Bicycle For Your Mind
Useful Keyboard Commands for macOS
Some Keyboard Commands Every Mac User Should Know
These are the basic keyboard commands that you will use a lot.
| Action | Keyboard Command |
|---|---|
| Switch between Launched Applications | ⌘+[tab], hold down the ⌘ key and keep pressing [tab] to move from app to app. ⇧⌘ +[tab] to go back through the list of launched apps |
| Quit Applications | ⌘+Q |
| Close a Window | ⌘+W |
| Copy and Paste | ⌘C and ⌘V |
| Cut | ⌘X. Cut puts the selected data in the clipboard. You can paste it to another location if you want. It is different from the delete key, in that when you delete something, it doesn't get put in the clipboard. |
| Select All Items | ⌘A |
| Find Items | ⌘F |
| Undo and Redo | ⌘Z is Undo. ⇧⌘Z is Redo. |
| Force Quit | ⌥⌘⎋ gives you a list of running apps. Choose the one you want and Force Quit it. [⎋ is the Escape key]. This is useful when an application becomes unresponsive. |
| Move to Trash | ⌘⌫. (⌫ is the delete key). |
| Empty Trash | ⇧⌘⌫. If you want to suppress the "Are you sure?" message use ⇧⌥⌘⌫. |
| Get Info | ⌘I. Choose a file in the Finder and hit ⌘I to get information on it. |
| Preferences | ⌘,. In most applications this will lead you to its preference pane. |
| Spotlight | ⌘␣. That is command and the spacebar. |
| QuickLook | Select an item in the Finder and press the spacebar. |
| Change Windows | ⇧⌘`. This will switch between open windows in an application. |
| Put Display to Sleep | ⌃⇧(power button) or, ⌃⇧⏏ will put the display to sleep. |
| Log Out of User Account | ⇧⌘Q |
| Log Out of User Account Instantly | ⌥⇧⌘Q |
| Quit All Apps and Restart | ⌃⌘⏏ |
| Quit All Apps and Shutdown | ⌃⌥⌘⏏ |
| Force Restart | ⌃⌘ |
| Take a Screenshot | ⇧⌘3 |
| Take a Screenshot of an Area | ⇧⌘4 |
Keyboard Commands for Dealing With Text
These are useful when you are dealing with text in any macOS application.
| Action | Keyboard Command |
|---|---|
| Forward Delete | ⌃D |
| Delete Everything to the Right of the Insertion Point | ⌃K |
| Delete Everything to the Left of the Insertion Point | ⌘⌫ |
| Align Center | ⌘E |
| Align Justified | ⌘J |
| Align Left | ⌘L |
| Align Right | ⌘R |
| Find Dialogue | ⌘F |
| Find and Replace | ⌥⌘F |
| Find Next | ⌘G |
| Find Previous | ⇧⌘G |
| Font Dialog | ⌘T |
| Look up Word in Dictionary | ⌃⌘D |
| Display Spelling and Grammar Window | ⇧⌘: |
| Find Misspelled Words | ⌘; |
Keyboard Commands for Selecting Text
These commands help you in selecting text.
| Action | Keyboard Command |
|---|---|
| Select Up to Start of Word From the Insertion Point | ⇧⌥← |
| Select Up to End of Word From the Insertion Point | ⇧⌥→ |
| Select Up to the Start of the Line From the Insertion Point | ⇧⌘← |
| Select Up to the End of the Line From the Insertion Point | ⇧⌘→ |
| Select Up to Start of the Doc From the Insertion Point | ⇧⌘↑ |
| Select Up to End of the Doc From the Insertion Point | ⇧⌘↓ |
Keyboard Commands for Navigating Within Text
These commands are useful for navigating within your text document.
| Action | Keyboard Command |
|---|---|
| Go to the Start of the Line Where Your Insertion Point Is | ⌃A |
| Go the End of the Line Where Your Insertion Point Is | ⌃E |
| Go to Start of the Doc | ⌘↑ |
| Go to End of the Doc | ⌘↓ |
| Go to Start of the Line | ⌘← |
| Go to End of the Line | ⌘→ |
| Go to the Beginning of the Word | ⌥← |
| Go to the End of the Word | ⌥→ |
How Does One Learn Keyboard Commands?
People have different ways of learning keyboard commands. Some print them out. Some bookmark them on the browser. Some keep the file open all the time. Some make notes and type them out to try to memorize them.
I choose a subset of commands I want to learn and add them to the beginning of my diary file. I write a diary every day. I access it several times a day. The subset is placed at the top of the diary file. I will have the same subset on the top of my individual diary files every day for a week, sometimes more. When I am convinced that I know the commands, I will introduce a fresh subset of commands to the diary file. I insist on using the keyboard commands I have learned. I refuse to go to the menus. If there is a keyboard command available, I want to learn it. It might require several trips to the master file of keyboard commands to refresh my memory but after a while it will become part of my muscle memory. Yes, it sounds like a lot of work, but the performance gains are substantial. Over time, you become productive with the tools you live in.
macosxguru at the gmail thingie