News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

December 4, 2006

tips

Magical Macintosh key commands

Posted Dec. 4, ’06, 1:30 PM PT by Collin Allen
Category | Tips

Command KeyThe Mac is a versatile beast, designed for new computer owners, power users, and everyone in between. One of the huge time savers that separates the major groups is the use of key combinations. Though you may not notice it, nearly every important menu item in each Mac application has a keyboard equivalent, and becoming familiar with them is key to getting things done faster. Even better is the overlap — many similar functions in different programs make use of the same key commands on purpose, making it easy to learn and remember. Often, developers even try to associate key with functions which start with that letter: Command-Q for Quit, S for save, F for Find, and so on.

Aside from just browsing down the right side of every menu, you can also reference Apple’s knowledgebase article on key combos, as well as third party lists. Once you start getting them in your head, you’ll find it’s almost impossible to go back to using point-and-click menus which are “slow” by comparison.


2 Comments

tayker said:

I have the xCuts widget installed for looking up key commands. Here's the URL if people are interested or don't want to search Apple for it:
http://www.musingsfrommars.org/downloads/widgets/

December 5, 2006 4:24 AM
lar3ry said:

It's nice to have a link to this, especially now that I have a daughter that is away at college learning the joys of Mac-hood, so I can disabuse her of her formerly familiar wayward Windows shortcuts.

Sadly, the lists are incomplete. They should also include the "standard text editing" key commands (even I sometimes get CMD+Arrow and OPT+Arrow confused...)

December 5, 2006 7:25 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: