hotkeys.md

Terminal

Note: C- stands for Control.

Important:

These keystrokes don't really feel as magical unless you remap Caps Lock to Control.

Sounds weird, but back in the day, a lot of keyboards used to have Control in the Caps Lock position - the keybindings we're going to look at were designed for that particular layout.

Besides, let's be honest, how many times a week do you use Caps Lock? Is there anything it does that you can't do just by holding Shift???

If you have macOS Sierra, you have the option to remap Caps Lock in System Preferences > Keyboard > Modifier Keys...

for other OSes, just google 'remap caps lock to control ' and you'll probably have it figured out in no time. I'm also happy to help.

Movement

# Beginning of line...
$ (C-a)        <--  /  -->          (C-e)
                  #...end of line

# Note: the '_' is your cursor position
$ cd ~/Documets/ACA/Javascript/01LessonOne/index.js_
            ^^
# whoops, got a typo

# Rather than slapping backspace for the rest of your life,
# Just do C-a to move to the beginning of the line...

$_cd ~/Documets/ACA/Javascript/01LessonOne/index.js

# ...and use C-f to move your cursor forward one character at a time
$ _d ~/Documets/ACA/Javascript/01LessonOne/index.js
...
   ...
      ...
         ...
$ cd ~/Docume_s/ACA/Javascript/01LessonOne/index.js
# (type 'n')
$ cd ~/Documents/ACA/Javascript/01LessonOne/index.js

What about moving backward? Just use C-b

So far we have

• C-a Move to beginning of line
• C-e Move to end of line
• C-f Move forward one character
• C-b Move backward one character

Even having these 4 commands at your fingertips will make life a lot easier.

However, it gets better - you can also use the Alt key to modify this movement.

With C-Alt-f / C-Alt-b, instead of moving one character forward or backword, we can move a whole word forward of backward.

note that some terminal emulators (such as iTerm) will require that you manually set the behavior of your Alt key (in iTerm it is Preferences > Profiles > Keys > Left Option Key acts as: and set it to +Esc). If you're using a different OS / terminal emulator, Google "alt key as meta "

The best part? these key bindings work just about anywhere. switch over to your Browser and in the URL bar, try using C-a / C-e. same result as in the terminal. Try doing these movements on text fields anywhere - I think you'll find that they're nearly 100% universal.

sometimes you'll find that the Alt modifier won't work with Control - in this case, you probably just need to use the keystroke without Control - i.e. Alt-f to move one word forward.

So that's it, those are the major keyboard shortcuts you should know! Make these a part of your routine - you'll be surprised how much it helps!

In closing, I'll list the ones we covered, and leave you with a couple more that I find myself using almost all the time.

• C-a Move to beginning of line
• C-e Move to end of line
• C-f Move forward one character
• C-b Move backward one character
• C-Alt-f Move forward one word
• C-Alt-b Move backward one word Bonus
• C-w Delete a whole word

Anywhere else, you can use Alt-Backspace to delete a whole word (macOS only)

• C-p Cycle through previously used commands (in the terminal)
• C-n Same, only forward (next command)