next up previous contents index
Next: The WR Button: Email Up: The Text Editor Previous: The Text Editor   Contents   Index

Text Editor Key Bindings

Characters are entered into the document as typed, at the current cursor location. The keys with special bindings are listed below.

Unix/Linux Bindings
Ctrl-A Move cursor to beginning of line
Ctrl-B Move cursor backward one character
Ctrl-C Copy selected text to clipboard
Ctrl-D Delete next character
Ctrl-E Move cursor to end of line
Ctrl-F Move cursor forward one character
Ctrl-H Delete previous character
Ctrl-K Delete to end of line
Ctrl-N Move cursor down one line
Ctrl-P Move cursor up one line
Ctrl-U Delete current line
Ctrl-V Paste clipboard at cursor
Ctrl-W Delete backward one word
Ctrl-X Cut selection to clipboard
   
Alt-B Move cursor backward one word
Alt-D Delete word
Alt-F Move cursor forward one word
Alt-P Paste primary selection at cursor
   
Home Move cursor to beginning of line
Ctrl-Home Move cursor to top of document
End Move cursor to end of line
Ctrl-End Move cursor to end of document
PageUp Move up one page
PageDown Move down one page
Up Move cursor up one line
Down Move cursor down one line
Left Move cursor left one character
Ctrl-Left Move cursor left one word
Right Move cursor right one character
Ctrl-Right Move cursor right one word
Backspace Delete previous character
Ctrl-Backspace Delete previous word
Clear Delete current line
Shift-Insert Paste clipboard at cursor
Ctrl-Insert Copy selected text to clipboard
Delete Delete next character
Shift-Delete Cut selected text to clipboard
Ctrl-Delete Delete next word

Clicking with button 1 will move the cursor to that location. Double clicking will select the clicked-on word. Triple clicking will select the clicked-on line. Button 1 is also used to select text by dragging the pointer over the text to select.

Clicking with button 2 will paste the contents of the primary selection register into the document at the click location.

In GTK-1 releases, button 3 will also select text, but the selected text is not copied to the clipboard. Text selected in this manner can be saved to the clipboard just as a normal selection. In GTK-2 releases, button 3 will not select, but will instead bring up a context menu.

Microsoft Windows Bindings
Ctrl-A Select all text
Ctrl-C Copy selected text to the clipboard
Ctrl-V Paste the clipboard contents at the cursor
Ctrl-X Cut selected text to clipboard
Backspace Delete selected text, or the character to the left of the cursor if no text is selected
Ctrl-Backspace Delete the word to the left of the cursor
Delete Delete selected text, or the character to the right of the cursor if no text is selected
Shift-Delete Performs a ``cut'', i.e., copies to the clipboard before deleting
Ctrl-Delete Delete the word to the right of the cursor
Insert Toggle insert/overwrite mode for typed characters
Shift-Insert Perform a ``paste'' from the clipboard
Home Move cursor to the start of the line
Ctrl-Home Move cursor to the top of the document
End Move cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl-End Move cursor to the end of the document
Page Up Scroll up one page
Ctrl-Page Up Move cursor to start of first visible line
Page Down Scroll down one page
Ctrl-Page Down Move cursor to end of last visible line

The arrow keys move the cursor, and with Ctrl pressed the left and right arrow keys move the cursor word-by-word. Holding the Shift key while moving the cursor with the mouse or with other keys will select the intervening text. The left mouse button is used to move the cursor by clicking, and to select text by dragging.


next up previous contents index
Next: The WR Button: Email Up: The Text Editor Previous: The Text Editor   Contents   Index
Stephen R. Whiteley 2012-04-01