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Making OS/X Easier

January 24th, 2008 Bugman Leave a comment Go to comments

From time to time it’s good to go back and look at a big list of keyboard shortcuts. There are plenty that I had completely forgotten about. I thought it might be a good idea to jot some of them down to make myself a bit of a quick-reference sheet for those that are useful to me.

Please note that some of you on non-Mac platforms may not be able to view the symbols correctly. Also, this is not a complete list. It’s just a list of shortcuts that I deem useful to me. If anyone else has anything they’d like to add feel free to add a comment!

Symbols
Remembering all those keyboard shortcuts can be annoying. Most of what we need is already laid out on the keyboard but not everything useful is there. I’ve just moved to the UK so I need to use the £ key a lot more, but how do you know where to type it in if it’s not printed on the keys? I suppose you have to rely on your memory.

™	Option-2	TradeMark
£	Option-3	Pound Key
¢	Option-4	Cents
®	Option-r	Registered TradeMark
¥	Option-y	Yen
©	Option-g	Copyright
…	Option-;	Ellipsis
	Option-Shift-k	Apple

Universal/Finder/System
Some useful universal keyboard shortcuts that help us through our every day.

Command-Delete	Delete (to trash)
Command-Shift-Delete	Empty trash
Command-Shift-Option-Delete	Empty trash without warning
Command-Ctrl-d	Hover over a word and get the dictionary definition
Command-H	Hide application
Command-Option-H	Hide other applications
Command-,	Application preferences
Command-Drag	Arrange menu bar items
Command-Option-Esc	Open force quit
Command-Shift-3	Capture screen
Command-Shift-4	Capture screen selection
Command-Shift-4, Space (2 sequences)	Capture a window by selecting it
Command-Option-d	Show/hide dock
Command-Option-Ctrl-8	Invert Display
Ctrl-Scroll	Zoom in or out
Ctrl-Shift-Eject	Put the display to sleep
Shift-Volume	Increase/Decrease the volume silently
Command-`	Switch to other windows within the same application

Boot Up
The keys you can press during a boot-up sequence.

Shift	Prevent automatic login
Shift	Enter safe mode (press after startup tone; release when you see the indicator)
Shift	Prevent opening startup items (after login)
C	Boot from CD/DVD
T	Start in Target Disk Mode
Option	Select startup disk
Hold Mouse Button	Eject removable discs
Command-v	Verbose mode
Command-s	Single user mode

Safari
Useful shortcuts in Safari.

Command-Option-F	Google search box
Option-Up	Scroll to top
Option-Down	Scroll to bottom
Command-Click	Open link in a new tab
Command-Shift-[	Previous tab
Command-Shift-]	Next tab
Option-Up	Scroll to top
Command-Option-e	Empty Cache
Command-f	Find term
Command-Plus[+]	Increase font size
Command-Hyphen[-]	Previous tab
Command-0	Original font size

Mail
Useful shortcuts in Mail.

Command-0	Open activity window
Command-Shift-r	Reply to all
Command-Shift-t	Convert to rich/plain text
Command-Shift-b	Bounce

As I mentioned earlier it’s nice to remember these every now and then because some of them can be very useful.

A few other things you may not have known about OS/X:

You can click on a menu and start typing the letters of the option you wish to select, then press Enter.

Spaces lets you move applications from desktop desktop simply by dragging the window to the edge of the screen.

Launching a new application and dragging it into another position on the dock will keep that program’s icon on the dock permanently.

You can export anything to a PDF simply by going File, Print, and clicking the PDF button.

After launching Quicklook with Space bar, you can click on other items and Quicklook will automatically change. If you’re previewing a movie and click elsewhere, then click back on the movie, it will remember where it was up to in the preview.

PS. You should check out www.macosxhints.com frequently!