contenteditable, set caret at the end of the text (cross-browser)

The following function will do it in all major browsers:

function placeCaretAtEnd(el) {
    el.focus();
    if (typeof window.getSelection != "undefined"
            && typeof document.createRange != "undefined") {
        var range = document.createRange();
        range.selectNodeContents(el);
        range.collapse(false);
        var sel = window.getSelection();
        sel.removeAllRanges();
        sel.addRange(range);
    } else if (typeof document.body.createTextRange != "undefined") {
        var textRange = document.body.createTextRange();
        textRange.moveToElementText(el);
        textRange.collapse(false);
        textRange.select();
    }
}

placeCaretAtEnd( document.querySelector('p') );

p{ padding:.5em; border:1px solid black; }

<p contentEditable>foo bar </p>

Placing the caret at the start is almost identical: it just requires changing the Boolean passed into the calls to collapse(). Here's an example that creates functions for placing the caret at the start and at the end:

function createCaretPlacer(atStart) {
    return function(el) {
        el.focus();
        if (typeof window.getSelection != "undefined"
                && typeof document.createRange != "undefined") {
            var range = document.createRange();
            range.selectNodeContents(el);
            range.collapse(atStart);
            var sel = window.getSelection();
            sel.removeAllRanges();
            sel.addRange(range);
        } else if (typeof document.body.createTextRange != "undefined") {
            var textRange = document.body.createTextRange();
            textRange.moveToElementText(el);
            textRange.collapse(atStart);
            textRange.select();
        }
    };
}

var placeCaretAtStart = createCaretPlacer(true);
var placeCaretAtEnd = createCaretPlacer(false);

This (live) example shows a short simple function, setCaretAtStartEnd, which takes two arguments; A (editable) node to place the caret at & a Boolean indicating where to place it (start or end of the node)

const editableElm = document.querySelector('[contenteditable]');

document.querySelectorAll('button').forEach((elm, idx) => 
  elm.addEventListener('click', () => {
    editableElm.focus()
    setCaretAtStartEnd(editableElm, idx) 
  })
)

function setCaretAtStartEnd( node, atEnd ){
  const sel = document.getSelection();
  node = node.firstChild;

  if( sel.rangeCount ){
      ['Start', 'End'].forEach(pos =>
        sel.getRangeAt(0)["set" + pos](node, atEnd ? node.length : 0)
      )
  }
}

[contenteditable]{ padding:5px; border:1px solid; }

<h1 contenteditable>Place the caret anywhere</h1>
<br>
<button>Move caret to start</button>
<button>Move caret to end</button>

Unfortunately Tim's excellent answer worked for me only for placing at the end, for placing at the start I had to modify it slightly.

function setCaret(target, isStart) {
  const range = document.createRange();
  const sel = window.getSelection();
  if (isStart){
    const newText = document.createTextNode('');
    target.appendChild(newText);
    range.setStart(target.childNodes[0], 0);
  }
  else {
    range.selectNodeContents(target);
  }
  range.collapse(isStart);
  sel.removeAllRanges();
  sel.addRange(range);
  target.focus();
  target.select();
}

Not sure though if focus() and select() are actually needed.