Getting That Forward Delete On Your Mac Notebook
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Macs and PCs are just different. Not just at the operating system level, but even at the hardware side as well. I’ve always felt Apple hardware is a superior design in computer technology but its lack of forward delete on its notebooks has been one con to using a Mac. Now, if you have a full-sized keyboard, you can use the forward delete above the cursor keys (it has an X inside a forward arrow on it) but us MacBook, MacBook Pro, iBook, and PowerBook users don’t have such a key. Thankfully there are many keyboard mapping applications out there to assist in this problem.
One keyboard mapper I found is DoubleCommand. Doing more than just giving me my beloved forward delete, the freeware application sits in your System Preferences Other section awaiting your command. Mmm, sorry for the pun. Other cool tricks include turning that ENTER key, down by your space bar and Command key to the right, into a Control, Option, or even a Function key. You can swap keys and their uses as well as make those HOME and END keys act more like they do on a PC. It’s just all good stuff, really!
Hey, I have installed and I’m a happy camper. I know you will be too when you give it a go on your system. Try it out and if you like it, give author, Michael Baltaks, a donation to keep him going.
[tags]DoubleCommand, Forward, Delete, Key, Remap, Mac, OSX, OS X[/tags]
5 Comments
Jerry Wilcox
December 11th, 2006
at 2:19pm
I do use a keyboard mapper, but it isn’t needed just to have a forward delete function. At least on my iBook G4, fn-delete (hold down the fn key and hit delete) gives me a forward delete, which I use all the time.
Stuart
December 11th, 2006
at 2:20pm
If you don’t feel like changing anything, you can use fn+delete for forward delete. I switched to mac earlier this year, but with the full keyboard I was not put out much (only the switching of the “os key” with “alt”, luckily though for application switching the fingering is the same)
When I bought my Macbook recently I was slightly put out without my forward delete, but just add a fn to delete and there you are!
Charles
December 11th, 2006
at 11:32pm
“Fn + Delete” will forward delete on my PowerBook. The Fn key is at the far left on the bottom row of the keyboard. I did try DoubleCommand & forward delete is identical to “Shift + Delete”.
Pete
July 17th, 2007
at 11:21pm
I find Control D works as forward delete for most apps.
Dan Oblak - MacBigot.com
November 11th, 2007
at 11:52am
OK, perhaps call it a ‘vast, right-wing conspiracy’ to call out the differences (perceived or factual) between the OS’s in headlines (note that the three comments, so far, have not been in the headlines or RSS feeds all over the web — but this MISCONCEPTION that the Mac is different enough… and somehow lacking… from the perspective of the average Windows experience.
The biggest crime against the minds and souls, they say, that Satan perpetrates against humanity, is the lie that he, Satan, does not exist.
The biggest lie perpetrated against non-Windows environments, is that there is a deficiency, and lacking, and an insufficiency of design. Thus pretending that somehow Windows is not the Satan, but the Saviour, of computing mankind.
Yes, the platform arguments are like a religious war — one that is winnable by those in Redmond if they can get the rest of the planet to believe that there is no longer a question; just an understanding that the only truly ‘full’ experience can be had in Windows, and nowhere else.
If you promote the lie, you are no better than the evil priests as portrayed in the Hollywood caricature, ‘Stigmata’.
Step away from the ‘Church’ of Redmond. Do not let them possess you, or your mind, or your keyboard.
Come out of Sven LL Rafferty, Mr. Gates.