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As a new user of MacOS - coming from the Windows world -, I'm trying to quickly learn how the Delete key works here and what are the possible combinations with other keys.

However, while listed in this article (recent, Oct. 2016): https://medium.com/productivity-freak/macos-keyboard-shortcuts-41c8184f65a6 the combination fn + + delete doesn't seem to work. I tested in Notes, as well as Google Chrome (I thought at first it was a bug in Chrome).

I'm using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 (16F73) with an AZERTY keyboard (French layout).

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    I think that page is wrong. When I use it, it deletes the next word, not until the end of the line.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jan 28 at 20:23

3 Answers 3

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I don't know why it gives that shortcut, but try control-k.

See https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201236

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  • Thanks but this doesn't work, either in Notes, Google Chrome, or Eclipse.
    – maxxyme
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 11:58
  • Please be more specific. I tested it myself before posting this. I also did it on the AZERTY keyboard just now, worked fine. Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 12:15
  • OK just realised I understood ⌘ instead of Ctrl. My bad. So it works in Notes and Chrome, not in Eclipse (but that's quite understandable due to the high customisability of the commands).
    – maxxyme
    Commented Aug 1, 2017 at 21:25
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"delete" in this article refers to the backspace key (← or ⌫) not the actual delete key (⌦).

So the combination your are searching for is ⌘ fn ⌫ or alternatively (if your keyboard has a number pad) ⌘ ⌦.

Note however that although these are system wide key commands, there are some 3rd-party applications that don't support them.


EDIT: The article also got some combinations wrong. It's ⌥ ⌫ for deleting the last word and ⌥ ⌦ or ⌥ fn ⌫ for deleting the next.


EDIT2:

It seems like ⌘ ⌦ and ⌘ fn ⌫ AREN'T system wide key commands (if that is a thing). They don't work in TextEdit or Pages BUT they do work in some other applications such as Apple's Xcode or TextWrangler.

Nonetheless you can achieve the same behaviour by using ⌘ ⇧ → (left arrow key) to select the text to the end of the line and then deleting it. This also works for words with ⌥ instead and for single characters with only ⇧.

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  • Well, as I've got a MacBook Pro, I don't have any numpad. And btw the "delete" key is actually the backspace key (with a ←). Indeed ⌥ ⌫ does delete the previous word and ⌥ fn ⌫ the next word. But while ⌘ ⌫ deletes forward(?) to the start of the line, ⌘ fn ⌫ does nothing.
    – maxxyme
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 12:05
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    @maxxyme Yeah, naming is a bit confusing. While in my native language keyboard layout it only says "delete" on the ⌦ key, on the US layout they are both called "delete". But it seems like Apple calls ⌦ "forward delete". ⌘ ⌫ deletes backwards to the start of the line for me. For ⌘ fn ⌫ see my edited answer above.
    – YourMJK
    Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 13:55
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You can use ⌃d (Control+d, not ⌘ command), to delete a character to the right of your cursor. And ⌃h to use as a delete.

I don’t know, why globe button doesn’t work as fn in “fn+delete”, but ⌃d worked for me.

Source:

Control-H: Delete the character to the left of the insertion point. Or use Delete. Control-D: Delete the character to the right of the insertion point. Or use Fn-Delete. https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201236

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