Keyboard shortcuts

Pressing modifier keys on their own does nothing.

Modifier keys:

Hold them down and then press another key – that's when magic happens.

You have been using one of them for for ages

Shift

This is how you type capital letters and all punctuation already.

By pressing a combination of keys, you can do things that normally need a mouse, trackpad, or other input device.
It takes time and effort, but keyboard is twice as fast mouse will ever be.

Any application

Action Keystroke
Show App's Preferences
CMD
,
Quit App
CMD
Q
Hide current App
CMD
H
Hide all other Apps
CMD
alt
H
Find text in current window or app
CMD
F
Will let you start typing text to search for
Find next occurrence of text
CMD
G
Will highlight next occurrence

Windows

Action Keystroke
New window or document
CMD
N
Close active window
CMD
W
Close all App windows
CMD
alt
W
Switch between apps While holding
CMD
, press
TAB
once:
  • keep pressing
    TAB
    to scroll right
  • press
    Shift
    TAB
    to scroll left
  • press
    ←
    or
    →
    keys
  • aim with the mouse
Show the Desktop
CMD
F3
Press it again to return to where you were
Show all open windows of all applications
CTRL
↑
Press it again to return to where you were
Show all open windows of current application
CTRL
↓
Press it again to return to where you were

Finder

Action Keystroke
Change Finder views
CMD
1
Icon view
CMD
2
List view
CMD
3
Column view
CMD
4
Cover Flow
Switch to next window
CMD
~
Switch to previous window
Shift
CMD
~
See where the File/Folder is located (a menu will pop-up displaying the folder hierarchy). Works in most programs, including the Finder.
CMD
on name of the window (in the titlebar)
Move a window in the background without switching to it.
CMD
– Drag on the window’s titlebar
Move or Remove item in toolbar (at the top of the window). Works in most programs.
CMD
– Drag

Files and Folders

Action Keystroke
Select a file Type first few letters of it's name
N
A
M
E
Select next or first file
TAB
Select previous or last file
Shift
TAB
Open Quick Look (Previews most types of files without having to open them)
Space bar
Press it again to close the preview
Show File Info
CMD
I
Show File Inspector
(a single, live refreshing Info window)
CMD
alt
I
then select any files to see the info
Rename the selected file/folder
Return
Press again to confirm
esc
to cancel change
Open Folder in a new Tab or Window (depending on Finder Preferences)
CMD
Open selected folder or the selected file
CMD
↓
Go to parent folder
CMD
↑
Go Back
CMD
[
Go Forward
CMD
]
Duplicate selected files
CMD
D
"copy" will be added to the new file name
Copy and Paste files
CMD
C
, then
CMD
V
Copy and Paste files Exactly
(Keeps original ownership permissions. Requires Admin username & password.)
CMD
C
, then
Shift
alt
CMD
V
Copy files or folder
alt
– Drag file to disk
Move a file instead of copying
(Copies to the destination and removes it from the original location)
CMD
-Drag file to disk
Cancel a drag-n-drop action while in the midst of dragging
esc
Move selected files to the Trash
CMD
⌫
Empty the Trash with warning
CMD
Shift
⌫
Empty the Trash without warning
CMD
alt
Shift
⌫
Undo the last action
Such as rename, move, copy, move to Trash.
It will not undo emptying Trash
CMD
Z
Find Files
CMD
F
In List view, expand a folder
→
In List view, collapse a folder
←
Resize one column to fit the longest file name (Column View) column divider (or the resize widget at the bottom of the column divider, depending on your setup)
Resize all columns to fit their longest file names (Column View)
alt
column divider (or the resize widget at the bottom of the column divider, depending on your setup)

Dock

Action Keystroke
Show/Hide the Dock
CMD
alt
D
Temporarily turn magnification on/off Hold
CTRL
Shift
while moving over Dock icons
Hide all other applications (except the one you're clicking on)
CMD
alt
an App’s icon in Dock
Reveal a Dock item’s location in the Finder
CMD
on the icon in the Dock
Force a file to open in a specific app While dragging the file onto an app’s icon in the Dock, hold
CMD
alt
Force Quit
CMD
alt
esc

Firefox

Action Keystroke
Scroll DOWN
Space bar
Scroll UP Hold
Shift
and then press
Space bar
Switch to next tab Hold
CTRL
and press
TAB
once
Switch to previous tab Hold
Shift
CTRL
and press
TAB
once
Find text in page
CMD
F

Mail

Action Keystroke
New message
CMD
N
Next field
TAB
Previous field
Shift
TAB
Paste and Match Style
so it looks the same as the text you are pasting into
Shift
alt
CMD
V
Send email
Shift
CMD
D

Any text in any app

Action Keystroke
Go to end of line
CMD
→
Go to beginning of line
CMD
←
Go to end of all the text
CMD
↓
Go to beginning of all the text
CMD
↑
Go to end of current word
alt
→
Go to beginning of current word
alt
←
Add
Shift
to the above keystrokes to make a selection to that point
Non-touching (Discontinuous) text selections
CMD
-drag
Select non-linear areas
alt
-drag
Paste and Match Style
so it looks the same as the text you are pasting into
Shift
alt
CMD
V
Display Emoji pop-up (10.9 Mavericks +)
CTRL
CMD
Space Bar

Spotlight search

Action Keystroke
Show Spotlight Search
CMD
Space Bar
Launch selected result
Return
Next result
↓
Previous result
↑
Next section of found results
CMD
↓
Previous section of found results
CMD
↑
Reveal selected item in Finder
CMD
Return
Clear Spotlight Search
esc
clears to do another search.
esc
a second time closes Spotlight

Troubleshooting

Action Keystroke
Force Quit - displays a list of running apps
alt
CMD
esc
All other commands here are used after restart startup chime
Force shutdown Hold for 5 seconds and computer will shutdown
Choose Startup disk Hold
alt
until you see list of available startup disks
Diagnostic mode Hold
D


Will run built in tools checking main hardware components of your computer
Target mode Hold
T


You can attach your computer to another computer as an external drive
Parameter RAM reset Hold
alt
CMD
P
R


Computer will restart and chime.
Keep holding...
Let go after 3rd chime
Safe boot Hold
Shift
until you see Apple logo

All extensions will be disabled, most caches will be cleared
Start up in Verbose mode Hold
CMD
V
until text starts pouring

See what the system is doing during the startup
Start up in Single-User mode Hold
CMD
S


Command prompt only
Type reboot followed by
Return
to end single-user mode and restart normally.
Start up in Recovery mode Hold
CMD
R
until you see Apple logo

You'll get options to recover your Mac