Mac keyboard shortcuts worth learning first

Apple’s list of Mac shortcuts runs to hundreds of entries, and nobody needs all of them. A dozen or so do most of the work: they replace trips to a menu that you make many times a day. This guide groups them by job so you can learn a few at a time. Shortcuts for editing text, like moving by word or selecting to the end of a line, have their own guide.

The symbols: ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ and fn

Menus and guides write shortcuts with symbols rather than key names. Five of them come up constantly:

You’ll also see ⎋ for Esc, ⌫ for Delete, ⇥ for Tab and ⏎ for Return. Press the modifier keys first and hold them, then tap the last key. For every symbol you might meet, see Mac keyboard symbols.

Apps and windows

Window tiling has shortcuts too. On macOS Sequoia and later, hold fn and ⌃ and press an arrow key to move the front window to that half of the screen. fn⌃F fills the screen and fn⌃R puts it back. You’ll find the full set under Window → Move & Resize.

Finder

Space is the one to learn first. It opens nearly any file for a look, including PDFs, images, videos and documents, without launching an app. Press it again to close the preview.

Screenshots and screen text

Our guide to taking screenshots covers each one in detail.

Screenshots capture pictures. When you need the words in them, Live Text reads text in images: select a screenshot in Finder, press Space, and drag across the text. Unpixel adds a shortcut of its own for this, ⇧⌘2. Drag over any text on screen, such as a paused video, a slide or an error message, and the words land on your clipboard. You can change or clear that shortcut in Unpixel’s settings if it clashes with one you already use.

System

Lock the screen every time you walk away from your desk. ⌃⌘Q takes a second, and it keeps open mail, chats and your clipboard history away from anyone passing by.

Find any shortcut: the Help menu

You don’t have to memorise an app’s shortcuts to find them:

1. Press ⇧⌘/ (in other words, ⌘?) to open the Help menu’s search field.
2. Type part of a command’s name, such as “duplicate” or “zoom”.
3. Move the pointer over a result. The menu that holds the command opens, an arrow points to it, and its shortcut is shown on the right.

Menus are the other cheat sheet: every command with a shortcut shows it next to its name. If a command you use often has none, you can add one. Open System Settings → Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts…, choose App Shortcuts and click +. Type the menu command’s name exactly as it appears, then press the keys you want. See creating custom keyboard shortcuts for the details.

Make them stick

• Learn three at a time. Pick three from these tables, use them for a week, then add three more.
• Watch the menus. When you reach for a menu command, glance at its shortcut and use it next time.
• Start with the frequent ones. ⌘Tab, ⌘W and Space in Finder pay off fastest.
• Check for clashes. If a shortcut does nothing, another app may have claimed it. Shortcut not working walks through the fixes.