command lab

Text Editing Shortcut Practice

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Text editing Keyboard Shortcuts: Full List (36 shortcuts)

Every Text editing keyboard shortcut used in the practice above, listed in full. Each row shows the Windows and Mac keys plus a short explanation of what the shortcut does. Find one you want to learn, then drill it above until your fingers remember it.

Windows

Text editing — Windows
Action Shortcut What it does
copy Ctrl+C Copies the selected content to the clipboard. The original stays untouched, and you can paste the copy anywhere with the paste command. This works for text, files, cell ranges, and anything else you can select.
Paste Ctrl+V Pastes the content that was previously copied or cut to the clipboard at the current cursor position. Used together with copy or cut, it lets you duplicate or move the same content to another location as many times as needed. It is one of the most frequently used operations in writing and coding.
Cut out Ctrl+X Moves the selected content to the clipboard and removes it from its original location. Unlike copy, the original does not remain, so this is used when you want to move text or an element to a different place. The cut content can then be placed anywhere with paste.
Undo Ctrl+Z Cancels the most recent action and restores the previous state. If you accidentally delete text or make an unwanted edit, pressing it repeatedly lets you step back through several previous actions. It is used constantly as a safety net during editing.
Redo Ctrl+Shift+Z Reapplies an action that was previously cancelled with undo. Use it when you undo too many steps or want to bring back a change you just removed. Learning it alongside undo makes editing work go much more smoothly.
Select all text Ctrl+A Selects the entire contents of a document or text box in one action. It selects all the text instantly without having to drag with the mouse, making it useful when you want to copy, delete, or change the formatting of the whole text at once.
Move to beginning of line Home Moves the cursor to the very beginning of the current line. When you need to jump back to the start of a long line to add or fix text, it gets you there instantly instead of moving step by step with the arrow keys.
Move to end of line End Moves the cursor to the very end of the current line. When you want to continue typing after text partway through a line, it takes you straight to the end without repeatedly pressing the arrow key.
Move to end of word Ctrl+→ Jumps the cursor straight to the end of the current or next word. Moving by whole words instead of one character at a time makes navigating long text much faster.
Move to beginning of word Ctrl+← Jumps the cursor straight to the beginning of the current or previous word. When reviewing text backward and fixing it word by word, it reaches the target position much faster than moving one character at a time.
Convert to full-width Katakana Ctrl+I While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts the typed characters to full-width Katakana. It is used to quickly switch a word that came out as hiragana back to Katakana notation.
Convert to half-width Katakana Ctrl+O While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts the typed characters to half-width Katakana. It lets you quickly switch when you need half-width Katakana, such as for symbols or model numbers.
Convert to full-width alphanumeric Ctrl+P While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts typed alphanumeric characters to full-width notation. Used when you want numbers and letters to match the full-width style within Japanese text.

Mac

Text editing — Mac
Action Shortcut What it does
copy ⌘+C Copies the selected content to the clipboard. The original stays untouched, and you can paste the copy anywhere with the paste command. This works for text, files, cell ranges, and anything else you can select.
Paste ⌘+V Pastes the content that was previously copied or cut to the clipboard at the current cursor position. Used together with copy or cut, it lets you duplicate or move the same content to another location as many times as needed. It is one of the most frequently used operations in writing and coding.
Cut out ⌘+X Moves the selected content to the clipboard and removes it from its original location. Unlike copy, the original does not remain, so this is used when you want to move text or an element to a different place. The cut content can then be placed anywhere with paste.
Undo ⌘+Z Cancels the most recent action and restores the previous state. If you accidentally delete text or make an unwanted edit, pressing it repeatedly lets you step back through several previous actions. It is used constantly as a safety net during editing.
Redo ⌘+⇧+Z Reapplies an action that was previously cancelled with undo. Use it when you undo too many steps or want to bring back a change you just removed. Learning it alongside undo makes editing work go much more smoothly.
Select all text ⌘+A Selects the entire contents of a document or text box in one action. It selects all the text instantly without having to drag with the mouse, making it useful when you want to copy, delete, or change the formatting of the whole text at once.
Move to beginning of line ⌃+A Moves the cursor to the beginning of the line. macOS Cocoa-based text fields (like Notes or Safari forms) include Emacs-style key bindings, so Ctrl+A here moves to the start of the line rather than selecting all. This is easy to confuse with Windows' Ctrl+A (select all), so it's worth remembering.
Move to end of line ⌃+E Moves the cursor to the end of the line. Like Ctrl+A, this is one of macOS's Emacs-style key bindings, with Ctrl+E acting as the equivalent of the End key. It lets you jump to the end of the line without moving your hands from the home row.
Move to the right character ⌃+F Moves the cursor one character to the right. It performs the same action as the right arrow key, but through the Emacs-style Ctrl+F shortcut, letting you move the cursor without leaving the home row.
Move to the left character ⌃+B Moves the cursor one character to the left. It performs the same action as the left arrow key, but through the Emacs-style Ctrl+B shortcut, letting you move the cursor without leaving the home row.
Move to upper character ⌃+P Moves the cursor up one line. It performs the same action as the up arrow key, but through the Emacs-style Ctrl+P shortcut, letting you move the cursor without leaving the home row.
Move to lower character ⌃+N Moves the cursor down one line. It performs the same action as the down arrow key, but through the Emacs-style Ctrl+N shortcut, letting you move the cursor without leaving the home row.
Insert line after cursor ⌃+O Inserts a line break at the current cursor position while keeping the cursor itself just before it. It saves you the trouble of pressing Enter to add a line break and then moving back up when you want to insert a new line in the middle of text.
Move to end of word ⌥+→ Jumps the cursor straight to the end of the current or next word. Moving by whole words instead of one character at a time makes navigating long text much faster.
Move to beginning of word ⌥+← Jumps the cursor straight to the beginning of the current or previous word. When reviewing text backward and fixing it word by word, it reaches the target position much faster than moving one character at a time.
Move to beginning of paragraph ⌥+↑ Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current paragraph. Since it jumps a larger distance than moving word by word, it is handy when editing or reviewing long text paragraph by paragraph.
Move to end of paragraph ⌥+↓ Moves the cursor to the end of the current paragraph. Since it jumps a larger distance than moving word by word, it is handy when editing or reviewing long text paragraph by paragraph.
Move the cursor to the center ⌃+L Scrolls the view so that the current cursor position appears in the center of the screen. It is useful when editing long documents and you want to see a balanced amount of context both before and after the cursor.
Scroll down one page ↓ ⌃+V Scrolls the view down by one full page. It lets you move quickly through a long document using only the keyboard, without repeatedly turning the mouse wheel.
Convert to full-width Katakana ⌃+K While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts the typed characters to full-width Katakana. It is used to quickly switch a word that came out as hiragana back to Katakana notation.
Convert to half-width Katakana ⌃+; While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts the typed characters to half-width Katakana. It lets you quickly switch when you need half-width Katakana, such as for symbols or model numbers.
Convert to full-width alphanumeric ⌃+L While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts typed alphanumeric characters to full-width notation. Used when you want numbers and letters to match the full-width style within Japanese text.
Convert to half-width alphanumeric ⌃+L ⌃+; While Japanese IME conversion is active, converts typed alphanumeric characters to half-width notation. Used when you want numbers and letters to match the half-width style within Japanese text.

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