In GNU Emacs 23.0.92.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.0.6001) of 2009-03-30 on SOFT-MJASON Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.0.6001 configured using `configure --with-gcc (3.4)' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: nil value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: ENU value of $XMODIFIERS: nil locale-coding-system: cp1252 default-enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Custom/lw Minor modes in effect: global-balanced-mode: t balanced-mode: t hrule-mode: t global-hi-lock-mode: t hi-lock-mode: t c-subword-mode: t url-handler-mode: t show-paren-mode: t recentf-mode: t global-reveal-mode: t reveal-mode: t global-c-subword-mode: t shell-dirtrack-mode: t cua-mode: t tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t global-auto-composition-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: c u s t o m i z e SPC v a r s p l i t SPC w i n p C-x o C-x o C-h f C-x o C-x o n i l C-h f s p l i t SPC w i n SPC v C-h f s l p l i t SPC w i n s p l i t - w i n C-x C-s y C-x 1 C-x 2 C-x 1 C-x 4 b C-x 0 C-x 1 Recent messages: split-window-vertically: Window height 1 too small (after splitting) custom-variable-set: Invalid function: nil To install your edits, invoke [State] and choose the Set operation Type "q" to delete this window, to scroll help. To install your edits, invoke [State] and choose the Set operation Save all settings in this buffer? (y or n) Loading vc-cvs...done Saving file c:/Users/jfinder/Desktop/.emacs.d/custom.el... Wrote c:/Users/jfinder/Desktop/.emacs.d/custom.el (No files need saving)