alt+left or alt+right doesn't work for me in Terminal out of the box (I usually ...

DougBTX · on Nov 12, 2011

Ah, my bad, I must have set that up myself.

According to this[1] stack overflow post, the vim key bindings for move back and forward work by default (which is news to me), or you can set up the alt left and right behaviour by following the instructions here[2].

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/81272/is-there-any-way-in...

[2] http://blog.macromates.com/2006/word-movement-in-terminal/

runlevel1 · on Nov 12, 2011

1) Go to the Terminal menu > Settings, click the Settings pane.

2) Select your preferred theme (left). It's probably the one listed as "default."

3) Click the Keyboard tab.

4) Click the "+" button to add a new Key to Action mapping.

• Key: cursor left

• Modifier: option

• Action: send string to shell:

• In the blank blank space: \033b

  Note: This is the ESC key followed by a lowecase “b“.

• Click OK.

5) Click the "+" button to add a new Key to Action mapping.

• Key: cursor right

• Modifier: option

• Action: send string to shell:

• In the blank blank space: \033f

  Note: This is the ESC key followed by a lowercase “f“.

• Click OK.

comex · on Nov 13, 2011

Or just click the "option as meta" checkbox!

brown9-2 · on Nov 14, 2011

Thanks. Interestingly enough in iTerm2 this option is worded as "Left/Right option key acts as +Esc" rather than "Meta"

X-Istence · on Nov 12, 2011

It works for me right out of the box on a brand new Lion install. No settings have been changed yet.

brown9-2 · on Nov 12, 2011

Didn't realize that "alt" here meant the "esc" key.

X-Istence · on Nov 13, 2011

I am talking about the "alt/option" key on the keyboard. No "esc".