How do I jump to the end of a line on a Mac?

Press Command-Right Arrow. Command-Left Arrow goes to the start of the line, and Control-E and Control-A do the same in most text fields.

How do I select a whole word or line with the keyboard?

Hold Shift with the jump shortcut. Option-Shift-Right Arrow selects to the end of the word, and Shift-Command-Right Arrow selects to the end of the line.

How do I paste without formatting on a Mac?

Press Option-Shift-Command-V to paste and match the surrounding style. Some apps label it Paste and Match Style in the Edit menu.

How do I delete a whole word on a Mac?

Option-Delete deletes the word to the left of the cursor. Fn-Delete deletes forward, one character to the right.

Do these shortcuts work in every app?

They work in Apple's text fields and in most Mac apps, including browsers. Some code editors and apps with their own editors change a few of them.

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Mac Text Editing Shortcuts: Move, Select and Delete Without the Mouse

Name: TypeFire
Author: TypeFire

October 27, 2026by TypeFire

mac text editing shortcutsmac keyboard shortcuts textselect word mac shortcutpaste without formatting macmac cursor shortcuts

The keys that move, select and delete text on a Mac, from Apple's own list, checked October 27, 2026. They work in Mail, Notes, Messages, Safari, Chrome and most other apps. Part of the Mac keyboard shortcuts guide.

Most people edit text with the mouse: click, drag, delete, click again. The keyboard is faster once three ideas click. Option moves by word. Command moves to the edge, of a line or the whole document. Shift turns any move into a selection.

A line of text with the cursor jumping by word with Option-Arrow and to the line end with Command-Arrow, and Shift selecting along the way — Option moves by word, Command moves to the edge, Shift selects as you go.

Moving the cursor

Shortcut	Moves to
Option-Left Arrow	The start of the previous word
Option-Right Arrow	The end of the next word
Command-Left Arrow	The start of the line
Command-Right Arrow	The end of the line
Command-Up Arrow	The start of the document
Command-Down Arrow	The end of the document
Fn-Up Arrow, Fn-Down Arrow	Page up, page down

Selecting

Add Shift to any move above and it selects instead.

Shortcut	Selects
Shift-Left or Right Arrow	One character
Option-Shift-Left or Right Arrow	To the start or end of the word, then the next
Shift-Command-Left or Right Arrow	To the start or end of the line
Shift-Command-Up or Down Arrow	To the start or end of the document
Option-Shift-Up or Down Arrow	To the start or end of the paragraph, then the next
Command-A	Everything

Deleting

Shortcut	Deletes
Delete	The character to the left
Fn-Delete	The character to the right
Option-Delete	The word to the left
Control-K	From the cursor to the end of the line, kept for Control-Y

Pasting and formatting

Shortcut	What it does
Option-Shift-Command-V	Paste and match the surrounding style, so no stray fonts
Option-Command-C	Copy the formatting of the selection
Option-Command-V	Apply that formatting to another selection
Command-B, Command-I, Command-U	Bold, italic, underline
Command-K	Add a link

The Control-key moves most people never learn

These come from the old Emacs editor, and they work in almost every Mac text field.

Shortcut	What it does
Control-A	Start of the line or paragraph
Control-E	End of the line or paragraph
Control-K	Cut to the end of the line into a separate clipboard
Control-Y	Paste what Control-K cut
Control-T	Swap the two characters around the cursor
Control-O	Insert a new line after the cursor
Control-D	Delete the character to the right
Control-H	Delete the character to the left

Control-K and Control-Y use their own clipboard, separate from Command-C, so you can move a line without losing what you'd copied.

Spelling and words

Shortcut	What it does
Command-;	Jump to the next misspelled word
Shift-Command-:	Open Spelling and Grammar
Control-Command-D	Look up the word under the pointer

For text you type over and over

Shortcuts make editing faster. They don't help with text you type the same way every time: your address, a sign-off, a support answer, a block of code. That's what a text expander is for. With TypeFire you type a short abbreviation and get the whole thing, in every app, free. And when you need something you copied earlier, not just the last thing, its clipboard history brings it back.

More shortcuts by task: screenshots, Finder, and all of them.

Mac Text Editing Shortcuts: Move, Select and Delete Without the Mouse