Is there a backspace key on the Mac?

[Macwillis]

My guess is that you have a notebook and are surprised to find a key marked delete in the position one would ordinarily find a Backspace key (on a Windows machine).

Note that the delete key will work like a backspace. If you want to use it as a traditional delete key, simply use it in tandem with the function key.

ive been a mac user for just over 12 months now and i didnt know about fn+backspace for Del.

cheers, not that i ever make mistakes of course

 

[SJTV1]

Welcome to the Mac platform.

The key you describe, often represented by the ⌫ symbol, is the Delete key. On US English keyboards, it is labelled with the word Delete. On international keyboards, it is labelled with the language-neutral left-pointing arrow.

Nothing to do with platfor. It was backspace 20 years ago on minframes, was backspace on first personal computers and stil is a backspace ...
If it was a proper delete key then it would, for example, delete contents of selected Excell cells - but it does not. You need fn+ to do that (ie dlete key) ...

Anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backspace

 

[technologist]

Nothing to do with platfor. It was backspace 20 years ago on minframes, was backspace on first personal computers and stil is a backspace ...
If it was a proper delete key then it would, for example, delete contents of selected Excell cells - but it does not. You need fn+ to do that (ie dlete key) ...

Anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backspace

It has everything to do with the platform.

The Wikipedia article you listed is entirely correct...it talks about the Backspace key on PCs and most every other computer. It does not apply to the Macintosh because...the Mac does not have a backspace key! It does have a pair of Delete keys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delete_key

On the Mac, that key is the Delete key. Regardless of what you called the key in that position on your Dell, your dad's PDP-11, your grandfather's Smith Corona typewriter, or your great-grandfather's printing telegraph. On a Mac, it's the Delete key.

Really.

I'm not making this up, and I'm not trying to pull one over on you.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304720

Press Delete key to backwards delete. For Mac notebooks, press the Function (fn) and Delete key to forward delete.

 

[ki99]

The arrangement makes sense, but separate keys would have been a nice touch

Just for reference, the only reason there is not a separate key, is because it is a laptop. There is a separate delete key on a normal keyboard also labeled 'delete'

 

[The Vindicat3d]

It doesn't matter if it does indeed backspace the name of the key is delete... it is the delete key, that is it's name maybe not on a dell but on a mac the key in that position that backspaces and deletes is called the delete key.

 

[SJTV1]

As omputers existed long before any Win/Mac split, and backspace was backspace then, it is still now, even if Apple calls and labels it wrong ...

 

[Dysfunction]

Maybe they should have all just labeled it ^h


Personally, I don't think it matters.

 

[SJTV1]

Neither do I ... So let's just drop the subject. Thread hijack has been succesfull anyway ...