"Home" and "End" keys on keyboards with numeric pad (Mac Pro)

Question

Level 1

31 points

"Home" and "End" keys on keyboards with numeric pad (Mac Pro)

Hello everyone,

I have found a solution over the net on how to make the "Home" and "End" keys to behave as they do on PCs - home goes to the beginning of the line, end to the end of the line. (These are the keys below the F14, F15 and F16 keys on bigger keyboards that have the numeric pad on the right).

Problem is, this common solution (wich involves creating a file called DefaultKeyBinding.dict) does not work when using Firefox.

Is there a way to fix this? When typing on forms like this one for this forum right now for example, pressing the home key does nothing, and it would be very nice if this key would make the cursor go to the beginning of the line, when using firefox.

My Mac Pro uses OS-X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and Firefox 19.0

Thanks in advance for any help.

Posted on Mar 3, 2013 5:21 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 3, 2013 5:39 PM in response to KEForex

Here is a list of the keyboard shortcuts already included in your premium quality Macintosh computer:

OS X keyboard shortcuts

There is a way to get the keyboard to respond to EXACTLY the keys Windows uses -- for everything!

It's called booting Windows on your Mac.

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Answer 2

KEForex Author

Level 1

31 points

Mar 3, 2013 7:24 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That's exactly the point, I do use Windows 7 on my Mac Pro as well and tha's one of the reasons I've been so used to the 'home' key behaving as moving the cursor to the beggining of the line.

It's a lot easier and faster, when you're typing, to press 'home' instead of having to press 'Command-Left-Arrow' to do the same thing.

Like I've mentioned, I got the home key to work on everything but Firefox 19.0 (the latest version) so I was just wondering if anyone came up with a solution for this pesky issue. Lately I have been using OS-X a lot more than Windows, but I have to tell you, some of the OS-X key shortcuts are just plain annoying.

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Answer 3

Dec 21, 2014 8:24 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

"There is a way to get the keyboard to respond to EXACTLY the keys Windows uses -- for everything!

It's called booting Windows on your Mac."

Guys like this is why I have never found useful information in the Apple forums. And he's got one of the highest levels of point values.

Apple support model: intimidate you with a busy, too small, long-lined store. Create a support forum which doesn't provide support, but instead tells everyone "no you really don't want to do what you just asked" or "listen this isn't Windows"

HOW ABOUT SOME HELPFUL ADVICE INSTEAD??

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Answer 4

Dec 21, 2014 8:25 AM in response to KEForex

I also find this troublesome because sometimes Command+Left-Arrow means "Go back one page" and you lose everything you were typing. If only there was a set of keys on a standard keyboard that meant "go to end of line" and "go to beginning of line" ... oh, WAIT! Like HOME and END! Except they do weird things on Mac. :/

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Answer 5

Dec 21, 2014 8:33 AM in response to ryanfromoklahoma city

Use System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts

... to re-map a small number of key combinations to exactly the way you like them. You can either assign shortcuts for an individual Application, or use "App Shortcuts" to apply to ALL Applications.

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Answer 6

Dec 21, 2014 8:50 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Keyboard shortcuts allows you to choose the key sequence used to activate any Menu Item.

If your issue is only inside Firefox, use their keyboard mapping mechanism instead, Described here:

http://mzl.la/MbezM6

Note: Firefox Keyboard shortcuts can be customized using the Customizable Shortcuts extension.

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