Have you been at the computer help desk and watched in amazement as the technician navigated your computer with ease and with a lot fewer clicks?  Keep this short cut key list handy and start practicing using the key commands.  You’ll be an expert in no time!

Command-A

Select All.

Command-X

Highlight text and press Command-X to cut.

Command-C

When you highlight something and press the Command-C key, you have a copy in your “clipboard.”

Command- V

Paste what you copied above anywhere.

Command-W

Closes the active window you are currently in. Use Option-Command-W to close all currently active app windows.

Command-P

Print from any program or website.

Command-Z

Undo a keystroke.

Command – Comma (,)

This useful keystroke works like this: You are working in an app, and you want to open the application’s Preferences. You can navigate to the Menu bar if you like and scroll through to access the Preferences. Or you can simply press Command-, (comma) to get to them in the fastest possible time.

Command-M

Got a lot of documents/applications/browsers open?  Press this combination to minimize the front app window to Dock, or press Command-Option-M to minimize all the windows belonging to the front app.

Command-Space

Talk about a useful key combination!  Command-Space invokes Spotlight, just depress these keys and start typing your query.

Command-Tab

Want to quickly navigate to an open program or app?  Command-Tab will pop up a list of what is open – keep pressing tab to get to the app/program you want and release.

Command-Option-D

Are you a dock hider?  Show or hide the Dock from within most apps.

Command-Up/Command-Down

Jump directly to the top or bottom of a web page using the Function key and the right (to the bottom of the page) or left (to the top of the page) arrows on the keyboard.

Touch Bar tip No. 1

If you use a MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar, you can press Shift-Command-6 to grab an image of what is on your Touch Bar. Want to grab an image to place into the document you’re typing in? Just tap Control-Shift-Command-6 and the picture will be saved to your Clipboard for pasting it in.

Touch Bar tip No. 2

This MacBook Pro Touch Bar tip is particularly useful if you find that you often accidentally tap the Siri button: You can change where that button is located so you’re less likely to tap it by accident. Open Keyboard Preferences and choose Customize Control Strip. Look at the Touch Bar, and you’ll see the icons are slightly agitated (for those who have an iPhone, this will look familiar). Move your cursor to the bottom of your screen and keep moving (as if you’re moving it off the screen); you should see one of the items in your Touch bar highlighted. Now move your cursor to highlight the Siri button and then drag and drop that button a space or two to the left.

(This is also an excellent way to become familiar with how you can edit other items in your Touch Bar.)

Touch Bar tip No. 3

Do you use the function keys regularly in some apps? You can get to them by pressing the ‘fn’ character. But it’s also possible to set up the Touch Bar so it always shows the function keys in those apps. To do this, open Keyboard System Preferences, select Function Keys, and tap +. You can then select the app(s). Don’t worry if you want to use a regular Control Strip command when you’re using one of the apps — just press Fn to get back to that view.

Command + Shift + T

This web browser tip can sometimes be a lifesaver. Command + Shift + T will open your last closed tab, which can be a lifesaver if you are researching something and close a window without saving the URL.  Even better – this command is not browser specific!

BONUS:  Here’s a handy list of shortcuts using Microsoft Word that you may find real (wait for it) handy!

Do you have a favorite Mac shortcut to share?  We’d love to hear from you!

 


Helpful Tech Links

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Handy Shortcut Keys for Mac

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