Ido mode is too smart, can I get it to NOT complete a filename?

Question

My problem: I have Ido-mode enabled and I want to edit (for example) a file .emacs in my home directory. I have no .emacs file there, but I do have a .emacs.d, and so ido assumes that I want to enter the directory when I do C-x C-f .emacs RET.

I've been trying to solve this for at least weeks, and I've got a couple work-arounds but I would really rather not have to do anything crazy.

Snail

Thank god somebody asked this. It was driving me nuts. Thanks! – Sherysherye

Answer 1

You can either press C-j to accept what you have typed so far, or C-f which will drop you into regular find-file

Anthodium

holy cow I can't believe I didn't think of that. Thanks! – Snail

If several files/dirs have common parts of the name by pressing C-s or C-r you cycle through file list forward or backward. – Demythologize

This also allows to skip optional arguments for commands like LaTeX-environment. Extremely useful for tables. Thanks! – Seventh

I know this question is old, but just to add, you can press ctrl-z while in ido mode to disable its auto-completion. – Impotence

With icomplete + fido this is M-j. – Draughtboard