[Janaka Cooray]

I'm a recent switcher to mac from PC. I've been used to the system-wide keyboard shortcuts for Windows for years now and really rely on them to speed my way around editing text in any application.

What are the Mac equivalents (for OS X) for these Windows keyboard shortcuts for text editing?

Windows:

beginning of line (Home Key)
end of line (End Key)
begining of document (CRTL + Home)
End of document (CRTL + End)
Back /Forward one word at a time (CRTL + left or right arrow key respectively.)
Select to end of line (SHIFT + End - seems to select to end of document on Mac)
select characters forward/backwards (SHIFT + right or left arrow respectively.)

If anyone could enlighten me on the Mac equivalents that would be so good - as I prefer the Apple Pro Wireless keyboard to any PC keyboard I've ever used! (which have been quite expensive at times.)

[Chuckit]

Beginning of line: control-left
End of line: control-right
Beginning of document: home
End of document: end
Back/forward one word at a time: option-left/right
Select while moving cursor: shift (can be combined with any of the others)

[analogika]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
Select while moving cursor: shift (can be combined with any of the others)

...including up/down arrows for selecting until end of line - or contents of single-line text-entry box, or whatever.

[CharlesS]

Actually, the shortcuts for beginning and end of line are command-left and command-right, not control.

However, in Cocoa apps (and TextWrangler), you can also use the emacs shortcuts - control-E for the end of a line and control-A for the beginning of a line. I find these handy because you don't have to move your hands from the home row, unlike either home/end or command-left and command-right.

[mduser63]

Control-left and Control-right work too.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by mduser63:
Control-left and Control-right work too.

And they work properly in apps where command+arrow combinations are already bound to a command (such as OmniWeb). That's why I offered those.

[Geobunny]

The home and end keys on the Mac only move the page you're viewing to either the start or end. If you want to move the cursor for text input, you're better to use command-up and command-down.

FWIW, not all emacs shortcuts work. Control-K does for cutting the current line, but rather irritatingly, control-u for uncutting/pasting doesn't. On top of that, the past command (command-v) doesn't work for text cut in that way. Very irritating to discover all that while you're in the middle of a MacNN forum post!!

BTW, why doesn't Undo work within web forms, Apple? It's really quite annoying!

[JHromadka]

Also be sure to checkout the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane. There you can customize certain keyboard shortcuts for within applications.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by mduser63:
Control-left and Control-right work too.

Only in Cocoa apps. It doesn't work in any of the Carbon apps I've tried it with. Command-left and command-right work pretty much anywhere.

And if I'm in a Cocoa app anyway, I'd rather just use ctrl-A and ctrl-E.

[Geobunny]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Only in Cocoa apps. It doesn't work in any of the Carbon apps I've tried it with. Command-left and command-right work pretty much anywhere.

With the notable exception of Micro$oft Office - that key combo will only move your curser (sic) one word at a time. It gets me every single time!

[CaptainHaddock]

Originally posted by Geobunny:
With the notable exception of Micro$oft Office - that key combo will only move your curser (sic) one word at a time. It gets me every single time!

Microsoft decided to implement their own text engine in Word, which is why some OS functions don't work. (People often have font trouble in Word too.) Adobe also has their own text engine, which they use in Photoshop and other applications.

BTW, why doesn't Undo work within web forms, Apple? It's really quite annoying!

It sounds like Tiger's CoreData will provide system-wide undo and redo.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by CaptainHaddock:
It sounds like Tiger's CoreData will provide system-wide undo and redo.

NSUndoManager already provides undo support for Cocoa apps. They just have to call it. I can't imagine the situation will be much different with CoreData. If an app doesn't use a technology, it won't get the benefits.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Geobunny:
With the notable exception of Micro$oft Office - that key combo will only move your curser (sic) one word at a time. It gets me every single time!

Agreed, with Office v. X, I'd have to monkey around with the shortcut settings for at least 15 minutes before the thing would be in a usable state. To be fair, though, Office 2004 does seem to be better though. I don't own it, but on the machines I've used that had it installed, the command-right and command-left shortcuts actually seemed to work. There were others that were still missing, though.

Originally posted by Chuckit:
NSUndoManager already provides undo support for Cocoa apps. They just have to call it. I can't imagine the situation will be much different with CoreData. If an app doesn't use a technology, it won't get the benefits.

Yep, implementing an undo manager in Cocoa is so easy, it doesn't really seem fair.