# Keyboard Shortcuts at the Prompt Home and End jump to either end of the command line, Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right move a word at a time, Ctrl+Backspace deletes a word, Ctrl+Z undoes an edit, Esc clears the line, and Ctrl+Space shows every choice that fits where you're typing. Apprentice · PowerShell · Updated November 10, 2026 ## After this lesson you can - Move along a command line with Home, End, Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right - Fix a command line with Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Z and Esc, and see every choice with Ctrl+Space ## Key takeaways - Home and End jump to the start and the end of the line, so a fix at the far end of a long command takes one key. - Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right move a word at a time. A word ends at a space or at \, - or ., so each folder in a path is a word. - Ctrl+Backspace deletes the word before the cursor, and Ctrl+Z undoes your edits one at a time. - Esc throws the whole line away. Ctrl+Space shows every folder, file or parameter that fits where you're typing. - On a Mac or Linux, Set-PSReadLineOption -EditMode Windows turns these keys on for that window. Grandma turns 80 this fall, and you're making her a photo book. The photos sit four folders deep, so every command is long: the line that copies one picnic photo for editing is 97 characters. Then you spot a mistake near the start. Hold the left arrow and the cursor crawls back a letter at a time; hold Backspace and it eats the good parts too. People who spend their day at the prompt, such as a help-desk tech fixing a PC remotely or a developer on a web server, don't crawl: a handful of keys jump to either end, move a word at a time and delete a word at once. They come from PSReadLine, the part of PowerShell 7 that reads what you type (*Your Command History*). ## The practice folder: a photo book This chapter's lessons share one project: Grandma's photo book, with the originals sorted by year, month and event, the edited copies beside them, and folders for the book and a backup. The photos are empty files with photo names, which is all the keys need. Copy these lines into PowerShell. Running them again is safe. ```powershell $book = "$HOME\terminal-practice\photo-book" 'originals\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0712.jpg', 'originals\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713.jpg', 'originals\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0714.jpg', 'originals\2026\07-july\lake\IMG_0730.jpg', 'originals\2026\07-july\lake\IMG_0731.jpg', 'originals\2026\08-august\birthday\IMG_0815.jpg', 'originals\2026\08-august\birthday\IMG_0816.jpg', 'originals\2026\08-august\birthday\IMG_0817.jpg', 'edited\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0712-edit.jpg', 'edited\2026\08-august\birthday\IMG_0815-edit.jpg', 'edited\2026\08-august\birthday\IMG_0817-edit.jpg' | ForEach-Object { New-Item -ItemType File -Force -Path "$book\$_" } | Out-Null New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$book\book\pages", "$book\backup" | Out-Null Set-Content -Path "$book\notes.txt" -Value 'Photo book for Grandma''s 80th birthday', 'Edited so far: IMG_0712, IMG_0815, IMG_0817', 'Still to edit: IMG_0713 (picnic), IMG_0730 (lake)' Set-Location $book ``` They print nothing when they work, and leave you in the `photo-book` folder. ## Both ends: Home and End **Home** jumps to the start of the line and **End** to the end, as they do in a document. How many birthday photos are there? Type this, and don't press Enter yet: ```text Get-ChildItem originals\2026\08-august\birthday ``` A list of files has a **Count**, the number of things in it, and parentheses with a dot read one property (*Properties and Methods*). Press **Home** and type `(`, then press **End** and type `).Count`. Now press Enter: ```powershell (Get-ChildItem originals\2026\08-august\birthday).Count ``` ```text 3 ``` Wherever the cursor is, Enter runs the whole line. On many laptops, Home and End are Fn with the left and right arrows. ## A word at a time: Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right In between, move a word at a time. **Ctrl+Left** (hold Ctrl, press the left arrow) jumps back to the start of a word, and **Ctrl+Right** forward to the start of the next. For PSReadLine, a word ends at a space and at punctuation such as `\`, `-` and `.`. In a path, each folder is a word, and `07-july` is two: `07` and `july`. ![The line Get-ChildItem originals\2026\07-july\picnic with a mark at each place Ctrl+Left stops, from the end back to the start: picnic, july, 07, 2026, originals, ChildItem and Get, because a word ends at a space, a backslash, a dash or a dot](https://fsdtrainingmedia.blob.core.windows.net/public/images/2026/11/ede56b2e48a74c2d905db7e2fd33e86d.webp) Forget the month in a path, and PowerShell says so: ```powershell Get-ChildItem originals\2026\picnic ``` ```text Get-ChildItem: Cannot find path 'C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\photo-book\originals\2026\picnic' because it does not exist. ``` Press the up arrow to bring the line back, then **Ctrl+Left** once: the cursor jumps to the start of `picnic`. Type `07-july\` right there, and press Enter: ```powershell Get-ChildItem originals\2026\07-july\picnic ``` ```text Directory: C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\photo-book\originals\2026\07-july\picnic Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 8/20/2026 7:30 PM 0 IMG_0712.jpg -a--- 8/20/2026 7:30 PM 0 IMG_0713.jpg -a--- 8/20/2026 7:30 PM 0 IMG_0714.jpg ``` Your dates will be the day you made the files. ## Delete, undo, start over: Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Z and Esc Rehearse the picnic copy with `-WhatIf` first (*Copy and Move: Copy-Item and Move-Item*): ```powershell Copy-Item originals\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713.jpg edited\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713-edit.jpg -WhatIf ``` ```text What if: Performing the operation "Copy File" on target "Item: C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\photo-book\originals\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713.jpg Destination: C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\photo-book\edited\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713-edit.jpg". ``` That's the copy you meant. Press the up arrow, then **Ctrl+Backspace**: it deletes the word before the cursor, `WhatIf`, in one press. The dash is a word of its own, so press Backspace once for it; the space left at the end does no harm. Press Enter, and the copy is made, with nothing printed. Pressed Ctrl+Backspace twice by mistake? The second press takes `jpg -` too, leaving the line ending in `IMG_0713-edit.`. **Ctrl+Z** undoes your last edit, the way it does in a document, and each press undoes one more: ```text Copy-Item originals\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713.jpg edited\2026\07-july\picnic\IMG_0713-edit.jpg - ``` Ctrl+Backspace works wherever the cursor is. To list the edited picnic photos instead of the originals, bring back `Get-ChildItem originals\2026\07-july\picnic`, press Home, then Ctrl+Right three times to land on `2026`. Ctrl+Backspace deletes `originals\`; type `edited\`, and the line is `Get-ChildItem edited\2026\07-july\picnic`. Changed your mind about the whole line? **Esc** throws it away. Nothing you already ran is lost: your history still has it. ## Every choice at once: Ctrl+Space Tab fills in one name at a time (*Moving Around: Set-Location, .. and Tab*), and in *Parameters, Values and Switches* **Ctrl+Space** showed a command's parameters as a menu. Ctrl+Space works for folders and files too. Type `Get-ChildItem originals\2026\07-july\` and press Ctrl+Space: a menu under the prompt shows `lake` and `picnic`. Pick one with the arrow keys and press Enter to put it on the line, as `.\originals\2026\07-july\picnic` (`.\` is "in the folder I'm in", as with Tab). When only one name fits, Ctrl+Space fills it in, as Tab does. ![Windows Terminal running PowerShell 7, with Get-ChildItem originals\2026\07-july\ typed at the prompt and the Ctrl+Space menu underneath offering the folders lake and picnic](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/TODO) **On a Mac or Linux**, PSReadLine starts with a different set of keys (its *Emacs* mode), where Home, End and Ctrl+Space work but Ctrl+Left, Ctrl+Right, Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Z and Esc don't do what this lesson says. `Set-PSReadLineOption -EditMode Windows` switches to this lesson's keys for that window, and *Your Profile* shows how to keep it. A Mac may also keep Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right for switching desktops. Windows PowerShell 5.1 has every key in this lesson. **Try it.** Bring back the `Copy-Item` line with the up arrow, and turn it into the copy for `IMG_0714` without retyping a path: Ctrl+Left to get close to each `0713`, Backspace or Ctrl+Backspace to remove it, then type the new number. Count your keystrokes, then count the 97 characters you didn't type. ## Check yourself 2 questions to try on the lesson page. ## So what Home, End, Ctrl+Left, Ctrl+Right, Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Z and Esc turn fixing a long command from a crawl into a few keystrokes. Pick two to use this week, and add another next week. ## Key terms - [Keyboard Shortcut](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/keyboard-shortcut) - [PSReadLine](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/psreadline) - [Tab Completion](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/tab-completion-powershell) ## Cheat sheets - [Keyboard Shortcuts at the Prompt](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/powershell-keyboard-shortcuts-cheat-sheet) ## Related - [Your Command History](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-command-history) - [Parameters, Values and Switches](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-parameters) - [Predictions and History, Fully Used](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-predictions) - [Did It Work? \`$?\`, \`$LASTEXITCODE\`, \`&&\` and \`||\`](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-did-it-work) Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-keyboard-shortcuts