One of the skills you can develop to increase productivity is your ability to navigate around a text editor using keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse. However not all shortcuts are equally useful nor are they all universal across text editors.
If you are new to using keyboard shortcuts, one of the best places to start is with the shortcuts that move the cursor around a page. These shortcuts are universal across most text editors as well as many other desktop applications like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Goodle Docs, and Microsoft Word.
It can take some time to develop the muscle memory but a few days or weeks of awkward and slow key presses will pay off in dividends once the shortcuts become second nature and you can quickly move the cursor as you code, write, or send your coworkers a message.
Below are the keyboard shortcuts for both Windows and Mac that I use the most frequently for moving the cursor around.
Moving the Cursor on a Windows PC
| Move Cursor To | Keyboard Shortcut |
|---|---|
| the start of the line | HOME |
| the end of the line | END |
| the top of the page | CTRL + HOME |
| the bottom of the page | CTRL + END |
| one word to the right | CTRL + RIGHT ARROW |
| one word to the left | CTRL + LEFT ARROW |
Moving the Cursor to Select Text on a Windows PC
| Select Text From The Cursor To | Keyboard Shortcut |
|---|---|
| the start of the line | SHIFT + HOME |
| the end of the line | SHIFT + END |
| the top of the page | SHIFT + CTRL + HOME |
| the end of the page | SHIFT + CTRL + END |
| one word to the right | SHIFT + CTRL + RIGHT ARROW** |
| one word to the left | SHIFT + CTRL + LEFT ARROW** |
**the right or left arrow can be repeatedly pressed to select multiple words
Moving the Cursor on a Mac
| Move Cursor To | Keyboard Shortcut |
|---|---|
| the start of the line | CMD + LEFT ARROW |
| the end of the line | CMD + RIGHT ARROW |
| the top of the page | CMD + UP ARROW |
| the bottom of the page | CMD + DOWN ARROW |
| one word to the right | OPTION + LEFT ARROW |
| one word to the left | OPTION + RIGHT ARROW |
Moving the Cursor to Select Text on a Mac
| Select Text From The Cursor To | Keyboard Shortcut |
|---|---|
| the start of the line | SHIFT + CMD + LEFT ARROW |
| the end of the line | SHIFT + CMD + RIGHT ARROW |
| the top of the page | SHIFT + CMD + UP ARROW |
| the end of the page | SHIFT + CMD + DOWN ARROW |
| one word to the right | SHIFT + OPTION + RIGHT ARROW** |
| one word to the left | SHIFT + OPTION + LEFT ARROW** |
**the right or left arrow can be repeatedly pressed to select multiple words
Once you are able to move the cursor around the page with ease, you can combine the above keyboard shortcuts with several other universal and editor-specific shortcuts in your workflow like copying text, renaming methods or variables, moving blocks of code up or down the page, and extracting methods.
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