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Unveiling 10 Hidden OS X Shortcuts

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Years have passed since the first time I used my Mac. While using my Mac, by accidentally hitting wrong combination or purposely browsing for it, I'd discovered some hidden keyboard shortcuts.

Shortcut, as the name suggests, should bring us more productivity juice rather than drag us down. However, some shortcuts may suit you well, some may take more time for you to adapt; to adopt these new hidden shortcuts or to drop them, that's all depend on you.

Hidden Shortcuts for Mac OS X

I've tested these shortcuts on my Mac OS X Leopard with U.S. Keyboard.

1. Apple Logo

Shortcut : Option-Shift-K

Note. One of the symbols that can be drawn with simple keystroke, the famous Apple logo. Sorry, but I can't resist to put this as the first shortcut.

2. Zero Brightness

Shortcut : Control-Shift-Eject

Note. Instantly turn your display off without logging out from the system.

3. Adjust Volume Bar

Shortcut : Option-Shift-F4 / Option-Shift-F5

Note. Increase/decrease your volume bar by a quarter each time it's invoked. This is particularly useful for fine tuning Mac with bombastic sound system.

4. Double Buffer

Shortcut : Control-K (Kill) and Control-Y (Yank)

Note. Like, Cut and Paste, combination of Kill and Yank can help you organize your text easily. Cut followed by Kill grants you double text buffer.

5. Home and End

Shortcut : Control-A (Home) and Control-E (End)

Note. This is pretty much the substitution for Windows button HOME and END. Pressing Command-← or Command-→ performs the same action.

6. Delete and Backspace

Shortcut : Control-D (Delete) and Control-H (Backspace)

Note. In Windows, we've got two buttons for this : DEL and BACKSPACE. You can use Fn-Delete to perform forward deletion while the button Delete acts as Backspace.

7. Related Messages

Shortcut : Command-Shift-K

Note. Selects all related messages in the same mailbox.

8. Open Address in New Tab

Shortcut : Command-Enter

Note. While highlighting address bar, pressing this shortcut will bring up new tab of that selected address.

9. Google Search Box

Shortcut : Command-Option-F

Note. Quickly jumps your cursor to Google Search Box. Saving your mouse click as well as your precious ticks of seconds.

X. Zoom

Shortcut : Command-Option-[+] (Zoom In) or Command-Option-[-] (Zoom Out)

Note. Zoom in/out your display; making tiny objects looks huge.

Using the Hidden Shortcuts

As I said earlier, to drop or to adopt all depends on you. Shortcuts are in nature meant to help you save your time. If you don't feel comfortable with using shortcuts, it doesn't make sense for me to force you. However, I've tried our best to put short notes on each shortcut as a little hint.

There's high possibility that you may have another favorite shortcuts, I'd always love to know your opinions. Let's hear your choices and any I missed in the comment box.

Categories: Popular, Tips and Tricks
Tags: Hidden, Shortcut

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54 Comments

sigur

Thanks a lot. I knew a few of them already but I really like the Home and End shortcuts to work in Terminal. Otherwise it always needs a huge amount of time to scroll to the beginning of a line.

KulNova

Dear,

could you please explain me more about the first shortcut. I tried, but it didn't not work, I think. Because I didn't see anything appear on my screen. I tried to use the shortcut in TextEdit, Pages, Safari...

Joe M.

With using Shift + volume increase or Shift + volume decrease you won't hear the pops.

adsf

hmmm somehow the apple logo wont work on my MB :-/
Where can I use this symbol? I tried it in the texteditor with no success ...

MBN

Apple Logo: 
ALT/OPT+SHIFT+8

MacPhobia

I liked the first one..

Ben Abbott

The first one does not work for me ... however, thinking therer was a simple typo, I found that another shortcut.

Safari Google Search
Command-Shift-L 

This shortcut will launch a Safari window and use Google to search on any highlighted text.

el1073

first shortcut works only on US keyboards (or similars) so, for example, on italian keyboards the shortcut is opt+shift+8


jhm

I thought I learnt it here, but to zoom, it is often easier (with a trackpad) to do a two-finder scroll while pressing ctrl.  The only problem with this, at least for me, is that with this method one occasionally cannot move the viewable zoomed areas around, it gets stuck with the original centering point.

Wendy

Yeah, I've written about Display Zooming before. You can also use Control-Scroll to zoom in/out but this has to be set beforehand inside :
System Preference → Universal Access → Zoom Options
I don't think this setting is available by default. Note that inside the pane, you can also set which modifier key to be used, i.e. not limited to only using Control.

pickupjojo

"9. Google Search Box
Shortcut : Command-Option-F"

Cmd-K also works with Firefox.

PAT

first shortcut works only on US keyboards (or similars) so, for example, on french keyboards the shortcut is OPT + & 

Ivan Serrano

It  works with text editors like pages, word, text edit, etc.

doug

In 10.5, select (read: click once) on any folder, file, etc. and press 'Space' and you'll get info on that file. If it's a PDF, it will give you a preview. If it's a webpage, it will also give you a visual preview. Nice trick.

Frak

Kill and Yank? In what apps (I tried it in TextEdit)? That one didn't make sense to me, but I'm just a caveman.

Wendy

Kill and Yank can be used on Text Editor or any other applications where you can edit your text, e.g. Terminal.

James Perih

CMD+F1 = the new method to swapping between mirrored secondary display, and extended second display.

Saved my butt, when troubleshooting a Macbook which has lost its primary display, but secondary display worked (and defaulted to extended... no help there).

Previously, I would generally just zoom in (which would allow me SOME visibility of the primary display on the secondary display), and try capturing the default window.  This shortcut is a TRUE shortcut, in my mind.

So is  :)

Perry

6. Delete and Backspace
Shortcut : Control-D (Delete) and Control-H (Backspace)

I use the macbook and delete does delete and fn delete does backspace

Nice to know alternates though!

Keep up the good work.

Michelle

ahhhhhhh, i love you.

Michelle

Oops - that was aimed at Joe M.     

Thank you all for your tips.  I love the site!

Rhywun

Wow! I've been looking for a way to do #2 for 3 years since I switched to the Mac. I've never seen this anywhere else! You FTW.

Puf

Thanks! But i have a question for you: is there a shortcut for removing a file without using the usual one (right-click -> move to trash)?

corewerkz

wow - kill and yank - took me a while to understand what you meant by "double buffer" but that's genius!  thanks! 

p.s. i currently use Jumpcut for multiple clipboard layers (wrong term perhaps), but this will be great when using other ppls computers.

p.p.s. command+option+eject = instant sleep
p.p.p.s. command+control+eject = instant restart (no confirmation, but will ask to save open stuff)
p.p.p.p.s. command+option+control+eject = instant shut down (no confirmation, but will ask to save over stuff)

Wendy

Puf, you can use command-delete to remove selected files to trash.

Moridin

Option + Shift + 8 and Options+Shift+K both do not work for me - please tell me how I should find out what shorcut I should use.

Main language: English
Regional setting: United Kingdom

koamis

in safari or firefox:
command + L = highlight the address bar

aayushsaboo@gmail.com

command+option+control+8.............and enjoy................

JC

#8-
I have Safari set up to open a link in a new tab by clicking the link with the middle mouse button - same as in Firefox.

Macbeth

ƒirs† shor†cu† wi†h Spanish keyboard is:  al†/op† + g  ---------------> ™   √

Jason

with shortcut X u can also use control-scroll (two fingers slide up to enlarge slide down to  shrink)

connectionfailure

Some of these- the ones that work in TextEdit- are from the Unix world. Any mac app that supports Cocoa will use these. For example Camino, but not Firefox.
In unix, there is a text editor called emacs (nothing to do with Macs) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs
and most of its keybindings work. Check out this chart at:

http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_kb_shortcuts.html

For example, one that I love but always forget to use is Control-T to transpose two letters.

Oh yeah! Option-delete deletes a whole word at a time. Works great in URLs too.

MacLover

I tried alot of these on my mac - i think its the latest version before Leopard OS - and none of them work. I don't know if it's because my settings are wrong or the computer system is different, but non of them work.

Michael

To see which option characters are on your keyboard, call up "Show Keyboard Viewer". If you can't find it, go into System Preferences->International->Input Menu and enable the Keyboard Viewer. It will show the symbol (flag) for your country in the status (right end) part of the menu bar. It shows you a small keyboard image. Press the option key on the keyboard image or on your real keyboard to see all of the option characters. Works for shift and shift-option too.

klor

Thanks a lot for tip #5.I haven't come across it anywhere else,and I've looked around a LOT.
Sincerely,Melbourne Australia.

Clay

These are nifty shortcuts, but how do you lock the screen with a single keystroke?

tyler durden

control+option+applekey+8 = inverts color

Holding control while using your mouses scroll wheel zooms in on screen

PROVISM

For those who aren't good at remembering all the Shut Down, Sleep and Restart ones I just discovered that: ctrl + Eject shows a pop-up with all the options.  Also: cmd + W closes the window you're in.  Handy for if you've got several windows of something open i.e. Safari and you don't want to quit the application.

MacUser

the ctrl + shift + eject      (2. Zero Brightness)
on my 10.5.8 Mac it only goes off for about 1.75 secs. anyone found one that KEEPS it on 0 brightness???

Unkle Stinkfinger

X ZOOM CORRECTION: 
Yes, cmd-opt-+ or - will adjust your zoom, but only if zoom is turned ON. Turn it on and off with cmd-opt-8. It will turn on again to the same position you last zoomed to, so you don't have to zoom all the way in and out each time. It zoom is turned off, cmd-opt-+/- won't do shit.
Just sayin'...

Your Mama

I run the control-opt-cmd-8 inverted screen full time, unless looking at photos. MUCH easier on the eyes! To complete the effect, i get great space images, invert them in photoshop (image/adjustments/invert, or cmd-I in PS), then select that folder for desktop images. With the color toggle on, the starfields come out regular, i.e. mostly black space, with beautiful nebulae (like the Veil Neb). Great space images can be found from space vid podcasts like NASA/ESA, Hubble, Spitzer, etc. Watch them full screen, take screenshots (shift-cmd-3), and crop the borders. Set up an Automator routine to batch process.

Zach C

i still don't understand the "kill and yank" shortcut. Can someone explain?

chris

Is there a keyboard shortcut to edit highlighted file names?  I hate clicking on a file name, then clicking again to make the name edit-able...there's got to be a better way!

James

For editing file/folder names, click on the name and hit Enter to edit. When done, hit Enter again to leave Edit mode. 

You can also use the cursor keys to select files, on the Desktop and within a Finder window. Use Command-O to open the file or folder.

MadlyMadly

OPT + SHIFT + K was the only shortcut to give me 

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Decks

I've always used mac and found that I can do things 10x faster than using a PC.  much less clutter to deal with

Bart Calixto

COMMAND+SHIFT+L on selected test do google for that phrase.

Very handy. To try:

select this text: international flower delivery and press  SHIFTL

ssebbaale samuel

am 2 use mac because ts the best os for the networking systems

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