Standard Mac shortcuts not working in Office

Hi Bob,

As I recall, Mac got these shortcuts with OS X in 2001, inheriting them from NeXTSTEP which in turn inherited them from UNIX, which has used them since at least the 70s. Some programs that originate in UNIX will still use these same shortcuts on Windows too, for example Emacs, which has used them for decades. Which is all to say that these shortcuts didn't come out of nowhere and weren't the result of Apple just being different for difference sake.

Further, Mac and Apple computers have always used command/open apple for their main shortcuts and not ctrl, which before 2001 could be used by other programs for additional shortcuts. What's weird to me is that most applications that exist on both Mac and Windows therefore have a very straightforward translation of shortcuts--shortcuts that use ctrl on Windows (eg. ctrl-c for copy) become command shortcuts on Mac (command-c) which leaves the ctrl shortcuts on Mac in their native OS state. I don't understand why Microsoft seems to be the only company not to follow this pattern, overriding both the command and ctrl shortcuts. For example, other word processing programs (Pages obviously but also LibreOffice and others) follow this simple pattern. I can't comment on why no one else has complained in this forum about it, but I find it hard to believe I'm the only user who finds this frustrating.

I have submitted feedback as you suggested. Thanks.

Cheers,

Eric

Hi,

Sorry if there's some confusion. I'll see if I can clear this up.

As I mentioned, starting in 1977 with the Apple II, Apple has used an "Open Apple" key for application shortcuts, which turned into the "Command" key on the Mac with its introduction in 1984.

However, it was not until 2001 with OSX that Mac introduced the "ctrl" keys from UNIX--which are shortcuts like "ctrl-a" for start-of-line, "ctrl-e" for end-of-line, and "ctrl-d" for right-delete. It made sense to bring these to the Mac, since the main application shortcuts used the "command" key instead of the "ctrl" key as I mentioned. So these are two distinct sets of shortcuts--the command shortcuts (used by applications) and the ctrl shortcuts (universal across Mac OS and brought in from Unix).

Currently, on the Mac if you use a program like Pages, you can use the command shortcuts to do things like save and copy/paste, and still use the UNIX-style ctrl shortcuts for beginning of line, end of line, and so forth.

However, on Microsoft Word the ctrl shortcuts are overwritten to double the command shortcut, which is non-standard behavior on Mac OS and redundant, but I suppose eases the transition of users from Office for Windows to Office for Mac.

I hope that makes sense and let me know if it doesn't.

Sorry the answer isn't more to your liking, but just to set the record straight :-) The Mac Word keyboard shortcuts were established long before there was other software available for the Mac... In fact, Microsoft adopted them when they ported Word to the Windows platform but didn't have a Command key so they had to make some modifications. It wasn't until years later that Apple bucked the system by adopting what you're referring to as the standard shortcuts.

I understand where you're coming from but frankly I've been active in this Community & the News Groups which preceded it for more than 15 years & your message is the first time I've seen that concern expressed. If you submit Feedback as I suggested it may prompt the change.

In Word you can reassign Control+A to the ParaUp command to go to the beginning of the current paragraph but there is no Mac Word equivalent for going to the end of a lparagraph.

The closest is ParaDown which sends the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph [unless it's already in the last paragraph in which case it does go to the end of that paragraph].

Don't overlook using Help> Feedback to plead your case to the development team.

Sigh. This is really dire that this is the best solution.

Dear respected Eric Rosenfield,

Good day! Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to help you.

As per your description, "going to the beginning of a line is ctrl-e and going to the end of a line is ctrl-a" first may I confirm are use general shortcuts in Office for Mac or you create a custom shortcut.

Here is Microsoft article about shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts in Word for Mac OSfor your reference.

Appreciate your patience and understanding and thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Waqas Muhammad