Mac OS hotkeys. Using hotkeys Windows, Mac OS X

Despite the most convenient trackpads and mice, experienced Mac users prefer to use hotkeys. Over time you will learn dozens various combinations, but for now remember the most basic ones.

First, let's recall the names and designations of the modifier keys on Mac keyboard, whose symbols in different generations computers are slightly different and may be unfamiliar to newbies.

• ⌘ - Command, Cmd.
• ⌥ - Option, Alt.
• ⌃ - Control, Ctrl.
• ⎋ - Escape, Esc.
• ⏏ - Eject.

Terminating the application

Unlike Windows, macOS applications can have multiple windows, so closing a window does not mean exiting the application. To terminate any application in macOS, use the ⌘Q keyboard shortcut.

Closing the active window

This is also why the ⌘W shortcut exists. It allows you to close the current program window without stopping the application as a whole.

Opening a new tab

Many applications support multiple tabs. This way you can avoid cluttering the screen and open just a tab instead of new windows. The key combination ⌘T is responsible for this action.

Switching applications

To switch between running applications on macOS it uses the shortcut ⌘⇥. Pressing once will take you back to previous application, and pressing ⇥ while holding ⌘ will open the switch panel itself. You can use the navigation arrows to switch between applications within the panel.

Call Spotlight

Spotlight search is rightfully considered one of the most useful features of macOS X. You can open it from the menu bar, but it is much more convenient to do this using the keyboard shortcut ⌃Spacebar.

Force termination of the application

It doesn't happen often, but it happens that applications freeze. In this case, they can be terminated forcefully by calling the termination menu by pressing the ⎋⌥⌘ keys, which are analogous to Ctrl + Alt + Delete in Windows.

Copy, paste, undo input

⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘Z

Hotkeys for cut, copy, paste and undo in macOS differ only in the modifier key - ⌘ is used instead of Ctrl. Otherwise, the keyboard shortcuts are similar: ⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘Z.

Search by document or site

macOS makes great use of searching for specific words or phrases in apps - this can be open page in Safari or any document. To find text inside a document or website, you must use the combination ⌘F.

Quick View in Finder

Quickly viewing documents and images is probably the simplest, but also incredibly useful feature macOS is. It works just as simply. To view a file, you just need to select it and press Space.

Shutdown

You can put your Mac to sleep, reboot, or shut down through the  menu. But this is done much faster from the shutdown menu, which is called up by the keyboard shortcut ⌃⏏. In this case, on a MacBook, instead of pressing the ⏏ key, you should press the power button.

Use these keyboard shortcuts to speed up your Mac experience, or make it a little more enjoyable. Many hotkeys work similarly to Windows, with the only difference being that in OS X Command and Option are involved. Some combinations have no analogues in other operating systems.

So, let's look at the hotkeys for working on a Mac, grouping them by meaning for convenience. Remember that Option is the alt key.

Press Ctrl + Space to open a line Spotlight search. Same as clicking the search icon on the right top corner screen.

Quickly close applications

Press Command + Option + Escape to open the Force Quit Programs dialog box.

Here you can quickly close several applications or resolve an issue with a frozen program. This keyboard shortcut is equivalent to pressing Ctrl + Alt + Escape in Windows to open the Task Manager.

Force closing an application

The hotkey combination Ctrl + Shift + Option + Escape is useful if you need to force close the active program when it is frozen, and the quick close dialog cannot be called up. Press and hold the keys for three seconds and OS X will force close the program. Of course, you may lose all unsaved data.

Browsers

All popular browsers have standard hotkeys that work equally well on Mac and Windows. The difference on the Mac is that instead of pressing the Ctrl key, you can press Command, and instead of Win, you can press Alt.

• Command + F – opens search by current page(this hotkey works in other applications too);
• Command + Left Arrow – On previous page;
• Command + right arrow – forward one page;
• Command + T – opens new tab;
• Command + W – closes the current tab;
• Command + L – moves the cursor to address bar browser so you can start typing a search phrase or website address;
• Ctrl + Tab – switch between open tabs;
• Ctrl + Shift + Tab – switch between open tabs in the opposite direction.

Command + F – opens search on the current page

These are the most popular browser hotkeys. If you want to know large quantity– we recommend that you familiarize yourself with reference guide browser.

Editing text

Everything here is similar to the hot keys in Windows, again the difference is in pressing Command instead of Ctrl.

• Command + A – select all;
• Command + X – cut;
• Command + C – copy;
• Command + V – paste;
• Command + S – save;
• Command + Z – Undo last action;
• Command + Shift + Z – repeat the last action;
• Command + left arrow - go to start current line;
• Command + right arrow – move to the end of the current line;
• Option + left arrow – moves the cursor to the left one word;
• Option + right arrow – moves the cursor to the right one word;
• Option + Delete – delete the word to the left of the cursor.

Just like in Windows, you can perform these actions while holding down the Shift key. For example, the combination Shift keys+ Option + left arrow will highlight all previous words.

Managing open applications

• Command + Tab – move through the list of open programs (this is similar to Alt + Tab on Windows);
• Command + Shift + Tab – move through the list of open programs in reverse order;
• Command + Q – close the current application (similar to Alt + F4 in Windows);
• F3 – Opens Mission Control to show all open applications;
• Ctrl + left arrow – move one desktop to the left;
• Ctrl + right arrow – move one desktop to the right.

Taking screenshots on Mac

If you want to take a screenshot of the entire screen, then press Command + Shift + 3.

You can also press Command + Shift + 4 and a selection box will appear to take a photo of just the part of the screen you want. It is not visible in the screenshot below, but in the lower right corner the width and height of the selected area in pixels is displayed.

If you press the spacebar after pressing the combination, a camera icon will appear with which you can select active window and take a photo of it. The window will be saved with a translucent shadow (the display of shadows in screenshots can be disabled via the terminal).

In all cases, the above screenshots will be saved to your desktop. If we add to these combinations Ctrl key(for example Command + Shift + Ctrl + 3), the screenshot will be placed not on the desktop, but on the clipboard.

And the last one...

After I bought a Mac, I for a long time not enough Delete keys– it simply doesn’t exist on the keyboard and there is no analogue. However, there is a way - this is a combination function key Fn + Backspace.

These are not all OS X hotkeys; listing them all is simply pointless. We showed only the main ones that we ourselves regularly use. What hotkeys, besides those listed above, do you use?

Hello dear friends! Frankly, I’ve been planning to write this article for a long time and finally got around to it. This is more likely not even an article, but let’s say “a guide to hotkeys for a Mac driver.” I myself am so used to using hotkeys that sometimes I look askance at people who, for example, close a program or browser tabs with the mouse, rather than the usual Command+W 🙂

But seriously, knowing even basic shortcuts can save a lot of time and significantly increase the efficiency of your work. Mouse in the direction and let's go.

Brief designations:

fn-function key

Since the article turned out to be quite lengthy, for convenience I decided to make a table of contents:

How to cut, paste, copy on Mac?

The following keyboard shortcuts work in almost all Mac programs and allow you to perform moving operations on all types of files (text, music, folders).

Hotkeys for screenshots

Keyboard shortcuts to change boot options

In this section, you will learn what methods you can boot your Mac using the keyboard. Keep in mind that the keys must be pressed immediately after Mac launcher.

Ending a job or session. Sleeping mode

Hot keys when working in programs

Suitable for most Mac programs.

Effectively work with text using hotkeys

Finder keyboard shortcuts

As you can see, the list turned out to be very impressive and not suitable for everyone; for those who, for example, work a lot with text, it will be useful, but for ordinary users it will be enough to know 15-20 of the following various areas. And for “Photoshop geeks” you can write a separate book :)

Cheasheet utility (bonus #1)

But there is one very smart utility that will always tell you which key combinations are relevant for the program in which you are on this moment you are working, her name is . Using the program is extremely simple, install it and then hold Command until a window like this appears (screenshot, by the way, from Photoshop):

One important point, since you need access to all Mac programs, then it must be given permission during installation:

Now everything is ready to receive hints when working in any program, and in the future the necessary key combinations will be remembered by themselves and you will become keyboard virtuoso.

We assign hotkeys ourselves (bonus No. 2)

It happens that a user often performs the same action and thinks how nice it would be to assign hot keys for it, but what is the actual problem? Let's look at an example.

Assign a shortcut to an action export in a programme View:

Open system settings > keyboard > keyboard shortcuts and look at the screenshot what to do next

In the window that appears, select the program, enter the EXACT name of the action to which we assign a shortcut and set the key combination:

Everything is ready, now the images can be exported using ⌘+⇧+/

And at the end of the article, I want to say once again that Mac OS hotkeys can significantly increase your productivity by focusing on the keyboard.

P.S. I’m sure that I didn’t mention a couple of useful shortcuts, so I’ll be glad if you add to my list in the comments.

Hotkeys are one of the most simple ways expand your capabilities, both for beginners and for experienced users. Keyboard shortcuts help you quickly access various functions, manage running programs and editable content.

Mac OS, like Windows, offers the user a wide range of functional combinations both for everyday actions and for debugging the system.

Using keyboard shortcuts is a universal tool that works on all Apple computers, both MacBooks and desktop PCs. The combinations below are relevant for absolutely all versions of this OS, including OS X.

The keys listed in this section must be known to every user, since they perform actions that are important for the operation of the system and basic interaction with her.

In total, there are five keys in this system designed to create functional combinations:

• “Command” is a key that is analogous to the “Win” button in the device system on a Mac. Clicking it once brings up the main menu, and it is used in most combinations related to basic settings systems. Further in the text – abbreviated “Cmd”;
• “Shift” is a button for temporarily changing case, familiar to users;
• “Option” is a substitute for “Alt” for apple products. Performs almost the same functions, but is also associated with a large number of unique combinations and additional features, more about which below;
• “Control” is another common keyboard element for all types of operating systems;
• “Fn” – system shortcut key specific device, mainly for laptops. Combinations with this button are individual for each specific device, and depend on its model.

  

Normal Operations

When the device starts

Additional functional combinations

In addition to the basic combinations for some programs and launch additional functions and applications, extended combinations are also provided. Such combinations will be useful for users who regularly interact with specific elements of the system and need quick access to them.

Application management

Let's look at the main standard applications, and the key sequences for them. It should immediately be noted that third party programs may have their own functions for standard and additional combinations. Below - only basic facilities, available by default.

Finder

The main manipulations with the tools of a standard search engine are assigned to the following combinations.

Table of hot keys for control in the system file manager Finder.

Spotlight

Only two possibilities are reserved for this program:

Aperture

In this environment, such combinations are used for photo processing.

Table of key combinations for photo processing.

Advanced Options

The developers have provided special combinations, including this button, which help you work more efficiently with the file system.

1. Pressing “Option” while expanding folders opens the entire branch of subfolders.

   

2. This key, in combination with the volume icon, opens a menu for selecting sound devices.

   

3. The combination with the Bluetooth activation button activates a submenu of additional functions for the wireless network.

   

4. The combination of "Option" and the Apple icon gives fast access to information about system characteristics.

   

5. When creating new files, holding this button shows a list of all possible extensions for the saved file.

   

How to assign your own keys

MacOS functionality allows you to create keyboard shortcuts for work and launch individual programs, in order to be able to quickly call up the tools that the user uses most often.

You can set your own combinations in the following way:

Video - Using hotkeys on Mac OS