# Text editing keyboard controls

**URL:** <https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/text-editing-keyboard-controls/5413>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Created:** [April 12, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/text-editing-keyboard-controls/5413 "2021-04-12T19:15:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mlange](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/mlange/32/1899_2.png) [@mlange](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/mlange)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/text-editing-keyboard-controls/5413/1 "2021-04-12T19:15:08Z")

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I frequently stumble over some uncommon/missing text editing shortcuts (at least for a Windows user). The most frequent cases are:

- Select all is Alt + A (Ctrl + A on Windows, but I see that this is already reserved for going to the start of the line, so probably no chance here…)
- Ctrl + Backspace / Ctrl + Del to delete entire words is missing. “Fast navigation” with Ctrl + Arrows works, but having the same for deletions would be great!

Another thing that would be great for live coding is a shortcut to run only the selected code (or current line if nothing is selected), rather than the entire buffer. But that should probably go into a separate feature request.

Searchability of the current buffer would also be a very helpful feature (but again, Ctrl+F is already reserved).

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**Author:** ![d0lfyn](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/d0lfyn/32/2254_2.png) [@d0lfyn](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/d0lfyn)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:27pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/text-editing-keyboard-controls/5413/2 "2021-04-12T19:27:24Z")

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I agree that the keys take some getting used to. As a note, Alt + Backspace _does_ delete the preceding word, but the equivalent to Ctrl + Del is indeed missing.

I use an external Mac keyboard with my Windows laptop, and the shortcuts make sense because Alt is Command.

That said, I usually use VS Code as my code editor.

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**Author:** ![mlange](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/mlange/32/1899_2.png) [@mlange](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/mlange)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 7:31pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/text-editing-keyboard-controls/5413/3 "2021-04-12T19:31:10Z")

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Thanks for pointing out Alt + Backspace! I missed that so far. This will definitely help, although I will have to get used to it first.