Leland Batey Text relating to computers

I just bought a new laptop. Sadly, it doesn’t have the keys Home or End, keys I use all the time while writing code. It’s the kind of feature that’s annoying, but not enough to make me not buy the laptop. Here’s how I get back the functionality I need.

1. Install AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey is a program for writing macros in Windows, letting you bind an action to a key event. This is precisely what we want, since it allows us to bind keys to the Home and End buttons.

2. Script the Keys

Here’s the script I wrote to emulate the most common actions I do that use the Home and End keys:

;
; END Key Emulation
;
!\::
SendInput {End}
return

!+\::
SendInput +{End}
return

^!\::
SendInput ^{End}
return

^!+\::
SendInput ^+{End}
return

;
; HOME key emulation
;
!'::
SendInput {Home}
return

!+'::
SendInput +{Home}
return

^!'::
SendInput ^{Home}
return

^!+'::
SendInput ^+{Home}
return

Copy this into your AutoHotkey.ahk, the default script.

Explanation

This scripts the Alt+\ button (alt + backslash) to the End key and the Alt+' button to the Home key. It also covers key combinations such as Ctrl+Home\End or Shift+Home\End. These are quite useful commands for moving to the beginning/end of an entire document or to select till the beginning/end of the line. I use the commands all the time while programming in Sublime Text, and I hope they can help others.