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For instance, with:

autoload -U select-word-style zle -N select-word-style bindkey '\ez' select-word-style select-word-style normal zstyle :zle:transpose-words word-style shell 

transpose-words would work with shell words always while all other word widgets would use the normal definition of word, and you could still use Alt+Z to change it (for widgets other than transpose-words).

The default value of $WORDCHARS has *?_-.[]~=/&;!#$%^(){}<>, so includes /, so should be fine for you to transpose paths as long as those paths don't include characters outside of that. That won't work for path that contain things like :, % or are quoted though.

The default value of $WORDCHARS has *?_-.[]~=/&;!#$%^(){}<>, so includes /, so should be fine for you to transpose paths as long as those paths don't include characters outside of that. That won't work for paths that contain things like :, @, ,... or are quoted though.

You'll find a section there that looks like it has been especially written for you which you can adapt to specify how you want transpose-words to behave whenever the cursor is on a filename or in-between words, etc:

Here are some examples of use of the word-context style to extend the context.

 zstyle ':zle:*' word-context \ "*/*" filename "[[:space:]]" whitespace zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:whitespace' word-style shell zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-style normal zstyle ':zle:transpose-words:filename' word-chars '' 

This provides two different ways of using transpose-words depending on whether the cursor is on whitespace between words or on a filename, here any word containing a /. On whitespace, complete arguments as defined by standard shell rules will be transposed. In a filename, only alphanumerics will be transposed. Elsewhere, words will be transposed using the default style for :zle:transpose-words.

In zsh, by default all the widgets that operate on words including the transpose-words one bound by default to Alt+T in emacs mode work on words that are defined as sequences of alnum+$WORDCHARS characters.

The default value of $WORDCHARS has *?_-.[]~=/&;!#$%^(){}<>, so includes /, so should be fine for you to transpose paths as long as those paths don't include characters outside of that. That won't work for path that contain things like :, % or are quoted though.

But you could use the select-word-style framework to change the definition of word on-demand.

If you add:

autoload -U select-word-style zle -N select-word-style bindkey '\ez' select-word-style 

to you ~/.zshrc, then upon pressing Alt+Z, you'll get the choice:

Word styles (hit return for more detail): (b)ash (n)ormal (s)hell (w)hitespace (d)efault (q)uit (B), (N), (S), (W) as above with subword matching ? 

After pressing "return for more detail":

(b)ash: Word characters are alphanumerics only (n)ormal: Word characters are alphanumerics plus $WORDCHARS (s)hell: Words are command arguments using shell syntax (w)hitespace: Words are whitespace-delimited (d)efault: Use default, no special handling (usually same as `n') (q)uit: Quit without setting a new style 

so pressing S would allow you to transpose two shell words (so including those containing quoted spaces or command substitutions...) with Alt+T (or delete one with Ctrl+W, move back one with Alt+B, etc).

In zsh, by default all the widgets that operate on words including the transpose-words one bound by default to Alt+T in emacs mode work on words that are defined as sequences of alnum+$WORDCHARS characters.

The default value of $WORDCHARS has *?_-.[]~=/&;!#$%^(){}<>, so includes /, so should be fine for you to transpose paths as long as those paths don't include characters outside of that. That won't work for path that contain things like :, % or are quoted though.

But you could use the select-word-style framework to change the definition of word on-demand.

If you add:

autoload -U select-word-style zle -N select-word-style bindkey '\ez' select-word-style 

to you ~/.zshrc, then upon pressing Alt+Z, you'll get the choice:

Word styles (hit return for more detail): (b)ash (n)ormal (s)hell (w)hitespace (d)efault (q)uit (B), (N), (S), (W) as above with subword matching ? 

After pressing "return for more detail":

(b)ash: Word characters are alphanumerics only (n)ormal: Word characters are alphanumerics plus $WORDCHARS (s)hell: Words are command arguments using shell syntax (w)hitespace: Words are whitespace-delimited (d)efault: Use default, no special handling (usually same as `n') (q)uit: Quit without setting a new style 

so pressing S would allow you to transpose two shell words (so including those containing quoted spaces or command substitutions...) with Alt+T (or delete one with Ctrl+W, move back one with Alt+B, etc).

See

info zsh select-word-style 

for details (assuming the zsh documentation has been installed on your system (zsh-doc package on Debian and derivatives)).