Macos – How to change word selection separator characters in Mac OS X

macosselection

Depending on your system, the word separator characters change the way you can select/delete a word (e.g. by double clicking on it or using a key combination with your keyboard).

The fact is that I hate the default behavior of OSX.

For example:

Take the following line of code:

obj.attr1.innerAttr

If my cursor is at the end of the line and I press alt+backspace, it will delete everything and not just innerAttr.

I only found some apps (like iTerm) which let you change the word selection separator characters.

Is there a way to change it for the whole system?

Best Answer

The only difference between the two English options (at least in for ASCII characters) seems to be whether period and colon are treated as part of words.

Part of words:

  • '.:_ in Standard
  • '_ in English (United States, Computer)

Not part of the start or end of words:

  • $+<=>^` in Standard
  • $+<=>^` in English (United States, Computer)
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