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As a software developer, I reckon Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End are almost as widely used on Windows as copy/paste. These jump the cursor to the start/end of a document respectively.

I've never found a reliable alternative on Mac, and also see inconsistency between different apps... Which means I end up scrolling a lot or using PgUp/PgDn.

Is there a a standard shortcut when editing a text file or document, to move the cursor to the start/end? If so what is it? Or maybe there's a way to configure it somewhere?

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For moving the insertion point to the beginning or end of a document and scrolling it into view:

  • ⌘↑ or ⌘↓.

For scrolling to the beginning or end of a document without moving the insertion point:

  • Extended Mac keyboards have dedicated Home and End buttons.
  • All Mac keyboards with a Fn key provide the Fn← and Fn→ key combinations which map, respectively, to Home and End functions.
Note that all of the above behavior is standardized across most Mac apps via system frameworks, but any app is free to override its key-down event handler to behave differently. For example, some apps may choose to move the insertion point when you press Home / End. An application may offer the user a preference or setting that controls this behavior.
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    Command up/down seems to be what I was after. Home/End are very inconsistent between apps. Though I note even the former doesn't work in every case I tried.
    – Mr. Boy
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 10:36
  • The inconsistency hurts. Today I unpleasantly learned that Cmd+Up/Down reorders the slides in Google Slides. So much for non-destructive navigation.
    – Steve Onorato
    Commented Mar 24, 2022 at 10:07
  • @SteveOnorato Yeah, one of a plethora of reasons that I'm not a fan of anything Google produces.
    – pion
    Commented Apr 3, 2022 at 2:02
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So, exists in Word, checked in the Word help:

enter image description here

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    App-specific shortcuts are a huge PITA. Imagine if copy/paste was different in each app :)
    – Mr. Boy
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 10:37
  • @Mr.Boy I find keyboard shortcuts to be better standardized across the Mac than the Lenovo thing work gives me...
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Aug 3, 2021 at 10:43
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According to this support document https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201236

Command Down arrow moves the insertion point to the end of the document, and Command Up arrow moves the insertion point to the start of the document.

That works in TextEdit (the exemplar of MacOS TextView APIs).

Command Home and Command End often work in other apps, such as BBEdit. (Command on Mac being analogous to CTRL on Windows.)

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