Forward Delete On MacBooks 24

Laptop

Forward Delete On MacBooks

Hey

You have you new MacBook or MacBook Pro and you think its great but there is one problem, you do not no where the forward delete key is. The forward delete is the key near the cursors in that block of 6 or 8 keys. This, as described, deletes the character in front of the cursor. The forward delete does not appear on MacBooks or MacBook Pros but there is a solution, the Function Button.

The function button (Fn) usually located in the bottom left hand corner acts as a secondary key to some buttons. Press this button and the backspace button you gain forward delete.

A great tip to save some time and frustration.


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24 Responses to “Forward Delete On MacBooks”

  1. 1

    Oh man, that´s great. I loved this tip. I´m a new Mac user and I always used more the forward delete key than the backspace key on Windows. Thank you so much!

    Comment By Anonymous on June 12th, at 12:17 am

  2. 2

    Thats no problem took me to find it as well

    Comment By James Powell on June 12th, at 7:48 am

  3. 3

    As a new Mac user, it would have taken me forever to work out that extremely useful little tip.

    Thanks !!

    Comment By Anonymous on October 3rd, at 7:07 pm

  4. 4

    Hope it helps

    Comment By James Powell on October 3rd, at 7:08 pm

  5. 5

    Thank you so much for this tip! I just began to use a Mac six days ago, and the lack of a forward delete was driving me crazy. This is not even described in the list of keyboard shortcuts from Apple. Another thing that drove me crazy was not knowing how to go the beginning or end of the line (Command-arrow, right or left) and to the beginning or end of the file (Command-arrow, up or down). For some reason these shortcuts are not publicized. It took a good deal of research on line to find them.

    Thanks a lot.

    Comment By Sergio11 on December 4th, at 9:59 pm

  6. 6

    Thanks, I’ve been wondering where it was located. This will save me much more time when typing notes in lectures. Keep up the great work, your tips and tricks are very interesting and fun to use.

    Comment By James on September 23rd, at 6:21 pm

  7. 7

    Thanks.

    Comment By admin on September 23rd, at 6:22 pm

  8. 8

    thank you!!!!!

    Comment By Tiffany on September 27th, at 12:23 am

  9. 9

    are you people kidding? this isn’t convenient at all. this is bullshit.
    why won’t apple let us remap all our keys at our own leisure? am i the only one offended by this overlooked function?

    Comment By michael sanchez on November 11th, at 3:56 am

  10. 10

    @Michael, yeah you are the only one offended. A backwards delete is always more useful to me than forwards delete.

    Comment By admin on November 11th, at 9:12 am

  11. 11

    I am a recent switcher and I have the new Aluminium MacBook.
    For some reason the Command+left/right arrow don’t work for me (command+up/down do work).
    Maybe there’s something to do with using “US International” keyboard? (I am from Brazil and our language has a lot of accents, I couldn’t get used to accents in Mac’s standard keyboard layout).
    Any ideas?

    Comment By Mariana on January 31st, at 1:18 pm

  12. 12

    @Mariana I’m not sure really without playing around with your keyboard.

    Comment By admin on February 1st, at 11:11 am

  13. 13

    I have to be honest and say that I’m a writer and hate that I have to press 2 keys in order to forward delete. It absolutely stalls my writing because I have to find the two keys when I write. I love my Macbook Pro, but to be honest the omission of a dedicated forward delete key on the keyboard is horrible and annoying for a writer.

    Comment By Simone Schechter on August 26th, at 9:10 pm

  14. 14

    Great tip, Thank you, it was driving me crazy. My daughter who has a mac did not know, she asked my why I would need to delete forward, lol. Now I have something I can teach her.

    Comment By Robin Hyde on October 7th, at 8:42 pm

  15. 15

    now you can use double command a free download for mac os x and designate a key for forward delete. At least that is what I have read.

    Comment By Robin Hyde on October 7th, at 8:45 pm

  16. 16

    There is software available called “KeyRemap4MacBook 6.4″ This software allows you to add a forward delete to any key on your keyboard. I have used the single back quote key that is below the esc key & above the tab key on my MacBook Pro. The software also helps stabilize and logitech devices that you maybe have trouble with if you are having trouble and can remap many other keys in different ways.

    For me putting the Forward delete in that position is perfect. The forward delete is on the far left side and the backward delete is on the far right of the same row of the keyboard. It is on a key that I never use anyways allows be to use with just one keystroke. This is software I highly recommend.

    Comment By Harrier on February 16th, at 4:12 pm

  17. 17

    I am a recent switcher as well and hte lack of a forward delete is frustrating. Thanks for posting this tip.

    Simone, I do a lot of typing and when I do I am at my desk. I bought the Mac keyboard with number pad and there are forward delete, home, end and pgUp/pgDn keys on the keyboard. Picking that up made my life a lot better.

    Regards!

    Comment By rscrash on July 14th, at 6:23 am

  18. 18

    I just downloaded the latest version of KeyRemap from CNet.com and mapped the FN key to forward delete. Big nuisance corrected. I am editing a book right now and the forward delete is used constantly. I am thrilled. Thanks so much for recommending this.

    Comment By michelle peiser on July 29th, at 12:23 am

  19. 19

    I would never have figured that out. Thanks a bunch, it’s been driving me crazy back space deleting..!!

    Comment By Deepa S on July 29th, at 4:04 pm

  20. 20

    The solution Fn+Delete for the Forward Delete is absolutely silly. I’m a recent switcher from Windows (I use a Macbook Pro 13″). There is a way to program a solution with Shift+Delete keys?

    Comment By guido on October 3rd, at 12:03 am

  21. 21

    I have a new iMac with the aluminum keyboard and function/delete does NOT work for Forward Delete. Now what? I must say I am growing more disenchanted with this transition from PC every day. I have overcome many of my concerns through the various lists of 101 and shortcuts and I realize it is a learning curve but really….why make it more difficult than it needs to be? I may have to switch back to my old clunky keyboard…I have already ditched the nifty looking wireless mouse that eats batteries like cheese. This is a very pretty machine but pretty only gets you so far. HELP!

    Comment By jo on October 9th, at 6:23 am

  22. 22

    I have the same problem as jo, see his posting of October 9th at 6:23am…
    I also have the aluminum keyboard and fn+delete does not forward delete…
    It adds a ‘squilly character’ – see following.
    I’d appreciate any help..

    123~4

    Comment By patrick lynch on April 28th, at 9:34 pm

  23. 23

    Lovely, thank you so much! It will speed my work up.

    Comment By Katharine Waterton on July 14th, at 11:02 am

  24. 24

    Thanks a bunch, i was also getting frusturated by this.

    Comment By Lucy N on September 17th, at 11:10 am

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