Introduction to keyboard shortcuts, part 2
Even in the times of excessive mouse usage, the keyboard still remains the quickest way to work on your computer (PC and Mac). In the following we will present a couple of essential keyboard shortcuts.
Let’s start with a complete overview of the special keys on a Mac keyboard.
For all keyboard shortcuts to work, it’s important that you first press and hold down the modifier key (command, option, control, shift) and then press the other key(s).
Basic editing
To copy text or objects (e.g. a part of a text in a text editor or a file in Finder) press command-C. This means: press and hold down the command key and then press C.
A couple of common shortcuts:
Copy … command-C
Cut … command-X
Paste … command-V
Print … command-P
Close Window … command-W
Quit Application … command-Q
These shortcuts work in almost any program, as long as you can cut/copy/paste/print something (e.g. text editing software, Finder, iLife and many more).
Basic file management in Finder
Preview the content of a file
To quickly preview a file in Finder, click it once (= highlight it) and hit the space bar (the long key in the lower middle of your keyboard). This will instantly preview. This works for a lot different file types (pictures, movies, sound files, even documents). This feature is called “QuickLook”. Very handy!
Open a file / go to parent directory
To open a file or directory, press command - Down arrow.
To go up one level in the file structure (go to the enclosing folder), press command - Up arrow.
Rename and delete a file
To rename a file in Finder, press the return key and edit the file name. Press the return key again to commit the change or press the escape key to discard the changes. This is also something people need to get used to, switching from other platforms.
To quickly delete a file press command-delete or just drag it onto the Trash bin icon in the Dock.
Perform a “Right click”
To bring up the contextual menu, hold down the control key and click on any item. This is like performing a right-click on other platforms.
Select multiple items
To select multiple items, hold down the command key and click on each item you want to select.
When you want to select a range of items, highlight the first one (=click it once), then press and hold down the shift key and then click on the last in the list of item you want to select. This selects all items in between.
Find your running applications with Exposé
Another great feature of Mac OS X makes life so much easier, when you have several applications open and quickly want to find one. The feature is called Exposé and has several different ways of showing you what’s currently going on, on your Mac.
To illustrate it, let’s launch some applications from the Dock, like Safari, iTunes and Finder.
Now, simply press the F9 key on your keyboard to see all your applications.
Move the mouse over a window to highlight it. Click any application to make it foremost and active application. If you just want to go back, press the F9 key again and it brings you back to your previous view.
Pressing the F10 key shows you all windows of the currently active application. Again, click on any window, you would like to active. Press the F10 key again to go back to your previous view.
Pressing the F11 key shows you the desktop, pressing it again … yeah, you guessed it, takes you back.
Hint: To impress your friends, hold down the Shift key while you press either F9, F10, F11. Just try it and enjoy :)
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Tags: expose, keyboard, shortcuts
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