We all have a stock of keyboard shortcuts we use to speed up the work we do on a Mac. But for many of us, they don't extend much further than Cmd-O to open or Cmd-C, -P, or -X to copy, paste, and cut items.
There are hundreds of other keyboard shortcuts available, and while no one needs to memorise them all, having a couple of dozen of them at your beck and call will make your work day a great deal easier.
First, some housekeeping. Long time Mac users still call the key between CTRL and CMD Option. But it's labelled ALT on the keyboard, so we'll use that to refer to it. Now, on with the shortcuts!
1. Finder
To open a new Finder winder, press Cmd-N or to open a new tab in an existing window, tap Cmd-T. To take a picture of the screen, Cmd-Shift-3 or to take a grab of the front most window only, Cmd-Sift-4 then Spacebar while the camera icon is over the window. CMD-Tab calls up the Application Switcher, Tab to move through the apps. And Cmd-Shift-Del empties the Trash.
2. Working with text
To delete a whole word, while the cursor is in front of it, press Alt-Delete. To delete one character forwards, use Fn-Delete. If you unintentionally delete something, tap Cmd-Z to undo. To navigate a word at a time, hold down the ALT key while pressing the forward or back arrows. To jump a paragraph at a time, hold ALT and press the up or down arrow.
3. Problem solving
If an app hangs, use Cmd-Alt-Esc to call up the Force Quit dialog box or press Cmd-Shift-Alt-Esc for three seconds to force quit the front most window. To force a restart or shutdown, press Ctrl and the power button. If you need to boot in safe mode, hold down the S key while booting. Or if you want to boot from a different startup disk, hold down Alt while booting to pull up a list of bootable disks.
4. The Dock and Mission Control
Tap F3 to pull up Mission Control or F4 to show Launchpad. To flip between showing and hiding the Dock, press Cmd-Alt-D. And if you want to find a Dock item in the Finder, Cmd-click its icon in the Dock.
5. Language and accent symbols
To place an acute over a character, press Alt-E then type the character. For a grave, press ALT-`. A circumflex (^) can be typed by pressing ALT-I then the vowel above which you want the circumflex to appear and a cedilla (ç) is ALT-C. An umlaut (ü) can be typed by pressing ALT-U then the letter over which it is placed.
6.. Mathematical symbols
To change the 'equals' symbol to 'not equals' (≠)' ALT-click the '=' key or to make it 'approximately equals' (≈) type ALT-X. To type '±' it's ALT-Shift-=. The symbol for infinity (∞) is ALT-5 and the division (÷) symbol is ALT-? To write 'greater than or equal to' (≥) it's ALT-> and 'less than or equal to' (≤) is ALT-<. Pi (π) is ALT-P; the symbol for a calculus integral (∫) is ALT-B; and the sign for an algebraic function (ƒ) is ALT-F.
The symbol for the Euro (€) is ALT-2 and the hash or pound sign (#) ALT-3.
7. Typographical symbols
The Greek symbol for beta (ß) is ALT-S, Delta (∂) is ALT-D, and Omega (Ω) is ALT-Z. The trademark symbol (™) is ALT-Shift-2, the registered trademark (®) is ALT-R, and the copyright symbol (©) is ALT-G. The Apple logo is ALT-Shift-K.
8. Gestures
Swipe up with three fingers to show Mission Control or swipe left or right with three fingers to navigate between Mission Control windows. In Safari, you can swipe right with two fingers to move backwards or left to move forward again. Double-tapping the trackpad in Safari zooms in on the current tab. Tap three fingers on your trackpad while the cursor is over it to call up the relevant Dictionary and Thesaurus entry.
9. Selecting files
When you want to select multiple files, hold down Shift as you select, for non-contiguous files press CMD and Shift as you select them.
10. Controlling your Mac
To put your Mac to sleep instantly, press CTRL-Shift and the power (or eject) button. To open Sound Preferences, it's ALT and a volume button. And you can make smaller incremental changes in volume and brightness by holding down ALT and Shift as you press the relevant keys.
11. Hidden tricks
The Mac has a secondary clipboard which few people use. You can cut to it using CTRL-K and paste with CTRL-Y. And you can dictate text by double-tapping the 'fn' key.
12. Safari
Type CMD-L from anywhere to go to the address bar ready to type. CMD-T opens a new tab and CTRL-Shift-right arrow navigates tabs. To bookmark a page it's CMD-D and to reload a page, CMD-R.
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