MacBook users: solution to missing forward-delete key

[GippsGirl]

I indulged in a MacBook 12″ a while back, thinking it would be a wonderfully light laptop to carry around for my writing. I was horrified to discover that there is no forward-delete key, only the backspace. Forward-delete is only possible by the simultaneous use of the Function key + backspace. For me, it interrupts the flow when writing and causes no end of frustration.

A computer-savvy friend has recently given me this wonderful solution to remap the § key (which I’m sure is utterly pointless for most of the population). Apple told me this couldn’t be done.

So if you would like to alleviate yourself from the frustration, here is a quick and easy step-by-step solution:

1. Finder
2. Applications
3. Utilities folder
4. Terminal.app
5. Paste the following after the very last item on the screen:

hidutil property –set ‘{“UserKeyMapping”:
[{“HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc”:0x700000064,
“HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst”:0x70000004c}]
}’

6. Make sure to hit return.

The remapping is retained when the laptop is put to sleep, but you will need to remap the key if you turn off altogether, though it takes less than a minute to redo.

• This topic was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by GippsGirl.

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