I work as a developer and exclusively use the keyboard for text selection and navigation.
I have to switch between windows and OSX a lot.
Is there any way to make
- the OSX keyboard behave like windows
or - the windows keyboard behave like OSX
particularly when it comes to text editing?
The differences hurt my productivity, because whenever I switch platform, my muscle memory kicks in and will use the wrong combinations on the other OS, which will lead to a wrong caret position at best, or – depending on the program – switched inapp-windows and/or other very undesired behavior which takes even more time to correct at worst.
I would prefer Version 1, because – while i can train my brain to swap, i am used to it more and also the windows-behavior seems "more" standard to me, since it is used on mainstream Linux Desktops as well.
Text editing keyboard shortcuts:
move to the start / end of a line:
Windows: pos1 / end
OSX: ctrl+left / ctrl+right
move to the start / end of the document
Windows: ctrl+pos1 / ctrl+end
OSX: pos1 / end
move to the start / end of the current word
Windows: ctrl+left / ctrl+right
OSX: alt+left / alt+right
(I am happy that the added shift key behaves consistently across platforms, performing selection instead of mere caret navigation)
Bonus question: other keyboard shortcuts:
I already swapped the Command-key with control globally in osx keyboard settings,
to make behavior a bit more consistent (i.e, ctrl+s to save instead of command+s)
However when it comes to navigation between application, this breaks down, because:
Next/previous tab within an application
Windows: ctrl+tab / ctrl+shift+tab
OSX: ctrl+tab / ctrl+shift+tab
Also it does not solve
Next Application
Windows: alt+tab
OSX: command+tab
A solution that also covers this would be even better 🙂
Best Answer
In short, you can't do it. You might get close employing such as Karabiner, Better Touch Tool, AutoHotKey etc, but you will never achieve 100%. You additionally have to fight that not only is Mac a paradigm shift from Windows, but that Terminal-type apps also have a separate set of rules.
TL:DR Learn the differences. Long-term it's better than trying to fight it.
One really good tip to help you learn the difference…
Don't try to use the same keyboard for both. Have a Mac keyboard & a PC keyboard.
Anecdotally, I've been working cross-platform for 20 years, prior to that I was Mac only.
I daily have to work with
The first two are easy, the last two are [comparitively] hard.
A comparison, if you ever drive abroad - it's much easier to drive a rental with the steering wheel on the correct side for the country you're in than it is to take your own car & be on the 'wrong' side of the road. As a Brit, this happens almost everywhere I travel, as we're in the minority in driving on the 'proper' side of the road :P