Mac keyboard shortcuts By pressing certain key combinations, you can do things that normally need a mouse, trackpad, or other input device. To use a keyboard shortcut, press and hold one or more modifier keys and then press the last key of the shortcut. Text Manipulation Shortcuts Once you start tying on the Mac keyboard a lot, you won’t want to take your hands off of it. To increase your productivity when you’re typing about, use keyboard shortcuts to move around.
Here's a chart from OS X Keyboard Shortcuts that lists all the main icons, their primary names, and alternate names/symbols: This Apple fansite has a similar list on a page with other Mac hints. OS X Keyboard Shortcuts also provides descriptions for the most commonly seen icons.
Mac keyboards have Option and Command keys where standard PC keyboards have Alt and Windows keys. The keyboards are otherwise pretty similar, but new Mac users will need to understand these different keys.
Apple’s Mac keyboards actually do have a Control (Ctrl) key, but the Control key doesn’t function like the Control key on Windows. Keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+C to copy text won’t work.
The Command Key
![Mac Shortcuts For Alt Text Icons Mac Shortcuts For Alt Text Icons](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126205349/577966780.png)
The Command key doesn’t do anything on its own. It’s a modifier key you can press to issue keyboard shortcuts to applications. For example, while you press Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+V to copy, cut, and paste on Windows, you press Command+C, Command+X, and Command+V to do the same on a Mac.
This key has the ⌘ symbol on it. This symbol appears throughout the Mac’s menus to indicate when you can press the Command key along with another key to issue a keyboard shortcut. The Command key originally had an Apple logo on it, but Steve Jobs thought displaying the Apple logo throughout the original Macintosh’s menu would be overusing the logo. A designer chose the ⌘ symbol to replace it. It’s an old symbol used in Nordic countries to indicate places of interest — in Sweden, it’s the official sign for a tourist attraction.
In summary, on a Mac, you’ll probably be pressing the Command key to issue keyboard shortcuts. The Control (Ctrl) key is also present, but it isn’t used for as many things.
The Option Key
The Option key functions similarly to the AltGr key on many PC keyboards, which explains why it also has “Alt” printed on it. Holding it and pressing another key allows you to type a special character that doesn’t normally appear on the keyboard. For example, pressing Option+4 with the US keyboard layout will produce ¢, the cent sign which normally doesn’t appear on your keyboard. Like other modifier keys, it’s also used as part of some keyboard shortcuts.
This key has the ⌥ symbol on it. This symbol is used throughout the Mac’s menus to indicate when you can press the Option key, the same way the Command key’s symbol is. Unlike for the Command key, we don’t have any history that indicates why this symbol was chosen.
For example, when you click the Apple menu you’ll see the keyboard shortcut assigned to Force Quit. if you’re not used to a Mac’s keyboard, these symbols may look like hieroglyphics — but they’re really saying you should press Option+Command+Escape to open the dialog where you can force-quit applications. It’s like the Task Manager on Windows.
Modifier Key Symbols
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To perform the keyboard shortcuts shown throughout Mac OS X, you’ll need to know the symbols. Aside from ⌘ representing Command and ⌥ representing Option, ^ represents Control while ⇧ represents the Shift key.
The Excel Skinny. A blog about Excel and its users. Home The Excel Skinny Blog center text Page 1 of 1. This tip for Microsoft Excel on Mac can be useful in sprucing up your spreadsheet and giving it a more refined look. MS Excel 2011 for Mac: Center text across multiple cells. This Excel tutorial explains how to center text across multiple cells in Excel 2011 for Mac (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions). Sti guns.
If you’d like to change which key does what, you can customize this by clicking the Apple menu, opening System Preferences, selecting the Keyboard icon, and clicking Modifier Keys. You can also set the Caps Lock key to “No Action” here, effectively disabling the Caps Lock key on your Mac.
Option and Command Keys in Windows
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When running Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp, the keyboard mappings are changed so they make more sense in Windows. The Option key functions as Alt and the Command key functions as the Windows key.
This can be a bit confusing when going back and forth between OS X and Windows. For example, you’ll have to press Command+C to copy text in OS X, but you’ll have to press Ctrl+C to copy text in Windows. These keys are in different places, so it can interfere with your muscle memory. To solve this problem, you can use SharpKeys to remap the Command and Ctrl keys in Windows.
In Mac OS X, you could also use the Modifier keys dialog to swap the functions of the Ctrl and Command keys, if you like. This would make your Mac’s keyboard shortcuts work more like the keyboard shortcuts on a Windows PC.
Shortcut Keys For Mac
The Command and Option keys may seem a bit foreign, but everything works fairly similarly on a Mac. The ⌘ and ⌥ symbols are printed on the keyboard so you can more easily understand the keyboard shortcuts shown throughout Mac OS X.
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If you visit certain Web pages, such as Facebook and Gmail, on a daily basis, you can create shortcuts to them on your Mac OS X desktop. Web shortcuts enable you to access your favorite Web pages with a click of the mouse. Creating a shortcuts takes just a few seconds and you can delete it at any time if you no longer need it. When you follow Web shortcuts, Mac OS X opens the Web pages using your default Web browser.
![Best free text editor for mac 2018](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126205349/688537876.jpg)
Launch the Safari Web browser on your Mac OS X system.
2.Navigate to the first page to which you want to create a shortcut.
3.Select the entire address in the address bar at the top of the browser.
4.Click and drag the address onto the Mac OS X desktop and release the mouse button. A shortcut pointing to the Web page is created on the desktop.
5.Repeat the process to create as many shortcuts as you need.
Tip
Change Mac Shortcut Icon
- If you have a two-button mouse, left-click to drag the address to your desktop.
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About the Author
Kirk Bennet started writing for websites and online publications in 2005. He covers topics in nutrition, health, gardening, home improvement and information technology.
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Bennet, Kirk. 'How to Create Shortcuts to Websites on a Desktop for a Mac.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-shortcuts-websites-desktop-mac-43053.html. Accessed 06 September 2019.
Bennet, Kirk. (n.d.). How to Create Shortcuts to Websites on a Desktop for a Mac. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-shortcuts-websites-desktop-mac-43053.html
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Bennet, Kirk. 'How to Create Shortcuts to Websites on a Desktop for a Mac' accessed September 06, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-shortcuts-websites-desktop-mac-43053.html
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