moving cursor one word (customizing keystroke issue)

[jinx]

In Word X, the keystroke for moving the cursor one word was "command +
arrow". In the new version its been switched to "option + arrow". Does
anyone know how to change this back? I've found how to customize
keystroke commands, but I couldn't find the listing for this command in
there. Is it listed under a special name?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

 

[Elliott Roper]

In Word X, the keystroke for moving the cursor one word was "command +
arrow". In the new version its been switched to "option + arrow". Does
anyone know how to change this back? I've found how to customize
keystroke commands, but I couldn't find the listing for this command in
there. Is it listed under a special name?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

There is a time honoured method for finding the name of a command
associated with a keystroke.

Tools->customize->keyboard
choose any command you like.
Assign cmd arrow to it. or whatever it is.
Word tells you what the RightWord for WordRight.

Brilliant or what?

Someone will be along in a minute to tell you that Word 2004 is a
better Mac citizen than its mummy.

 

[jinx]

There is a time honoured method for finding the name of a command
associated with a keystroke.

Tools->customize->keyboard
choose any command you like.
Assign cmd arrow to it. or whatever it is.
Word tells you what the RightWord for WordRight.

Brilliant or what?

Someone will be along in a minute to tell you that Word 2004 is a
better Mac citizen than its mummy.

Thanks - that was actually the part I knew, but I was searching for the
name of the command. I had searched the list of commands twice before
without finding it, but I just did it again and was successful. If
anyone else is interested, the commands are called "WordLeft" and
"WordRight".

cheers
JINX

 

[Bill Weylock]

Thanks!!! I didn't realize I could change that.

How about restoring the Cmd-Backspace key command to delete one word at a
time??????

Anybody?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

How about restoring the Cmd-Backspace key command to delete one word at a
time??????

What keyboard are you using?

By default, CMD-Delete deletes one word to the left, and CMD-del (for
extended keyboards) deletes one word to the right.

My keyboard doesn't have a backspace key, but the commands are
DeleteWord and DeleteBackWord.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Thanks!!! I didn't realize I could change that.

How about restoring the Cmd-Backspace key command to delete one word at a
time??????

Anybody?

Exactly the same method, only this time you don't know either the
command or the keystroke do you?

This is one of the infuriating parts of Word. The names assigned to
commands are more obfuscated than Finnegan's Wake.

It is worth printing off the entire set of keyboard shortcuts.
Follow your nose through tools->macros->word commands->listcommands
(I'm not kidding!) If that is too terse, try help and ask "Print a list
of shortcut keys" Mind the spelling. the help is the most bloody minded
pile of parrot droppings in the known universe.

In this case, the commands you are looking for are DeleteWord and
DeleteBackWord. cmd-delete aka cmd-backspace appears to be one of the
standard ones. Has somebody been playing with your shortcuts while you
were not looking?

 

[Bill Weylock]

In Word 2004, that is broken. I'm using a standard extended Mac keyboard and
have been using those key strokes you describe for 14 years. It doesn't work
for me now.

I guess another utility program might be at fault though... That didn't
occur to me.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Exactly the same method, only this time you don't know either the
command or the keystroke do you?

This is one of the infuriating parts of Word. The names assigned to
commands are more obfuscated than Finnegan's Wake.

While I agree that a few of the commands have obscure names, DeleteWord
and DeleteBackWord seem pretty straightforward...

What would you change them to?

 

[Elliott Roper]

While I agree that a few of the commands have obscure names, DeleteWord
and DeleteBackWord seem pretty straightforward...

What would you change them to?

Oh, all right! DeleteWord is almost sensible and DeleteBackWord has the
makings of a charming pun, but even which such benign examples there is
no consistencey with other commands. Why not WordDelete? After all, we
have FileOpen, FileDelete, WordUnderline, WordRight. Is DeleteWord in
the Edit category? Nope! Is it in *any* category? Nope!

There is only one other command that starts with Delete.
DeleteAnnotation. Now where is DeleteBackCharacter or DeleteSentence?

We do have SentRightExtend. With the obvious keystroke combo already
taken by some webby command. You see the pattern?

Neither do I.

And don't get me started on the tiny little customize keyboard
selection boxes lost on that huge dialog and the *almost* total lack of
keyboard control over the scrolling.

In spite of fierce competition, inconsistent keyboard operation (with
unbidden modal dialogs) and key assignment is far and away the most
poorly designed and poorly executed aspect of Word v.X. If there were
any part of Word that *has* to be right, for people to use every day,
this is it.

BreafastCompleteDogs

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Oh, all right! DeleteWord is almost sensible and DeleteBackWord has the
makings of a charming pun, but even which such benign examples there is
no consistencey with other commands. Why not WordDelete? After all, we
have FileOpen, FileDelete, WordUnderline, WordRight. Is DeleteWord in
the Edit category? Nope! Is it in *any* category? Nope!

Oops - it should be consistent with WordRight (or RightWord).

In general, I prefer the noun first.

We do have SentRightExtend. With the obvious keystroke combo already
taken by some webby command. You see the pattern?

Neither do I.

No, but I guess I'm a little inured to it since I've been using them
long enough that I can usually find what I want on the first try. From a
new user's perspective, it's horrendous.

And don't get me started on the tiny little customize keyboard
selection boxes lost on that huge dialog and the *almost* total lack of
keyboard control over the scrolling.

In spite of fierce competition, inconsistent keyboard operation (with
unbidden modal dialogs) and key assignment is far and away the most
poorly designed and poorly executed aspect of Word v.X.

While I don't necessarily agree that it's the most poorly designed part
of Word's interface (primarily because it's used so infrequently), I
agree that that dialog should have been scrapped long ago.

If there were any part of Word that *has* to be right, for people to
use every day, this is it.

Perhaps a bit of an overstatement. From my experience, the fraction of
the population that tries to customize *anything* in Word (Win or Mac)
is in the high single digits. Most of my Word customers, and close to
half of my Windows customers, use only a few, if any, keyboard shortcuts
at all, even after gentle "guidance". I work with several large
companies' administrative employees regularly, and nearly all of them
Open, Close, Save, Print, Find, and Replace via the menus.

Drives me up the wall (but I smile and take my fee)...

For the power user, I agree that it's essential.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Perhaps a bit of an overstatement. From my experience, the fraction of
the population that tries to customize *anything* in Word (Win or Mac)
is in the high single digits. Most of my Word customers, and close to
half of my Windows customers, use only a few, if any, keyboard shortcuts
at all, even after gentle "guidance". I work with several large
companies' administrative employees regularly, and nearly all of them
Open, Close, Save, Print, Find, and Replace via the menus.

Drives me up the wall (but I smile and take my fee)...

For the power user, I agree that it's essential.

Dammit McGimpsey! Why do you have to be so damn reasonable! It takes
all the fun out of trolling this group.

Seriously, do you have enough whiny essays lke mine in front of the
developers that this is such a well known complaint that you feel I
don't need to cavil at them?

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Thanks - that was actually the part I knew, but I was searching for the
name of the command. I had searched the list of commands twice before
without finding it, but I just did it again and was successful. If
anyone else is interested, the commands are called "WordLeft" and
"WordRight".

Jinx,

Actually what Elliot was saying, but being FAR too cute about it , was
that if you attempt to assign cmd-arrow to any command, the dialog box will
tell you politely that "cmd-arrow" is already assigned to "WordRight".
That's the easiest way to find the name of a command. Then you can usually
find it under All Commands.

DM

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Seriously, do you have enough whiny essays lke mine in front of the
developers that this is such a well known complaint that you feel I
don't need to cavil at them?

I'll probably write another one, if you need more. The inconsistencies
drive me batty as well. And customizing the keyboard and menus is the
best feature of Word that appeals (or should) to *all* users. Maybe if we
track some of the naming inconsistencies for them it would be simple to
change?
Dayo

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Seriously, do you have enough whiny essays lke mine in front of the
developers that this is such a well known complaint that you feel I
don't need to cavil at them?

Did it get fixed in Word2004?

Keep caviling, but some pointed barbs and a thermonuclear warhead or two
may be necessary...

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I'll probably write another one, if you need more. The inconsistencies
drive me batty as well. And customizing the keyboard and menus is the
best feature of Word that appeals (or should) to *all* users. Maybe if we
track some of the naming inconsistencies for them it would be simple to
change?

I suspect "simple to change" and Word are mutually exclusive, Dayo.

I for one have half a boat-load of applications in existence that change
the behavior of Word by hijacking a command name. Changing the command
names now would surely get me a call from my clients, who won't want to
pay for a fix.

In addition, with millions of lines of code, lord-only-knows how much of
it the consistency of long, thin pasta, a tiny change in one area may
cause horrific problems in another.

 

[Elliott Roper]

I suspect "simple to change" and Word are mutually exclusive, Dayo.

I for one have half a boat-load of applications in existence that change
the behavior of Word by hijacking a command name. Changing the command
names now would surely get me a call from my clients, who won't want to
pay for a fix.

In addition, with millions of lines of code, lord-only-knows how much of
it the consistency of long, thin pasta, a tiny change in one area may
cause horrific problems in another.

That sounds about right.

However setting and managing shortcuts is something that could be
improved without changing the underlying names.

What is needed is some clever mapping linking the various commands by
some kind of semantic distance function that is only about 3 orders of
magnitude better than the existing categories. I'd go for some kind of
graph (in the sense of OmniGraffle graphs) representation where the
vectors would be a function of similarity over keystroke, underlying
function, and name.

The Mac UI already has a pattern to keyboard and mouse operations. To
its credit, Word already respects many of them, often with alternate
key combos, one respecting Word history, the other nodding in Apple's
direction.

I'd be prepared to go to some effort to get my own shortcuts
consistent, not only within Word, or Office, but over the whole Mac
user experience. If only there were a decent tool to get it right.

It can be done the way it is, but it is a royal pain.

 

[Bill Weylock]

So funny.

I've been suffering with this for many years of course. It's been
consistently awful for a long time.

I don't doubt that most people ignore ways to customize. If I didn't spend
my life in the program, I might not either.

My theory is that people who can touch type care about macros and shortcuts
a lot. People who hunt and peck care less. Everything is annoying.

The funny part for me was sharing your frustration watching someone insist
on using the mouse to navigate menus and submenus to do something I handle
with a keystroke - especially when they do through the same process several
times.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

The funny part for me was sharing your frustration watching someone insist
on using the mouse to navigate menus and submenus to do something I handle
with a keystroke - especially when they do through the same process several
times.

One executive secretary told me "God gave me a good brain to use, and
I'll be damned if I fill it up with trivia like key shortcuts." She's a
80 wpm typist, uses styles and templates, as well as being bright,
well-spoken, and essentially running the company for the figurehead CEO,
so I can't really argue with her.

 

[Bill Weylock]

We're going to get the thread drift police on us pretty soon, but my major
peeve is people who have never thought to use a style and/or fill a document
with dozens of tabs, returns, and space strings to make things "line up"
(which of course they don't as soon as you move a toothpick.