New keyboard – pressing fn-key + left/right arrows key doesn’t skip to the beginning/end of line

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I recently got a new keyboard – a Dell WK717. I'm very happy with the keyboard but I've discovered an oddity.

After switching, I've been made aware that I, apparently, make frequent use of pressing the fn-key in combination with the left or right arrow key to skip to either the beginning or end of the line which the cursor is currently on. This shortcut doesn't work with my new Dell keyboard.

The keyboard is connected to my laptop and making use of the same shortcut on the laptop's own keyboard works just fine – the same goes if I connect my old keyboard back up again. It's strictly the new Dell keyboard which doesn't respond the same way.

Dell's support is failing to understand my question and provide any kind of help.

Is there anywhere, where I can force this key combination to act the same way on my new keyboard?

Best Answer

This may not be possible (or at least, not easy) on some keyboards, due to some key combinations using the Function key not being made available at the hardware level. See more information at Assign Home and End to Fn+arrows. To see if your keyboard does have that combination, you can capture and record the keypress in a program like AutoHotKey. The link above has information on how, but I found the first answer here easier to follow.

You might try remapping some other key combination instead. For one example, you could remap Ctrl plus Up/Down arrows instead, e.g. using AutoHotKey. For example, adding this to the AutoHotKey script does that:

; On Ctrl + Up, send home
^up::
    send {home}
    return

; On Ctrl + Down, send to end
^down::
    send {end}
    return

Additional less important info: If you want to add a shortcut for selecting text, you can do something like the following. However, I found this didn't always interact with programs in a way I liked, so I ended up removing it.

; On Ctrl + Shift + Up, send home & highlight text
+^up::
    send +{home}
    return

; On Ctrl + Shift + Down, send to end & highlight text
+^down::
    send +{end}
    return
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