Finder Navigation
General
- New Finder window: Command-N
- Up one folder level: Command-Up-Arrow
- Open selected folder: Command-Down-Arrow
- Back: Command-left bracket
- Forward: Command-right bracket
Direct Folder Access
- Open the Applications folder: Command-Shift-A
- Open the Computer folder: Command-Shift-C
- Open desktop folder: Command-Shift-D
- Go to Folder: Command-Shift-G
- Open the Home folder of the currently logged-in user account: Command-Shift-H
Editing Commands
- Select all (e.g. all text, or all items in the front Finder window): Command-A
- Copy selected item/text: Command-C
- Paste: Command-V
- Cut: Command-X
- Undo: Command-Z
- Redo: Command-Shift-Z
- Move to Trash: Command-Delete (or Command-Backspace)
Miscellaneous
- Move forward to the next most recently used app in a list of open apps: Command-Tab
- Minimize window: Command-M
- View as List: Command-2
- Open selected item: Command-O
- Open Mac Help or current app help: Command question mark
- Spotlight: Command-Spacebar
- Find any matching Spotlight attribute: Command-F
Closing and Quitting
- Close window: Command-W
- Quit current app: Command-Q
- Eject: Command-E
- Force Quit (Equivalent of Ctrl-Alt-Delete): Command-Option-Esc
- Force Quit front-most app: Command-Shift-Option-Esc
App and other MacOS keyboard commands
Note: Some apps may not support all of the below key combinations.
File Commands
- New document: Command-N
- Open document: Command-O
- Save the active document: Command-S
- Duplicate the active document: Command-Shift-S
- Print dialog: Command-P
- Display a dialog for specifying printing parameters (Page Setup): Command-Shift-P
Cursor Movement
- End of the current line: Command-Right-Arrow
- Beginning of the current line: Command-Left-Arrow
- Beginning of the document: Command-Up-Arrow
- End of the document: Command-Down-Arrow
- End of the current word: Option-Right-Arrow
- Beginning of the current word: Option-Left-Arrow
- End of the current paragraph: Option-Down-Arrow
- Beginning of the current paragraph: Option-Up-Arrow
Pressing Shift with these shortcuts selects the text between where the cursor starts and ends.
Font Formatting
- Decrease the size of the selected item: Command-dash
- Increase the size of the selected item: Command-Shift-equals
- Boldface the selected text or toggle boldfaced text on and off: Command-B
- Underline the selected text or turn underlining on or off: Command-U
- Italicize the selected text or toggle italic text on or off: Command-I
- Display the Fonts window: Command-T
Alignment
- Left-align a selection: Command-left brace
- Right-align a selection: Command-right brace
- Center-align a selection: Command-Shift-backslash
Miscellaneous
- Display the Spelling window: Command-Shift-Semicolon
- Open a Find window: Command-F
- Open an app's preferences window (if it supports this keyboard shortcut): Command-Comma
For a more comprehensive listing of shortcuts check out this Apple Support article.
Comments
Great!
Re: Great
Thank you for this important list
First,I want to thank you for all the very helpful podcasts and articles you put on Applevis.
When I learned to use VoiceOver on the Mac, I was aware of many of these general commands already. But I think that many new blind Mac users somehow get the impression that all there is, is VO commands which makes life very complicated.
I wish that the VoiceOver Help could add this list of general commands somewhere so that it'd be easier to find them.
Eject replacement in Mac Air
Hi Dave,
Thank you again for these cool lists of tips.
Is there a way to work out any shortcuts for fast shutdown in Mac Air? I don't know whether this eject button you've mentioned here is present in Mac air. Am I to assume that the button at the top right corner to turn on / sleep the mac can be used in place of Eject?
Thanks much!
fast shut down
If you simply press and hold the upper top right key on the keyboard, it will bring up the shut down menu.
Now Able to Access Support Article, But...
Hello all. I'm running the first update to OS X El Capitan, and I'm happy to report that the Apple support article linked to in this post reads just fine on my mid-2013 MBA. However, I'm wondering if there's another shortcut for sorting music in iTunes. I attempted to do this using Command-I for the Info dialog, but every time I sort stuff that I've titled manually the order of things gets screwed up somehow. Or is this just a drag-and-drop thing? In addition, is there a VO shortcut for accessing the iTunes trash? I inadvertently deleted a song which is part of a soundtrack that I like, and I want to put it back if at all possible. I even asked my sister who is also a VoiceOver user, but she didn't know. I'd be happy to drag and drop if necessary, but just wondering about this. Otherwise great job as always, and I'm happy with El Capitan thus far.
Re:Fast Shutdown
Thank you so much! That works like a charm.
Spotlight
Hi,
I'm using multiple languages on my keyboard and so the default language switcher short-cut has overridden the usual key stroke to call spotlight. I. e. Command + space bar. I saw there's an option to call spotlight using down arrow in the spotlight tab of the system preferences but I don't like to have it that way because it is a bit annoying to find that spotlight popping up every time I press down arrow. Is there a work around in this situation for me to change the default short-cut for language switching to something else like command + shift as in the case of language switching in Windows or it would be good even if I could change the short-cut key for spotlight to something else.
Can anybody suggest a work-around please?