Can the Delete key be made to delete text while editing Photos captions?

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Level 1

10 points

Can the Delete key be made to delete text while editing Photos captions?

After upgrading my Mini and going from Catalina to Ventura, I was irritated to find that while editing a Caption on a photo (what used to be called a Description in Catalina's Photos), the Delete key deletes the entire selected photo, not the character to the right of the text cursor, like it used to do in Catalina. When editing text in other applications (Numbers, Pages, Notes, etc.), the Delete key deletes text as you'd expect, but not while editing text in Photos.

Is there a way to return the Delete key's behavior while editing text in Photos to how it worked in Catalina?

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 27, 2022 06:00 PM

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Answer 1

ParaDara

Level 1

10 points

Jan 6, 2023 06:00 AM in response to qwertyz12

I have exactly the same problem in MacOS with Apple Photos using a standard iMac running Ventura 13.0.1. When using "Get Info" to edit a title, "BackSpace" (cursor behind letter) correctly deletes the character whereas using "Delete" (cursor before letter) deletes the photo which I then have to recover from "Recently Deleted".

This only happened with a recent MacOS upgrade. Please Apple - revert to the previous functionality or, at the very least, pop up a dialog box asking "Do you really want to delete this photo"!

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Answer 2

UTBadger

Community Specialist

Dec 28, 2022 05:54 PM in response to qwertyz12

Hey qwertyz12,

Sounds like you might need help understanding what options are available in Photos on Mac to edit information associated with your photos and videos such as titles, captions, etc. The following information from the Photos User Guide may be of help in better understanding how things work and what options are available on the latest software:

View and add information about photos

You use the Info window to view or change information about photos.

1. In the Photos app on your Mac, double-click a photo to view it, then click the Info button in the toolbar, or press Command-I.

2. Edit any of the following:

• Title: Enter a name in the Title field at the top of the Info window.

Tip: To quickly add titles to photos right in the main Photos window, choose View > Metadata > Titles, click the field that appears under a photo when you hold the pointer over it, then type a name.

• Caption: Enter a caption in the Caption field.

• Favorite: Click the Favorite button to mark the photo as a favorite (the photo appears in the Favorites album). Click the button again to unmark it.

• Keywords: Enter keywords in the Keywords field. As you type, Photos suggests keywords that you’ve used before. Press Enter when you’ve finished a keyword.

To remove a keyword, select it and press Delete.

• People: Click the Add button and type a name to identify a person.

To identify multiple people in a photo, click the Add button and drag the face identifier over each person you want to identify.

• Location: Enter a location in the Location field. You can also copy and paste location information. To change the location, search for a different location or drag a pin on the map. (You can’t assign a location if your computer is not connected to the internet.)

All this is outlined in more detail here: Add titles, captions, and more to photos using Photos on Mac

If you have any feedback or feature requests you'd like to make, you can submit that here: Product Feedback - Apple

We hope this helps out.

Take care!

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Answer 3

Dec 30, 2022 10:24 AM in response to qwertyz12

Double checking: If you click on a photo and hit delete, it removes the picture from the album.

If you click in the Caption/Description field, then delete removes the character to the left of the cursor.

Is this not right? What happens if you click in the Title field? Is that different?

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Answer 4

qwertyz12 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 31, 2022 08:55 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Sorry, I probably added some confusion in my original question. I'm using a PC keyboard (KVM switched with a Linux PC), so the key labels differ from Mac keyboard key labels. It looks like on a Mac keyboard, what I called "Delete" is labeled as "del", the lower-left key in the 3x2 set of keys including fn, home, page up, del, end, page down.

Yes, when I click on a photo and hit del (Delete on a PC keyboard), it removes the picture from the album.

If I click in the Caption/Description field where I have written some text, yes, the delete key (PC Backspace) removes the character to the left of the cursor. And it works the same way in the Title field. And that key behaves just as I'd expect, and just as it did on Catalina and many versions prior.

It's the behavior of the del key (PC Delete, see above) that changed somewhere between Catalina & Ventura. If I click on a photo and hit the del key, it removes the picture from the album. No change there. But if I click in the Caption/Description field where I have written some text and hit del, it removes the picture from the album. Same for when I click in the Title field. But in Photos on Catalina and before, hitting del used to remove the character to the right of the cursor, just as it still does in other apps (Pages, Numbers, Notes, etc.). I expected the del key in a text field to still perform text operations, just as the delete key still does. But instead, it removes the photo from the album.

So the bottom line is that it seems to me that the delete key (PC Backspace) changes behavior depending on if you just have a photo selected, or if you're editing text in a text field. But the del key (PC Delete) does not change behavior when editing text in a text field, whereas it used to on Catalina and before.

Again, sorry for the confusion between PC & Mac key labels.

Thanks!

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Answer 5

Dec 31, 2022 09:33 AM in response to qwertyz12

In text apps, a PC's DEL is accomplished with Fn-delete. When I try Fn-delete in Monterey, it does behave same in a text field, but otherwise I get nothing to happen.

Probably you can't expect un-supported keys to always do the same thing. That's kind of the definition of "un-supported," I guess.

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Answer 6

qwertyz12 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 31, 2022 12:35 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

So fn-delete in the Caption/Description or Title removes the character to the right of the cursor for you? If that's the case, I think it's a change between Monterey and Ventura. I don't use Photos much on my MacBook Air, but I am used to using fn-delete on it for other text editing, as there is no del key on the smaller laptop keyboard. I tried fn-delete in Photos there (also running Ventura) and it does not remove the character to the right of the cursor. Unfortunately, it behaves as does del (PC Delete) on my Mini with PC keyboard, removing the photo from the album.

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Answer 7

Dec 31, 2022 01:23 PM in response to qwertyz12

Right-- If the company that made the keyboard guaranteed that it would work on a Mac, you should get our money back.

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Can the Delete key be made to delete text while editing Photos captions?

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