# Better word selections

**URL:** <https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/better-word-selections/510>\
**Category:** Recipes & Guides\
**Created:** [September 13, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/better-word-selections/510 "2018-09-13T14:18:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![occivink](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/occivink/32/27_2.png) [@occivink](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/occivink)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/better-word-selections/510/1 "2018-09-13T14:18:21Z")

</div>

Because we all have these tricked-out `kakrc`s with hidden gems inside.

I’ll start with this one:

```
map global normal w <a-i>w #select word
map global normal <a-w> <a-i><a-w> #select WORD
map global normal W '"_s.<ret><a-i>w' #subselect words from current selection
map global normal <a-W> '"_s.<ret><a-i><a-w>' #subselect WORDS

```

which repurposes `w` into a word selection mapping.

My reasoning is that the difference between default `e` and `w` is too subtle to warrant having both mappings, and I was never able to tell which I need in which circumstances anyway. So now I only move by words using e and b, which are symmetrical anyway.  
I also think selecting the current word is an incredibly common thing to do, and it deserves a better mapping than the awkward `<a-i>w`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![eraserhd](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/eraserhd/32/15_2.png) [@eraserhd](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/eraserhd)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/better-word-selections/510/2 "2019-05-02T13:26:15Z")

</div>

I have something similar in my Clojure mode… My only problem is that I seem to use `w` in the case when I want to delete leading whitespace, e.g.:

```auto
   thing1
   | thing2

```

What do you do in this case?