The more that you get used to using shortcuts, when interacting with your Mac, the more you'll crave the ability to use even more. Well Mac OS obliges and there are many, many more useful shortcuts available to you that can help to keep your hands on they keyboard for speed and efficiency.
Standard System Wide Shortcuts
Below we list several standard shortcuts that are available and applicable to most apps.
- ⌘ + N - New document.
- ⌘ + S - Save document.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + S - Save as, or duplicate the document.
- ⌘ + M - Minimise window to the dock.
- ⌘ + F - Find. Opens the find dialog for the application.
- ⌘ + A - select all.
Developer Perogative
Sometimes a developer will change the standard set of shortcuts for their app if they feel there is more utility in doing so, it's worth checking to see if they work, but Apple's interface guidelines request that they get respected.
Text Formatting Options
When it comes to interacting with text there are several standard functions that you may wish to access quickly.
- ⌘ + B - toggle bold or make selected text bold.
- ⌘ + I - toggle italics or make selected text italic.
- ⌘ + U - enable underline or make selected text underlined.
- ⌘ + T - opens the font editing palette.
- ⌘ + ⌥ + ⇧ + V - Paste and match style. This will remove the formating of the text you are pasting and make it conform to the style of the document it's being pasted into.
- ⌘ + - increase the font size.
- ⌘ - - decrease the font size.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + C - opens the colours palette.
- ⌘ + ⌥ + C - copy the style of the selected text.
- ⌘ + ⌥ + V - paste the style to the selected text.
- ⌘ + { - toggle align left or make selected text aligned to the left.
- ⌘ + } - toggle align right or make the selected text aligned to the right.
- ⌘ + | - toggle align centre or make the selected text aligned to the centre.
Shifting to a Key’s Secondary Function
The vertical bar that is in the shortcut for toggle centre is actually the second function of the key it is assigned to. To access it you would type ⇧ + \. That means in order to actually use the shortcut you would need to press ⌘ + ⇧ + \
Finder Shortcuts
It's great to be able to quickly access various functions of the finder from shortcuts.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + H - Open finder window with the Home folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + C - Open finder window with the root level of the drive visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + D - Open finder window with the Desktop folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⌥ + L - Open a finder window with the Downloads folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + I - Open a finder window with the iCloud folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + O - Open a finder window with the Documents folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + Q - Open a finder window with the Applications folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + U - Open a finder window with the Utilities folder visible.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + F - Open a finder window with the Recents visible.
- ⌘ + E - Eject the currently selected drive.
- ⌘ + ⌫ - Move the selected item to the trash.
- ⌘ + ⇧ + ⌫ - Empty the trash.
- ⌘ + O - open the selected file or launch the selected app.