Mac keyboard symbols explained: ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ and more

Mac menus and help pages write shortcuts in symbols: ⇧⌘2, ⌥⌘Esc, ⌃⌘Q. If you didn’t grow up on a Mac, that looks like a code. It’s a small one, though: four modifier symbols cover most shortcuts, and a handful more stand for keys like Delete and Escape. Here’s the full legend, the Windows equivalents and how to read any shortcut you meet.

The four modifier keys

Modifier keys do nothing on their own; you hold them while pressing another key. Mac menus list them in a fixed order, Control, Option, Shift, Command, followed by the key itself.

Command does most of the work: copy (⌘C), paste (⌘V), save (⌘S), quit (⌘Q). Option is the “alternate” key: hold it while a menu is open, and some commands change, such as Save As… appearing in place of Duplicate in the File menu of many apps. Control matters mainly in Terminal and in a few system shortcuts.

The fn key, marked with a globe 🌐 on recent Mac keyboards, turns the top row into F1–F12 and works as the Globe key. Its job when you press it alone is set in System Settings → Keyboard, such as switching input sources or showing emoji.

Other symbols in menus

These appear in menus and in Apple’s guides. Some keys don’t exist on a laptop keyboard and are typed with fn:

Windows keyboard equivalents

If you plug a PC keyboard into a Mac, the keys map like this: Windows logo key = ⌘ Command, Alt = ⌥ Option, Ctrl = ⌃ Control, Backspace = Delete, and Delete = Forward Delete.

On a PC keyboard, Alt sits right next to the space bar, where Command is on a Mac keyboard, so your thumb may hit the wrong one. To swap them:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard.
2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts… and choose Modifier Keys in the sidebar.
3. Pick the PC keyboard from the menu at the top, then set the Option key to ⌘ Command and the Command key to ⌥ Option.

The common Windows shortcuts translate with ⌘ in place of Ctrl: Ctrl+C becomes ⌘C, Alt+Tab becomes ⌘Tab, and Ctrl+Alt+Delete becomes ⌥⌘Esc, which opens the Force Quit window.

How to read a shortcut like ⇧⌘2

1. Name the symbols left to right: ⇧ is Shift, ⌘ is Command, so ⇧⌘2 is Shift-Command-2.
2. Hold all the modifiers. The order you press them in doesn’t matter.
3. Tap the last key while they’re held, then let go of everything.

Two things trip people up. Menus always show letters as capitals, but ⌘N means Command and N, with no Shift. And on keyboards outside the US, a shortcut with a number or punctuation may sit on a different physical key; the character in the shortcut is what counts.

If shortcuts feel like finger gymnastics, turn on Sticky Keys in System Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard. You can then press the modifiers one at a time, and macOS shows their symbols on screen as you do.

In Unpixel

Unpixel’s capture shortcut is a good example to practise on: ⇧⌘2, Shift-Command-2. Hold Shift and Command, press 2, then drag over any text on screen and it’s copied. You can change it in Settings → General. If the combination you pick is one macOS or common apps already use, Unpixel flags it there and explains why.

Type the symbols yourself

Writing instructions for someone else? You can type the symbols:

• Character Viewer: choose Edit → Emoji & Symbols or press fnE (Globe-E), then search for the symbol’s name. ⌘ is called “place of interest sign”, ⌥ “option key”, ⌃ “up arrowhead”, ⇧ “upwards white arrow” and ⎋ “broken circle with northwest arrow”.
• Text replacement: add shortcuts in System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements…, such as “;cmd” → ⌘, and macOS swaps them as you type.
• Copy and paste: select a symbol on this page and press ⌘C.

Quick reference

• ⌘ Command · ⌥ Option · ⌃ Control · ⇧ Shift
• ⇪ Caps Lock · ⎋ Escape · ↩ Return · ⇥ Tab
• ⌫ Delete · ⌦ Forward Delete (fn-Delete)
• Order in menus: ⌃ ⌥ ⇧ ⌘, then the key
• Windows keyboard: Windows key = ⌘, Alt = ⌥