Changing CTRL / ALT Behaviour

[TomOSeven]

Hi all,

I'd like to change the behaviour of CTRL and ALT when navigating code / text to be like Windows. In Windows, CTRL+Backspace deletes a whole word, CTRL+Leftarrow / Rightarrow moves a whole word in that direction. Same happens in MacOS when pressing the ALT key. Since I use a Windows computer at work, I'd love to have the same behaviour on OSX. Is there a way to achieve that?

Thank you!

 

[0128672]

Hi all,

I'd like to change the behaviour of CTRL and ALT when navigating code / text to be like Windows. In Windows, CTRL+Backspace deletes a whole word, CTRL+Leftarrow / Rightarrow moves a whole word in that direction. Same happens in MacOS when pressing the ALT key. Since I use a Windows computer at work, I'd love to have the same behaviour on OSX. Is there a way to achieve that?

Thank you!

You can remap the Option key (what you're calling ALT) with the Control key (what you're calling CTRL) via the Keyboard settings > Modifier keys. I couldn't say what else might be affected by remapping them however.

 

[TomOSeven]

Cheers mate, I have remapped some buttons already, but I want to move ONLY that specific function because I like the rest of Alt ("Option") and CTRL where they are.

 

[frou]

Depending on which text/code editing application you use, this should be possible using that app's own Preferences. For example I've done a few dozen customisations in Sublime Text to get it more to my liking.

---

To customise key bindings for generic macOS text entry (e.g. TextEdit, most single-line input areas, ...) can be done by creating and populating a ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict file.

It's powerful what you can do, but pretty fiddly. Here's some links on the subject:

Cocoa Text System

Cocoa Text System - Usable Selectors

...and my file for example:

{
    "^u" = "deleteToBeginningOfLine:";
    "^w" = "deleteWordBackward:";

    /* "Duplicate Line" */
    "@D" =
        ( "setMark:"

        , "moveToBeginningOfLine:"
        , "deleteToEndOfLine:"
        , "yank:"

        , "insertNewline:"
        , "yank:"

        , "swapWithMark:"
        , "moveDown:"
        );

    /* "Delete Line" */
    "^K" =
        ( "selectLine:"
        , "delete:"
        );

    /* "Insert Line After" */
    "@\U000D" =
        ( "moveToEndOfLine:"
        , "insertNewline:"
        );

    /* "Insert Line Before" */
    "$@\U000D" =
        ( "moveUp:"
        , "moveToEndOfLine:"
        , "insertNewline:"
        );
}