Here is a handful of lesser-known Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts that I’ve found to be very useful for working with text. They work in all standard text-fields, which means they work in most programs. Sadly, they don’t work in Microsoft products, and a few other apps that use non-standard text fields.
option = you will see the mouse cursor into a + , and you can now select columns of text! Unfortunately it only seems to work in editable text-fields, which is a great shame.
ctrl + d = forward delete, even if you don’t have it on your MacBook’s keyboard.
ctrl + a = Go to the beginning of the line the insertion-point is on.
ctrl + e = Go to the beginning end of the line line the insertion-point is on.
ctrl + k = “kill the current line”, deletes everything from the right of the insertion point to the next newline. This is very useful in Terminal, because you can delete the tail of a long command
command + delete = “Delete To Beginning Of Line”. Just like ctrl+k, but backwards, not forwards. (It even puts the killed text on the yank-pasteboard — don’t worry if that makes no sense, it’s an emacs-ism I don’t find useful.)
And yes, that’s ctrl, not command, because these are shortcuts inherited from the old UNIX text-editor emacs. There are more emacs “key bindings” that are available, but I have never found them useful. This long list of Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts includes them.
command + ctrl + d = look up the word under the mouse in the dictionary. I can’t believe that other operating systems haven’t done this for decades, it’s that useful.
It is unfortunate when programs use text-fields that do not support commands the operating system should give to every application. It’s always a mistake. Fundamentally, not supporting ctrl+a (go to beginning) is no different then not supporting command+c (copy).
If you find these commands useful, please teach them, and let developers know it’s a problem when you can’t use them. That will improve computing for everyone.