<p>I've just introduced a friend to <strong>GNU Screen</strong> and they're having a hard time getting used to it. That makes me think about the essential things he needs to know about the excellent <strong>Screen</strong> utility, the same things that you'd think worthwhile to teach someone, a beginner, from the ground up. What are some analogies and handy tips for remembering binds, etc.?</p>

<p>It would be awesome.</p>

If your friend is in the habit of pressing
```
^A
```
to get to the beginning of the line in Bash, he/she is in for some surprises, since
```
^A
```
is the screen command key binding. Usually I end up with a frozen screen, possibly because of some random key I pressed after
```
^A
```
:-)
In those cases I try
```
^A s
```
and
```
^A q
```
block/unblock terminal scrolling
to fix that. To go to the beginning of a line inside screen, the key sequence is
```
^A a
```
.