Move the Cursor and Make Selections in a Document Without Using a Mouse

When you are working on a document in a text editor or word processor, like Microsoft Word, iWork Pages, TextEdit, BBEdit and Evernote, you can move around in the document without taking your hands off the keyboard.

First, what you already know. You can use the arrow keys to move the cursor left and right by one character, or up or down a line.

The Option Key
Holding down the Option key and while using the arrow keys moves the cursor to the end of the next word, the beginning of the previous word, up to the beginning of the previous line, or to the end of the next line. Try it for yourself in TextEdit. It makes more sense when you actually see what it does.

The Command Key
Hold down the Command key and use the arrow keys to take you to place the cursor at the beginning or ending of the current line, or the beginning or ending of the document. Again, try it to see how it works.

The Shift Key
If you hold down the shift key and navigate using the arrow keys, you can move the cursor and select text at the same time. Used in combination with the Option or Command keys, you can select whole whole words or entire lines of text - without using the mouse.

It'll take some practice to get used to using the arrow keys with the Option, Command and Shift keys to move the cursor around and select text in a document. Once you do it well enough, it'll be faster than reaching for the mouse to select a word or to move the cursor a few words back or forward to make an edit.