Edit a selection
Mac Tip #190/06-April-2005

If you want to edit the name of a file (or any other text) sometimes it all gets highlighted in the process, before you try to type anything. If all you wanted to do was add something at the beginning or end you may be tempted to now either delete everything that’s highlighted and start again or to fussily try clicking in exactly the right spot.

Make life easy for yourself and don’t do either. Instead press the arrow keys. If text is selected and you press the right arrow key the insertion point will more to the end of the selection, ready for you to start typing. If you press the left arrow key then the insertion point will move to the start of the selection.

And remember: if text is highlighted then anything you type will replace everything that’s highlighted. So don’t bother pressing Delete if you want to totally rename a file and that name is highlighted. Instead, just start typing.