Windows Ctrl-Arrow Shortcut

[andrewdale]

Oh my gosh.

I'm not sure how many people out there have had the same dilemma as me, but I'm here to help that with my new-found discovery. I know others probably know about this, but I just wanted to post for any of you who are wondering where this shortcut is in OSX.

In Windows, You can Ctrl-Arrowkey left and right from word to word. It's a very handy way to get down a line of text without having to resort to your trackpad. And I, for months, have always wondered how to do this on my mac. I know that Cmd-Arrow will go to the very beginning for very end, but never from word/space/separator!

It's Alt/Option-Arrow!
It works!
Yay!

 

[kuwisdelu]

On a Mac: Option + Arrow

 

[withfries2]

Can you re-map this Ctrl-Arrow shortcut?

Anyone know how to remap the Option-arrows to Ctrl-arrows? I miss the Windows convention of having Ctrl key being the modifier key to skip words as well as activate the menu shortcuts (Ctrl-S for save, Ctrl-W for close window, Ctrl-right arrow for skip word, etc.).

Thanks.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Go into the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane in System Preferences. Under Keyboard, there is a button at the bottom that says "Modifier Keys" that will allow you to rearrange the keyboard's control keys to your heart's content. I have caps lock turned off.

 

[withfries2]

Thanks, Blue Revolution.

I've been to the Modifier Keys preference pane and swapped my Control and Command key.

But this still doesn't get what I would like.

On Windows, you use the Ctrl key to activate keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl-W for close window, Ctrl-C, for copy, etc. You then use Ctrl-right arrow to skip to the next word and Ctrl-left error to skip back a word.

On the Mac, you use the Command key for keyboard shortcuts like Command-S for Save, Command-W for Close Windows, etc. But you use the Option + arrow keys to skip words.

So the fundamental problem is that MacOS uses a different modifier key (command for, uh, commands, and Option to control word skipping). Anyone figured out how to change that so that you can have Command arrow key skip words instead of lines?

Thanks.

 

[johnny5k]

Thanks, Blue Revolution.

I've been to the Modifier Keys preference pane and swapped my Control and Command key.

But this still doesn't get what I would like.

On Windows, you use the Ctrl key to activate keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl-W for close window, Ctrl-C, for copy, etc. You then use Ctrl-right arrow to skip to the next word and Ctrl-left error to skip back a word.

On the Mac, you use the Command key for keyboard shortcuts like Command-S for Save, Command-W for Close Windows, etc. But you use the Option + arrow keys to skip words.

So the fundamental problem is that MacOS uses a different modifier key (command for, uh, commands, and Option to control word skipping). Anyone figured out how to change that so that you can have Command arrow key skip words instead of lines?

Thanks.

It's been a while, but I was just looking for the same solution. I work on a Mac & PC side-by-side all day (I'm a web developer, & it's the workflow we use at work), and I can never remember which modifier key to use, especially when trying to select words using the arrow keys. Has anyone found a fix for this? I don't care if it's changing the Mac or the Windows keys, just so long as I can make them the same!

Thanks!
-J5k

EDIT: Found some options; try these:
http://blog.benogle.com/2010/01/18/windowslinux-developers-remap-your-mac/
http://developer.apple.com/library/...extDefaultsBindings/TextDefaultsBindings.html

 

[jaumetheadmin]

Thanks for the links, johnny5k.

As a home OS X user who must use Windows at work I prefer the OS X shortcuts, so I've put a AutoHotKey (www.autohotkey.com) script together to be able to use many OS X shortcuts in Windows:

; List of the keyboard shortcuts that are available in Windows XP
; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583
; Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
; http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

; Text navigation

!Left::
Send ^{Left}
return

!Right::
Send ^{Right}
return

#Left::
Send {Home}
return

#Right::
Send {End}
return

; Selecting text

!+Left::
Send ^+{Left}
return

!+Right::
Send ^+{Right}
return

#+Right::
Send +{End}
return

#+Left::
Send +{Home}
return

; Deleting text

!Backspace::
Send ^{Backspace}
return

!Delete::
Send ^{Delete}
return

#Backspace::
Send +{Home}
Send {Backspace}
return

#Delete::
Send +{End}
Send {Delete}
return

; Cut, copy, paste, save ...

#c::
Send ^{c}
return

#v::
Send ^{v}
return

#x::
Send ^{x}
return

#a::
Send ^{a}
return

#f::
Send ^{f}
return

#z::
Send ^{z}
return

+#z::
Send ^{y}
return

#s::
Send ^{s}
return

#o::
Send ^{o}
return

#w::
Send ^{w}
return

#q::
Send !{F4}
return

#i::
Send !{Enter}
return

; Switch between open windows

#Tab::
Send !{Tab}
return

; Natural scrolling

WheelUp::
Send {WheelDown}
Return

WheelDown::
Send {WheelUp}
Return

WheelLeft::
Send {WheelRight}
Return

WheelRight::
Send {WheelLeft}
Return

 

[smirk]

I've been using a free program called KeyRemap4MacBook, and it works great on my iMac. I used it to remap the function key to a PC's Insert key, but only when I'm in VMWare. You can pretty much customize any key mappings.

 

[satcomer]

Also bookmark the Apple document OS X Keyboard shortcuts.