Selecting whole word using keyboard only

Question

Suppose that I'm writing some text and the caret is in the middle of a word. I would like to be able to select that word without using my mouse. (Using the mouse, simply double-click on the word.)

I have found the following, but it's kind of clunky:

1) Ctrl + Left arrow to go to the beginning of the word

2) Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow to select the whole word

Is there a better way of doing this?

Answer 1

On OS X, create a file ~/Library/Keybindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with the following content:

{
    "^w" = (selectWord:);
}

If the file already exists, add the second line above within its top-level braces.

Now you can press ^w (Control-W) in any native application (i.e. not Firefox, Eclipse, etc.) to have it select the current word.

You can customize the shortcut, ^ is Control, ~ Option, $ Shift, @ Command.

---

Some applications include menu items for this action. TextMate, for example, uses the ^w shortcut for Edit » Select » Word by default.

Answer 2

There is a better way. AutoHotkey.

http://www.autohotkey.com/

Or if you are in Visual Studios, Ctrl W selects the whole word.