Yesterday, I saw a tweet by Merlin Mann encouraging folks to learn the Mac OS X text selection commands, and linking to a page on the Apple support website that lists all of the Mac keyboard shortcuts. Maybe it is because I just posted a review of an iPad Bluetooth keyboard earlier this week and thus still had iPad keyboards on my brain, but my first thought when I saw that list was that it is just as useful for iPad owners who use an external keyboard. It may seem somewhat odd to say that, because the marquee feature of the iPad is that it is a large touch screen. But one of the most efficient ways to use an iPad with an external keyboard is to learn ways that you can keep your fingers on the keys and not waste time touching the screen.
The text selection commands that I am describing in this post work with virtually every app with text input on the iPad — Mail, Microsoft Word, Apple's Pages, etc. I'm sure that you know some of these commands, especially the ones at the beginning, but probably not all of them. There are a few in here that I rarely think to use and I'm glad to be reminded that they exist.
Note that this list assumes that you have a keyboard with Command and Option keys, such as Apple's Magic Keyboard (the external keyboard) or the Smart Keyboard (the one that is built-in to an iPad Pro cover). As I noted in my review of the iClever keyboard earlier this week, if you see a keyboard with a Win key (or a Windows logo) that key is a substitute for Command, and the Alt key is a substitute for Option.
Command–Up Arrow
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the document. Similar to Home, Command-Home or Control-Home when using Microsoft Word, depending upon how you have your keyboard shortcuts configured.
Command–Down Arrow
Move the insertion point to the end of the document.
Command–Left Arrow
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the current line.
Command–Right Arrow
Move the insertion point to the end of the current line.
Option–Left Arrow
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word. If you want to go back a few words in a document, instead of pressing the left arrow many, many times, just hold down option and tap the left arrow a few times, jumping over one more word every time that you press the arrow. This is a great and quick way to fix words in a sentence that you just finished typing.
Option–Right Arrow
Move the insertion point to the end of the next word. This is a quick way to go back to where you were after you fixed something a few words back.
Shift–Command–Up Arrow
Select the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the document. So if you want to copy the beginning part of a document, put your cursor where you want the selection to stop and then hold down shift and command and hit the up arrow. This will select all of the document up to where your cursor was. You can then copy, cut, etc. that part of the document.
Shift–Command–Down Arrow
Select the text between the insertion point and the end of the document. This lets you do the same trick for the last parts of a document.
Shift–Command–Left Arrow
Select the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the current line.
Shift–Command–Right Arrow
Select the text between the insertion point and the end of the current line.
Shift–Up Arrow
Extend text selection to the nearest character at the same horizontal location on the line above.
Shift–Down Arrow
Extend text selection to the nearest character at the same horizontal location on the line below.
Shift–Left Arrow
Extend text selection one character to the left. I will often use my finger to double-tap on a word to select it, and then hold down shift and hit the left arrow repeatedly to extend the selection to one or more characters before the word. But if instead of expanding the selection one character at a time, sometimes I extend the selection by adding words to it, and for that I use the next one...
Option–Shift–Left Arrow
Extend text selection to the beginning of the current word, then to the beginning of the following word if pressed again.
Shift–Right Arrow
Extend text selection one character to the right.
Option–Shift–Right Arrow
Extend text selection to the end of the current word, then to the end of the following word if pressed again.
Option–Shift–Up Arrow
Extend text selection to the beginning of the current paragraph, then to the beginning of the following paragraph if pressed again. This is a quick and easy way to select multiple paragraphs in a document so that you can cut them and then move them elsewhere. I often draft an argument in one part of a brief, and then decide upon reflection that it would be better placed in another part of the brief. This text selection command helps me to do that quickly on an iPad.
Option–Shift–Down Arrow
Extend text selection to the end of the current paragraph, then to the end of the following paragraph if pressed again.
One last tip -- see the traditional document shortcuts
Finally, I'm sure that you know many of the traditional document shortcuts such as Command-B to bold, Command-U to underline, etc. But if you ever forget them, simply hold down the Command key on an external keyboard for a few seconds. Your iPad will then show a cheat-sheet in the middle of the screen with shortcuts that you can use. The hints change based upon the App that you are using. For example, in Microsoft Word, you see shortcuts for commands like save, undo, copy, paste, bold and underline:
In Mail, you see shortcuts for commands like adding attachments, creating a new message, and sending the current message:
Hopefully these tips will help you to be even more efficient with your iPad's external keyboard.