OS X Text editing tips

If you do a lot of text entry in OSX these tips should be handy:

Deletion

• Alt-backspace to delete the word to the left of the cursor
• Alt-delete to delete the word to the right of the cursor
• Command-backspace to delete back to the beginning of the current line

Selection

• Shift with arrow keys selects by character
• Alt-Shift with arrow keys selects by word
• Shift-Down arrow at the beginning of a line to select the line
• Command-Shift-Down arrow at beginning to select a whole paragraph
• Command-Shift-Right arrow to select to the end of the line

In Microsoft Word (and also in TextEdit from the Applications folder), you can select text discontiguously by pressing Alt and then dragging to marquee with the mouse, great for bolding hanging text.

 

Select text in PDF files with the same technique (pressing Alt and dragging) to copy the text for pasting elsewhere.

No forward delete on your MacBook or MacBook Pro or Apple Wireless keyboard? Press FN and backspace to delete forwards.

iPhone tip: rapidly return to the top of the page

To get quickly to the top of a long page after scrolling down, just tap the area where the time shows, and the display will whizz back to the top instantly.