On Unix machines and Mac OSX on both the command line and in any GUI text field you can use emacs movements to navigate by word, sentence, beginning of line, end of line, line, etc. Windows also has similar commands. The nice thing about Unix and Mac is the consistency.

That said, I frequently see people tap furiously or hold down an arrow to get to where they want to go. Given that those motions are decades old I'm always surprised when someone with "years" experience can't navigate text effectively.

How many people do you see that navigate the right way?

2/27/2014 2:55:23 PM

did you really make a fucking thread about the page down key?

2/27/2014 3:20:47 PM

2/27/2014 3:34:12 PM

Home row and the religious war that is Emacs.

2/27/2014 3:51:39 PM

I wrote an e-mail for friends and family about four years ago about common keyboard shortcuts for working with text that I send out every now and again. The subject line is, "This information could change your life."

Quote :

"I just got done supporting an accountant who uses the mouse to copy and paste. It broke my heart. Pieces of me are dead inside now. I can't stop thinking about all the hours of that dude's life that have been wasted by not knowing common PC keyboard shortcuts. I'm writing because I care too much about you to let you waste your life the same way. Ctrl + C copies, which means the computer hangs onto the item you've selected until you select something new. It's like when you scramble to keep a phone number in your short-term memory while you try to find a pen. Ctrl + V pastes, which means the computer enters the last item you copied. It's like when you finally get a pen and a piece of paper to scribble that number down. Ctrl + X cuts, which is like copying, except it removes what you're copying. I don't have a phone number analogy for that one. Cutting is good for moving items from one place to another. There is more to life than this. There are people who also waste huge chunks of their lives using the mouse to select text or waiting for a word to be erased by holding down the Backspace key. There are faster methods. For example, there are two keys you've probably rarely used on your keyboard: Home and End. Home returns the cursor to the beginning of the current line. End moves the cursor to the end of the current line. By holding down the Shift key and pressing Home or End, you can select all the text from the cursor to the beginning or end of the line, respectively. By holding down the Ctrl key and pressing Home or End, you can move the cursor to the beginning or end of the document, respectively. By holding down the Ctrl & Shift keys and pressing Home or End, you can select all the text from the cursor to the beginning or end of the document, respectively. But wait--there's more. You can use the Ctrl key to jump entire words at a time. Press Ctrl + left arrow to move the cursor back a word. Press Ctrl + right arrow to move the cursor forward a word. Press Ctrl + Backspace to erase entire words at a time. Hold Shift while doing either of the above to select entire words at a time. Release Ctrl while holding Shift to select or deselect one character at a time. I know you probably knew most of this, but if I hadn't made absolutely sure, I probably couldn't have slept tonight. Every second you save entering data is a second you can spend on something better. If you save just one thousandth of one percent of a 70-year lifespan by using these tips, that's six more sweet hours with friends, family, pets, cars, books, video games, food, liquor, gardening, sewing, or whatever the hell you'd rather be doing. Thanks for reading."

2/27/2014 4:35:24 PM

would have been better if you had included the phrase "AIDS FELCHING CUM FLAKE"

2/28/2014 9:34:19 PM

Most of the people I've encountered that know proper text navigation also have 7 figure or higher net worth. Use page down at your peril.

[Edited on February 9, 2021 at 11:47 PM. Reason : A]

2/9/2021 11:42:35 PM

if you are navigating by words, then control + F and jump to where you need to go if you know. Like "chapter 2" or "in conclusion" , makes it easy.

If you navigating visually then CTRL + mouse wheel out and in. Zooming in and out and scrolling down.

2/18/2021 8:38:03 AM

I never really got in the habit of using alt + up/down and every time I notice myself copy/pasting a line I think to myself this is probably why I'm still only a 6 figure net worth human.

2/19/2021 9:08:59 AM

the term millionaire seems so quaint in 2021. I'm pretty sure 8 figure net worth is the new 7 figure anyhow

2/23/2021 10:32:19 PM

Get off my lawn finance guy.

[Edited on February 26, 2021 at 12:21 AM. Reason : A]

2/26/2021 12:21:31 AM

I support this thread. Apple needs to get the message and gimme some keys back.

It's especially maddening when the keys still work just fine on a 3rd party keyboard, they just refuse to install them.

4/20/2021 8:59:16 PM