200+ Time-Saving Mac OS X Shortcuts

12.01.2009 | No Comments »
Posted in: Apple | Mish-Mosh

The following list of shortcuts can be quite helpful for new and veteran users alike in navigating around your Mac and making every day tasks a lot quicker and easier.

Common Commands
1 Cmd – C Copy files
2 Cmd – V Paste files
3 Option – Drag Make a copy selected files to new location
4 Cmd – Drag Move and auto – align icons
5 Cmd – Delete Move to trash
6 Cmd – Option – Drag Make alias in new location
7 Cmd – Shift – Delete Empty trash
8 Cmd – Shift – Option – Delete Empty trash without warning
9 Tab Select next field
10 Shift – Tab Select previous field
11 Return Perform default action
12 Escape Close dialog box
13 Page Up Scroll up list
14 Up Arrow Select item above
15 Page Down Scroll down list
16 Down Arrow Select item below
17 Cmd – Shift – G Open ‘Go to Folder’ dialog
18 Cmd – . Close dialog box
Exposé, Spaces, Dashboard & The System
19 F8 Toggle Spaces
20 Shift – F8 Toggle Spaces in slow motion
21 F9 Show all open windows
22 Shift – F9 Show all open windows in slow motion
23 F10 Show all open windows for an application
24 Shift – F10 Show all open windows for an application in slow motion
25 F11 Hide all windows
26 Shift – F11 Hide all windows in slow motion
27 F12 Open/close the Dashboard
28 Shift – F12 Slowly open/close the Dashboard
29 Option – Mouse Hover Reveal the close button of widget in the Dashboard
30 Shift – Click Close Button Animate closing Dashboard widget in slow motion
31 Cmd – H Hide application
32 Cmd – Option – H Hide other applications
33 Cmd – Q Quit application
34 Cmd – Shift – Q Quit all applications and log out
35 Cmd – Option – Shift – Q Log out without warning
36 Cmd – Tab Switch to next application
37 Cmd – Shift – Tab Switch to previous application
38 Option – Drag Adjust volume (on sound volume slider)
39 Cmd – Drag Arrange menu bar items
40 Option – Click Switch window and hide current window
41 Control – Click Open contextual menu
42 Cmd – Control – D See word definition (with mouse hover)
Freezing Issues
43 Cmd – . Stop process
44 Cmd – Option – Esc Open Force Quit Box
45 Hold Power Key Turn off computer
46 Cmd – Option – Shift – Power Key Force shut down
47 Cmd – Control – Power Key Force restart
Full Keyboard Access
48 Control – F1 Turn on/off full keyboard access
49 Control – F2 Focusing menu bar
50 Control – F3 Focusing Dock
51 Control – F4 Move to next window
52 Control – F5 Move to toolbar
53 Control – F6 Move to a floating window
54 Control – F7 Toggle keyboard access mode
55 Control – F8 Focusing status menu in menu bar
56 Cmd – ` Switch to next window within application
57 Cmd – Shift – ` Switch to previous window within application
58 Cmd – Option – ` Move to sidebar
59 Cmd – Option – T Toggle on/off character palette
Finder
60 Cmd – Click on Title See the path enclosing folders
61 Cmd – Double – Click (on folder) Open folder in new window
62 Option – Double – Click (on folder) Open folder in new window and close current window
63 Cmd – 1 Switch to icon view
64 Cmd – 2 Switch to list view
65 Cmd – Option – Right Arrow Expand folder
66 Left Arrow Close folder
67 Cmd – Down Arrow Open selected folder
68 Cmd – Option – Down Arrow Open selected folder in new window and close current folder
69 Cmd – Shift – Option – Down Arrow Open selected folder in new window and close current folder in slow motion
70 Cmd – Up Arrow Show enclosing folder
71 Cmd – Option – Up Arrow Show enclosing folder and close current folder
72 Cmd – 3 Switch to column view
73 Cmd – 4 Switch to coverflow view
74 Cmd – Y Toggle Quick Look mode
75 Cmd – Option – Y Toggle Slideshow mode
76 Cmd – Shift – H Open home folder
77 Cmd – Option – Shift – Up Arrow Move focus to Desktop
78 Cmd – Shift – I Open iDisk
79 Cmd – Shift – D Open Desktop
80 Cmd – Shift – C Open Computer area
81 Cmd – Shift – K Open Network
82 Cmd – Shift – A Open Applications
83 Double – Click on Title Minimize window
84 Cmd – M Minimize window
85 Option – Click on button Apply action to all windows in active application
86 Hold – Scroll Bar Scroll quickly
Spotlight
87 Cmd – Spacebar Activate/deactivateotlight
88 Cmd – Option – Spacebar Openotlight window
89 Cmd – Return Open the top hit
90 Cmd – Down Arrow Move to next category
91 Cmd – Up Arrow Move to previous category
92 Cmd – Click Open selected item in Finder
93 Escape Closeotlight
Print Screen
94 Cmd – Shift – 3 Take snapshot of the whole screen
95 Cmd – Shift – 4 Take snapshot of the selected area
96 Cmd – Shift – 4 – Spacebar Take picture of a window
97 Escape Cancel
98 Holdacebar after Drawing the region Move the selected area
99 Hold Option Resize selected area
100 Hold Shift Resize selected area horizontally or vertically
Dock
101 Drag the separator Resize Dock
102 Option – Drag Resize Dock to fixed size
103 Control – Click Show Dock’s contextual menu
104 Control – Click on icon Show item’s contextual menu
105 Cmd – Click Open the icon’s enclosing folder
106 Option – Click Switch to another and hide current application
107 Cmd – Option – Click Switch to another application and hide all other applications
108 Cmd – Option – Drop Force application to open files
109 Cmd – Option – D Hide/unhide Dock
Universal Access
110 Cmd – Option – 8 Turn zoom on/off
111 Cmd – Option – Equal[=] Zoom in
112 Control – Scroll Up Zoom in
113 Cmd – Option – Hyphen[ - ] Zoom out
114 Control – Scroll Down Zoom out
115 Cmd – Option – Control – 8 Invert color (try this on those iMacs in Apple Store)
116 Control – Option – Cmd – Comma[,] Reduce contrast
117 Control – Option – Cmd – Period[.] Increase contrast
118 Cmd – F5 Toggle VoiceOver
119 Shift – Shift – Shift – Shift – Shift (5 times) Toggle Sticky Keys
120 Option – Option – Option – Option – Option (5 times) Toggle mouse keys
Start Up Actions (Hold While Booting)
121 Shift Prevent automatic login
122 Shift Enter safe mode (hold down after startup tone and release after you see the progress indicator)
123 Shift Prevent opening Login Items (after login)
124 C Boot from CD
125 N Boot from default NetBook disk
126 T Start up in Target Disk Mode
127 Option Select startup disk
128 Cmd – X Start up using Mac OS X
129 Hold Mouse Button Eject removable discs
130 Cmd – Option – P – R Reset parameter RAM
131 Cmd – V Verbose mode (detailed status message)
132 Cmd – S Single user mode
Safari
133 Cmd – Option – F Move to Google Search Box
134 Option – Up Arrow Scroll Up
135 Option – Down Arrow Scroll Down
136 Cmd – Click Link Open in new tab and stay in current tab
137 Cmd – Shift – Click Link Open and go to new tab
138 Cmd – Option – Click Link Open in new window
139 Option – Click Close Button Close other tabs
140 Cmd – Shift – ] Select next tab
141 Cmd – Shift – [ Select previous tab
142 Cmd - Shift - H Go to homepage
143 Cmd - Shift - K Toggle Block Pop - up Windows
144 Cmd - Option - E Empty Cache
145 Cmd - Option - R Reload page without Caching
146 Cmd - F Search term in webpage
147 Cmd - M Minimize Safari
148 Shift - Click Button Animate slow motion effect
149 Cmd - Plus[+] Increase font size
150 Cmd – Hyphen[ - ] Reduce font size
151 Cmd – 0 Original font size
iTunes
152 Return/Space Play
153 Option – Right Arrow Select next album
154 Option – Left Arrow Select previous album
155 Cmd – Right Arrow Play next song
156 Cmd – Left Arrow Play previous song
157 Option – Click on Shuffle Button Reshuffle
158 Cmd – Option – Down Arrow Mute
159 Cmd – E Eject CD
160 Cmd – T Turn on/off visualizer
161 Cmd – F Turn on/off full screen mode
162 Cmd – 1 View iTunes window
163 Cmd – 2 View equalizer mode
Terminal
164 Double – Click Select word
165 Triple – Click Select line
166 Drag item to Terminal Add the complete path to that item
167 Cmd – N Create new shell window
168 Cmd – Shift – N Enter new command
169 Cmd – Shift – K Connect to a server
170 Cmd – Option – S Save text
171 Cmd – Option – Shift – S Save selected text
172 Cmd – I Show terminal inspector
173 Cmd – T Create new tab
174 Control – C Break
Mail
175 Cmd – N New message
176 Cmd – Shift – N Get new mail
177 Cmd – Option – N Open new viewer window
178 Cmd – 0 Open activity window
179 Cmd – Shift – Y Add senders to address book
180 Cmd – E Use selected text to find
181 Cmd – C while selecting message Copy entire text of a message
182 Cmd – Click on upper – right corner toolbar button Switch different toolbar display
183 Cmd – Single Quote['] Increase quote level
184 Cmd – Option – Single Quote['] Decrease quote level
185 Cmd – Shift – E Redirect message
186 Cmd – Shift – F Forward message
187 Hold Option when deleting message Prevent next message from being automatically marked as read
188 Cmd – Shift – R Reply to all
189 Cmd – Shift – B Bounce to sender
190 Cmd – Shift – T Convert message to rich text or plain text
191 Cmd – Left Brace[{] Align left
192 Cmd – Vertical Bar[|] Align center
193 Cmd – Right Brace[}] Align right
194 Cmd – Colon[:] Checkelling
195 Cmd – Semicolon[;] Flag misspelling of selected word
Address Book
196 Cmd – 1 View card and columns
197 Cmd – 2 View only card
198 Cmd – 3 View directories
199 Cmd – Right Bracket[']‘] Next card
200 Cmd – Left Bracker['['] Previous card
201 Cmd – Vertical Line[|] Merge selected cards
202 Cmd – Backslash[\] Set as company card
Front Row
203 Cmd – Esc Open/close Front Row or return to previous menu
204 Spacebar, Return Select item in a menu
205 Up Arrow, Down Arrow Change volume
206 Right Arrow, Left Arrow Go to next or previous selection


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  1. Vietnam software development May 25th, 2010 at 4:24 am

    Wow, thanks for posting this.

    It help me a lot in using my MAC.
    I will spend too much time to learn these shortcut.

    Thanks again.

  2. Evan May 25th, 2010 at 10:33 am

    Glad you find this useful, thanks for reading!

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