Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

navigation through text with keyboard shortcuts


Recommended Posts

Typically while editing text on Mac software you can navigate from word to word by using Option+LeftArrow, to go to the end of the next word. and by Using Command+LeftArrow you go to the end of that line.

In Publisher, I can only go from word to word by using Command+Arrow, but I can't go to the end of the line.

 

Is this a bug or is there a different shortcut for these navigations actions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interestingly, the current HIG (rather pathetic compared to the old ones) does not list the option+left/right or command+left/right shortcuts for doing those things, but does list the shifted versions of them for extending the selection.

Option+left/right aren't mapped to anything, but command+left/right are supposed to change the keyboard layout:

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/user-interaction/keyboard/

 

I think I like the ones you provided a bit better than what Apple is suggesting here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Carlosmp,

and welcome here … :)

This has been sort of a standing issue for two years now. Dave Harris had logged the request for customisable caret cursor shortcuts in February 2016, but unfortunately there hasn’t been much progress since:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/18412-consistency-for-shortcuts-in-caret-cursor-navigation/

Though I am not sure why this isn’t a real issue for many users, certainly it is still an issue for me. So let me add my voice to this thread and bump this up … :)

Cheers, Alex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Carlosmp said:

Is this a bug or is there a different shortcut for these navigations actions?

I haven't found any kind of shortcut to get to either end of a line or to the next/previous Paragraph or anything useful. This un-Mac behaviour is driving me nuts.

1 hour ago, A_B_C said:

Though I am not sure why this isn’t a real issue for many users, certainly it is still an issue for me.

I thought this would be a huge issue for most Mac users and figured I was missing something obvious, I still don't get why there isn't outrage about this, we must be missing something.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I haven't found any kind of shortcut to get to either end of a line or to the next/previous Paragraph or anything useful

I don't know if this will help, but on Windows, Home/End take you to the beginning/end of the current line, and ctrl+Home/End take you to the top of the text frame or bottom.

Ctrl+right/left arrow moves one word to the right/left.

Shift+Ctrl+right/left arrow move one word to the right/left while selecting the intervening text.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I don't know if this will help, but on Windows, Home/End take you to the beginning/end of the current line, and ctrl+Home/End take you to the top of the text frame or bottom.

Ctrl+right/left arrow moves one word to the right/left.

Shift+Ctrl+right/left arrow move one word to the right/left while selecting the intervening text.

Oh, I should have mentioned I am away from my real keyboard and desktop at present, that may explain the lack of outrage. And there is the ability to move one word at a time on the Mac it is just ... unusual.

Now let us see if I can remember your tip for improved navigation when I get my real machine up here from the big smoke (hopefully this month). I am currently in transit and stuck with a machine I would have killed for 20 years ago but find slow and awkward now.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I don't know if this will help, but on Windows, Home/End take you to the beginning/end of the current line, and ctrl+Home/End take you to the top of the text frame or bottom.

Ctrl+right/left arrow moves one word to the right/left.

Shift+Ctrl+right/left arrow move one word to the right/left while selecting the intervening text.

I am now using v. 162 on  MAC Sierra.   Home/End took me absolutely nowhere.   Ctrl+right arrow shot Publisher straight off the desktop and left me with an Apple desktop.  


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, jmwellborn said:

Ctrl+right arrow shot Publisher straight off the desktop and left me with an Apple desktop.  

You have discovered what used to be called Spaces. Sad to hear that Home/End does naught though.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The option+arrow keys are used for paragraph spacing shortcuts. We use these shortcuts in a similar way to another popular DTP app. Most of Apple's own text based apps do not have the complex paragraph and text options that we do so these keys are free'd up by this somewhat.

The home and end buttons should work and I don't see any reasons for not making these do so, so I shall report that. Current cmd+up/down takes to to the start or end of the text frame, but perhaps this should do start/end of line?

Cheers

Serif Europe Ltd - Check the latest news at www.affinity.serif.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Chris_K said:

Current cmd+up/down takes to to the start or end of the text frame, but perhaps this should do start/end of line?

Please don't I use that a lot and it reflects the use in BBEdit, perhaps you could steal their Option arrow up/down for beginning/end of Paragraphs. 

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Chris_K said:

The option+arrow keys are used for paragraph spacing shortcuts. We use these shortcuts in a similar way to another popular DTP app. Most of Apple's own text based apps do not have the complex paragraph and text options that we do so these keys are free'd up by this somewhat.

But Chris, when you have a look at yet another popular DTP app, you will see that it is possible to customise the navigation shortcuts here. In such an important editing area, where everybody has their own preferences, I think it wouldn’t hurt to have some preferences … :)

Indesign.png.234c7e1e7319fe81598f879a8ee85257.png

(This is CS 5.5!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The other option would be the approach used by the Plan 9 operating system, in which they made an intentional decision to not support using the keyboard to move the cursor at all, requiring use of the mouse because they had identified from various studies that using the mouse is more efficient and they wanted to break people of the habit of keyboard navigation...

(Not really expecting that this will fly, just tossing it out there).

 

https://9p.io/wiki/plan9/mouse_vs._keyboard/index.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.