Some useful shortcut keys can use in Mac OS X.
Screen Capture to disk:
⌘ ⇧ 3 Screen to jpeg file on desktop ⌘ ⇧ 4 + Drag: Selection to jpeg file on desktop ⌘ ⇧ 4 + Spacebar: Window (click camera) to jpeg file
Screen Capture to clipboard:
⌘ ⇧ 3 + Ctrl: Screen to clipboard ⌘ ⇧ 4 + Drag + Ctrl: Selection to clipboard ⌘ ⇧ 4 + Spacebar + Ctrl Window (Camera effect)
Dock /Switch Applications
⌘ ⌥ D Show/Hide Dock ⌘ Tab Switch applications ⌘ ` Switch between document Windows in current application ⌥ Dock Switch application, hide previous one ⌘ Dock Switch application, hide all others Ctrl ⌥ ⌘ * Toggle Monochrome Hi Visibility ⌘ +drag will prevent dock icons from moving out of the way (useful when dragging items to the trash)
Apple Finder
⌥ + Drag Explicit COPY (will copy even if destation is on same volume) ⌘ + Drag Explicit MOVE (will move even if destation is on different volume) ⌘ ⌥ + Drag Make alias in new location ⌘ D Duplicate ⌘ L Make Alias ⌘ R Show original ⌘ O Open item ⌘ ↓ Open item ⌘ S Save ⌘ ⇧ S Save as ⌘ N New Finder window ⌘ ⇧ N New Folder ⌘ Q Quit Application ⌘ W Close Window ⌘ ⌥ W Close all Windows ⌘ I Get Info ⌘ ⌥ I Super Get Info (change whatever you click on) ⌘ ⌥ Y Toggle Slideshow mode (show selected graphic files full-screen) ⌘ P Print ⌘ T Add to Favorites ⌘ Delete Move to Trash ⌘ E Eject ⌘ F Find ⌘ ~ Cycle finder windows (including desktop) Tab Highlight next item ⌘ + double-click folder icon will open in new window ⌘ + ↑ Move up one directory ⌘ + [ go back ⌘ + ] go forward ⌘ ⇧ A Open Applications Folder ⌘ ⇧ U Open Applications/Utilities/ Folder ⌘ ⇧ H Open Home Folder ⌘ ⇧ K Go to network ⌘ K Connect to server ⌘ ⇧ G Go to folder... (type full path) ⌘ ⇧ ⌫ Empty Trash (Finder Menu ) ⌘ ⇧ ⌥ ⌫ Empty Trash without dialog Finder-Hide App: ⌘ H Hide Application ⌘ ⌥ H Hide other applications Hide all other apps*: ⌥ ⌘ + click on dock icon ⌥ ⌘ + click inside app window Hide all other apps that are in front*: ⌥ + click dock icon (of running app) ⌥ + click inside app window *Some older (pre-intel) apps may struggle with these
Terminal
⌘ left/right arrow Switch windows
⌘ 1 Switch to 1st terminal window ⌘ 2, ⌘ 3... Switch to 2nd, 3rd window
Spotlight
⌘ Spacebar Activate/deactivate Spotlight ⌘ ⌥ Spacebar Open Spotlight window ⌘ Return / ⌘ Click Open the top/next item ⌘ ↓ / ↑ Move to next/previous category
Editing Text (email, TextEdit etc)
⌥ ← Move one word left ⌥ → Move one word right Control A Beginning of Sentence (Home) Control E End of Sentence(End) ⌘ ← Beginning of line ⌘ → End of line ⌘ ⌥ T Toggle character palette on/offScroll one page up (cursor retains position)
Scroll one page down (cursor retains position) ⌥
Move one page up (reposition cursor) ⌥
Move one page down ⌘ ↑ or
Scroll to beginning of document ⌘ ↓ or
Scroll to end of document Add shift key ⇧ to the above to also select the text. ⌥ ⌫ Delete word ⌥ Del Delete next word ⌘ ⇧ . Show hidden files in open and save dialogs (Snow Leopard only) ⌘ ⇧ / Open Application Help (Search) ⌥ Scrollbar Jump to exact scrollbar location ⌥ Scrollbar arrows Scroll page at a time (page up/down) ⌥ Volume up/down Open Sound preferences Control ⇧ Eject Turn display off (brightness=0) ⌥ Brightness up/down Open Display preferences
Shutdown/Logoff:
POWER Sleep now POWER Hold for 10 seconds (force shut down) Ctrl Eject Restart, Sleep, Shutdown dialog box
Ctrl ⇧ Eject Sleep the display now ⌘ ⌥ Eject Sleep the computer now ⌘ Ctrl Eject Quit all applications and restart ⌘ ⌥ Ctrl Eject Shut down the computer now (Graceful Shutdown) ⌘ ⌥ Esc Force Quit menu - selectively force quit applications ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ Esc Hold for three seconds to Force Quit the foremost application (Leopard/Snow Leopard) ⌘ .(period) Stop a process ⌘ Ctrl+power Immediate restart (dangerous, only use if the system is frozen)
Log out:
⌘ ⇧ Q Log out (Apple Menu) ⌘ ⇧ ⌥ Q Log out immediately (Apple Menu)
During Startup:
Shift Safe Boot mode - Press shift asap AFTER the startup chime ⌘ V Start up in Verbose mode. ⌘ S Start up in Single-User mode (command line) X Force OS X startup ⌘ ⌥ ⇧ ⌫ Bypass primary startup volume (will seek DVD or external disk) C Start up from a CD (if it has a system folder) D Start up from first partition N Attempt to start up from a network server(NetBoot) R Force PowerBook screen reset T Start up in FireWire Target Disk mode Option Select startup disk ⌘ ⌥ P R PRAM Reset - Hold down Cmd-Option-R with your left hand, then press POWER to start up and immediately press P with your right hand. See KB 2238 At the prompt you can type: reset-nvram and/or reset-all ⌘ ⌥ O F Open Firmware ⌘ E Eject CD (press during/after startup chime) mouse Eject CD (hold mouse button down during startup)
⌘ is the Command or Apple key
⌥ is the Option or Alt key
⇧ is the Shift key
⌫ is the Backspace key
System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse
To change any keyboard shortcuts (including per-application settings) : open Keyboard Shortcuts and press [+]
To reset to defaults, open Keyboard Shortcuts and press [Restore Defaults]
To enable keyboard control in dialog boxes: Keyboard > Full Keyboard Access=All Controls
Full keyboard access will allow you to use Tab,Shift-Tab,Enter, Esc and the Space bar to navigate a dialogue box.
Function Keys
F8 Toggle Space
F9 Show all open windows
F10 Show all open windows for an application
F11 Hide all windows
F12 Open/close Dashboard
Add ⇧ to the above F.Keys for a slow-motion effect
Emacs style shortcuts
Ctrl+H: Backspace delete (right-to-left)
Ctrl+D: Forward delete (left-to-right)
Ctrl+K: Kill / delete text between cursor and the end of the line
Ctrl+U: Delete current line
Ctrl+T: Transpose two characters (typo)
Ctrl+A: Beginning of line (Home)
Ctrl+E: End of line (End)
Ctrl+B: Back (left) one character
Ctrl+F: Forward (right) one character
Ctrl+N: Next line down
Ctrl+P: Previous line up
Ctrl+V: Page down
‘Command + Tab’ cycles through Applications,
‘Command + ~ (tilde)’ cycles through an individual Applications windows”
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