Tech Reflect

Tech Reflect

Share this post

Tech Reflect
Tech Reflect
Click in Terminal window to move cursor

Click in Terminal window to move cursor

Chris Hynes - cricket's avatar
Chris Hynes - cricket
Mar 10, 2017
∙ Paid

Share this post

Tech Reflect
Tech Reflect
Click in Terminal window to move cursor
Share

When editing a document in Terminal, whether it be vi or emacs or your-favorite-text-editor, you can use keyboard commands to move the cursor around.

But unless you’re an expert, the commands can be hard-to-remember and tedious. It’s also not very Mac-like. A little gem in Terminal is that you can option-click inside an editor to move your cursor to that position. In the screenshot below, my cursor was near the bottom of the view and I option-clicked right between “option-click” and “here” in the middle of the document.

Note that this works regardless of whether it’s in insert mode or not (using vi terminology). For example, when I’m in command mode in vi, I can option-click anywhere in any line and type “dd” to delete it.

A simple tip and perhaps obvious to some, but in my experience, I see people waste a lot of time arrowing around or struggle with the text navigation commands of vi and emacs when good old fashioned clicking could help you out.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Tech Reflect to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Christopher Hynes
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share