5 PowerTips for Deleting Text Mac Tip #388, 10 June 2009 Delete words or lines of text with a single keystroke, while not even touching the mouse. Those of us who do a lot of writing also do a lot of deleting. The Delete (Backspace) key normally deletes one character at a time, working from right to left, but you can make it work more effectively for you. The 'backspace' key on a Mac keyboard is labeled with the word 'delete', and the 'delete' key is labeled with the word 'delete' and a tiny arrow pointing to the right, indicating that the key deletes characters to the right of the cursor. Different keyboards for different folks First, though, a word about keyboards. I use a MacBook Pro. It has only one Delete key, up in the top right corner, near F12, +, and|. Those who use desktop Macs tend to use an ‘extended’ keyboard that also includes a Forward Delete key, generally over near the number keypad. The Forward Delete key normally deletes one character at a time, from left to right. In this Tip I’m writing only about the Delete (Backspace) key and not the Forward Delete key. If you can contribute experiences with the Forward Delete key please add them to the comments on this Tip. How to remove shared calendar on iphone. Also, I’m using Mac OS X 10.5.7. While these Tips should still work for other versions of the OS and the software that comes with it, there may be differences. One character at a time: back or forward You may think the Delete key can delete only one character at a time, working from right to left, but it can do a lot more, if you add one or more modifier keys. Suppose after I type the word MacTips the cursor is located just to the right of the letter s. If I press the Delete key once the letter s will be removed, leaving MacTip. That’s the default action for the Delete key — to remove the character to the left of the insertion point. The effects of various deletion techniques. Now let’s imagine that the cursor is moved to be immediately to the left of the word MacTip. If I hold down the fn key and press the Delete key once the letter M is removed — in other words, the letter to the right of the insertion point. This gives us a Forward Delete, just by holding down the fn key and pressing Delete. One word at a time: back or forward Try putting the cursor to the right of a word and holding down Option (⌥) while you press Delete once. This removes the word to the left of the insertion point. If the insertion point is already inside a word then Option Delete removes the part of the word to the left of the insertion point. Now reverse it and try Option fn Delete. Adding in the fn key reverses direction and deletes a whole word to the right of the insertion point. Or, if the cursor’s inside a word then it deletes the part of the word to the right of the insertion point. The screenshot shows the effects of these various deletes. Click the thumbnail for a larger version. One line at a time: back, but not forward Hold down Command (⌘) while you press Delete and all the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the line is deleted. Unfortunately, I can’t find a key combination that will delete forward to remove a whole line. A summary of deletions Add these modifier keys to make Delete work harder. Delete + Key Action Delete Removes one character to the left of the insertion point Delete fn Removes one character to the right of the insertion point Delete Option Removes one word to the left of the insertion point Delete Option fn Removes one word to the right of the insertion point Delete Command Removes one line to the left of the insertion point Try it out, and let us know in the Comments what you find. Are there places where it doesn’t work? • Dan Shipman said: Great tip, but the last one did not work for me: (Cmd-Del = delete entire line to the left of cursor. I am used to using Opt-Shft-arrow keys and the Opt-Cmd-arrow keys, though.) MacBook Pro 17″ – 2.5-yr-old machine; OS 10.5.8; tried this in Pages 2008 Delete + Key Action Delete Removes one character to the left of the insertion point Delete fn Removes one character to the right of the insertion point Delete Option Removes one word to the left of the insertion point Delete Option fn Removes one word to the right of the insertion point Delete Command Removes one line to the left of the insertion point Try it out, and let us know in the Comments what you find. Are there places where it doesn’t work? • Command-X: Cut the selected item and copy it to the Clipboard. • Command-C: Copy the selected item to the Clipboard. This also works for files in the Finder. • Command-V: Paste the contents of the Clipboard into the current document or app. This also works for files in the Finder. Packet tracer download. • Command-Z: Undo the previous command. You can then press Shift-Command-Z to Redo, reversing the undo command. In some apps, you can undo and redo multiple commands. • Command-A: Select All items. • Command-F: Find items in a document or open a Find window. • Command-G: Find Again: Find the next occurrence of the item previously found.
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