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Comment by ericb | Hacker News Reader

I'll try the swap asap for command and ctrl. That's great-- Thanks!

In windows, home and end jump to the end of line/beginning of line, so I frequently hit shift-home or shift-end to select a whole line of text, then I copy or cut and move it.

I found app-specific hacks here:

http://www.starryhope.com/tech/apple/2006/keyfixer/

but I haven't checked out how it works yet, as I think I can add Thunderbird and other programs myself. Or I'll just re-adjust...

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Rather than rearranging everything to be like Windows, maybe you should learn to use things the way they are on Mac.

Just consider that every hack and customization you make will make it that much harder to use another Mac without all your Windows-y adjustments.

For example, on Mac you navigate around text with the Command and arrow keys. So:

                         Win        Mac
    Beginning of line    Home       ⌘←
          End of line    End        ⌘→
     Beginning of doc    Ctrl-Home  ⌘↑
           End of doc    Ctrl-End   ⌘↓

I have had that thought, but I find the positioning of the apple key awkward. Also, 95% of my productivity is determined by how fast I get around my own machine, and also it's unavoidable for a while that I will be using my mac and other people's pcs.

Thanks for the translations.

It's awkward because it's unfamiliar. I was pretty good with Windows before I switched to Mac and now I definitely prefer using the Command keys with my thumbs than the Ctrl keys with my pinkies.

It does suck though to be using something so unfamiliar.

OR you can do: CTRL+e for beginning of the line, CTRL+a for the end, CTRL+k to kill from the caret to the end of the line, CTRL+u to kill from the caret to the beginning, CTRL+h to backspace one character, CTRL+w to backspace one word, CTRL+f to move forward one character, CTRL+b to move backwards one.

Many might recognize these from emacs.

for line, cmd + left/right arrow (+ shift)

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