Not sure if this is the correct forum. Is there an easy way to program a key to switch from insert to overwrite, and back. Mostly needed for MS Word and Pages. I work with some fairly large tables and frequently encounter situations where I might need to change cell contents from 0.022 to 0.025 or 23.2% to 22.2%. Windows based PCs have an insert key. That's the function I could use.
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Insert / overwrite?
- Thread starter SkiHound2
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On Windows PCs, that key was carried over from the command line days. Because the Mac is GUI based and modeless, we don't have that. Of you want to change 0.022 to 0.025, you simply place the cursor to the right of the 2, delete it and type a 5. Or alternatively, you can double-click to select the number and retype it.
Lots of good shortcuts in the list, though I've been learning to use many. I've kind of been trying to migrate my work from windows to iMac. I'm a statistician and work with a lot of different folks and need to respond to reviewers. I'm frequently reporting the results of various types of generalized linear models and would often have cells like:
3.456 (1.953; 5.987) then a new cell with something like 2.04 (.045).
Then multiple rows with cells like the above. We might decide to change a model slightly, add a variable, remove a variable. Or reviewers might want to add a variable or remove a variable. Often what happens is it makes no substantive difference at all, but coefficients will change just slightly. It's nice to just be able to move the curser across the row and just write over the existing number with the new number. So, I might be changing 3.456 to 3.461. It's simply quicker to just type over the 56 then to place the curser to the end and delete 2 decimals and then insert, and the double click trick would mark 456. The insert key in Windows allows me to just hit the key and I'm ready to edit. Word for macOS allows this by turning on an option in the very bottom line (I don't recall what they call it) but then I need to click to switch from insert to typeover. None of this is really an issue unless you're doing it 100+ times when editing multiple tables. And I've actually been giving some thought to trying to migrate to Pages because I loathe Word. But since it's sort of the program everyone uses, moving to Pages might be too big of a leap.
3.456 (1.953; 5.987) then a new cell with something like 2.04 (.045).
Then multiple rows with cells like the above. We might decide to change a model slightly, add a variable, remove a variable. Or reviewers might want to add a variable or remove a variable. Often what happens is it makes no substantive difference at all, but coefficients will change just slightly. It's nice to just be able to move the curser across the row and just write over the existing number with the new number. So, I might be changing 3.456 to 3.461. It's simply quicker to just type over the 56 then to place the curser to the end and delete 2 decimals and then insert, and the double click trick would mark 456. The insert key in Windows allows me to just hit the key and I'm ready to edit. Word for macOS allows this by turning on an option in the very bottom line (I don't recall what they call it) but then I need to click to switch from insert to typeover. None of this is really an issue unless you're doing it 100+ times when editing multiple tables. And I've actually been giving some thought to trying to migrate to Pages because I loathe Word. But since it's sort of the program everyone uses, moving to Pages might be too big of a leap.