5 PowerTips for Deleting Text

5 PowerTips for Deleting Text
Mac Tip #388, 10 June 2009

Delete words or lines of text with a single keystroke, while not even touching the mouse.

Those of us who do a lot of writing also do a lot of deleting. The Delete (Backspace) key normally deletes one character at a time, working from right to left, but you can make it work more effectively for you.

Different keyboards for different folks

First, though, a word about keyboards. I use a MacBook Pro. It has only one Delete key, up in the top right corner, near F12, +, and |.

Those who use desktop Macs tend to use an ‘extended’ keyboard that also includes a Forward Delete key, generally over near the number keypad. The Forward Delete key normally deletes one character at a time, from left to right.

In this Tip I’m writing only about the Delete (Backspace) key and not the Forward Delete key. If you can contribute experiences with the Forward Delete key please add them to the comments on this Tip.

Also, I’m using Mac OS X 10.5.7. While these Tips should still work for other versions of the OS and the software that comes with it, there may be differences.

One character at a time: back or forward

You may think the Delete key can delete only one character at a time, working from right to left, but it can do a lot more, if you add one or more modifier keys.

Suppose after I type the word MacTips the cursor is located just to the right of the letter s. If I press the Delete key once the letter s will be removed, leaving MacTip. That’s the default action for the Delete key — to remove the character to the left of the insertion point.

Now let’s imagine that the cursor is moved to be immediately to the left of the word MacTip. If I hold down the fn key and press the Delete key once the letter M is removed — in other words, the letter to the right of the insertion point. This gives us a Forward Delete, just by holding down the fn key and pressing Delete.

One word at a time: back or forward

Try putting the cursor to the right of a word and holding down Option (⌥) while you press Delete once. This removes the word to the left of the insertion point.

If the insertion point is already inside a word then Option Delete removes the part of the word to the left of the insertion point.

Now reverse it and try Option fn Delete. Adding in the fn key reverses direction and deletes a whole word to the right of the insertion point. Or, if the cursor’s inside a word then it deletes the part of the word to the right of the insertion point.

The screenshot shows the effects of these various deletes. Click the thumbnail for a larger version.

One line at a time: back, but not forward

Hold down Command (⌘) while you press Delete and all the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the line is deleted.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a key combination that will delete forward to remove a whole line.

A summary of deletions

Add these modifier keys to make Delete work harder.

Delete + Key	Action
Delete	Removes one character to the left of the insertion point
Delete fn	Removes one character to the right of the insertion point
Delete Option	Removes one word to the left of the insertion point
Delete Option fn	Removes one word to the right of the insertion point
Delete Command	Removes one line to the left of the insertion point

Try it out, and let us know in the Comments what you find. Are there places where it doesn’t work?

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Tagged as: delete, edit, keyboard, text

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