Bash keyboard shortcuts in iTerm, such as Alt + d and Alt + f

Question

Everyone at work recommended iTerm2 instead of my own terminal. But iTerm2 doesn't seem to allow me to use bash shortcuts like Alt + B and Alt + F to go back / forth between tokens or Alt + D to delete a word.

I can’t imagine that this is not available. Can anyone help me out?

Answer 1

The Option key (Mac name for the Alt key) has other functions by default. Press Command + O to open the profile list, select "Default" (I assume that this is the profile that you are using) and click "Edit Profiles ...". In the window that appears, click the "Keys" tab and select "+ Esc" for one or both of the optional keys. This should make iTerm handle the Option key the way you are used to.

Alternatively, you can simply use the Escape key.