Top 10 Mac keyboard shortcuts everybody should know

As we all know Mac OS is a great operating shortcut, with Apple and its great use of the Mac keyboard shortcut to make using the OS much more refined, easier and quicker. Most people know that Command C and Command V is copy paste but in this article I will go through ten Mac Keyboard shortcuts that are useful and everyone should know that most people might not know about.

1.)Quick Spotlight search

By far the fastest and easiest and quickest way to go through your files and apps to look for something specific is the spotlight search. Not only this but spotlight is much more useful than some people might think, it can also look for definitions , calculate and currency exchange and also look up , see videos and also look up Wikipedia articles! The quickest way to access your Spotlight search bar would be to hit Command-Space on your keyboard.

2.)Opening a new web browser tab quick and easy

Say you are working on an article or doing your college essay and or just simply in finder and need to quickly open up a new tab and look something up. Simply hitting Command-T will open a new tab in Safari no matter where you are!

Bonus tip : Hitting Command-Shift-T in Google Chrome will open recently closed tabs.

3.)Advanced Text Paste

How many times would you be writing a college essay and need to copy a citation into your document but after pasting it you have to change the font, size and edit it? Well Mac OS’s Mac keyboard shortcuts has you covered. Hitting Shift-Option-Command-V will paste any text you copied from the web and paste it in the same format as the document you are currently working on! That means no more having to edit everything to match

4.)Screenshots

Surprisingly something as simple as taking a screenshot has a lot of people new to Mac OS looking up how to do it. It isn’t as easy hitting ‘Print screen’ but it isn’t that hard either. Hitting Command-Shift-3 will take a screenshot of the entire page and saving it to your desktop however if you want to only screenshot a certain part of your screen then Command-Shift-4 will let you choose how much of the screen do you want to screenshot instead of the whole page.

5.)Deeper Volume controls

Changing Volume on the Mac OS is really simple but do the increment sometimes just not get it right? One whole step below and it’s too low, one whole step above and it’s too much? Try Shift-Option-(Volume up-down) and this changes the increments by a quarter instead of a whole, giving you a lot more control over the volume.

6.) Emoji’s

A lot of people, mainly those in the Apple eco system use their mac for texting, from imessage to the whatsapp desktop application but for those emoji’s lovers it can be a little a confusing. Well this Mac keyboard shortcut makes it easier, just hit the Control-Command-Space and up on your screen the emoji selector will pop right up making it easier and faster for you to choose your favorite emoji.

7.)Cut and paste

Everybody knows the easiest Mac keyboard shortcut Command-C and Command-V to copy paste but what about when you want to cut and paste. Sometimes we just want to move our files without creating any duplicates! Well there is a very easy way for this. Simply copy the file yes copy and then go to your destination wherever you want to move this file and hit Option-Command-V. This will move the file instead of copying it and creating a duplicate of it. This will help with those cleaner desktop goals!

8.)Movement between multiple windows in the same app

This is for those people who have multiple tabs always open or those who are lost in the rabbit hole that is the internet and have multiple tabs on random topics. This Mac keyboard shortcut lets you move within multiple windows of the same app. Simply hit Command-Tilde ( ~ this is tilde for those of you who might not know) and this will let you toggle the app switcher but for windows in the same app. This can even be used while working on spreadsheets and is not limited to web browsers only!

9.)Quit apps

Yes, Yes I know, you can just move the cursor to the little X in the corner and close the app but on Mac OS that doesn’t quit the app. Most Mac users know by now that just simply closing the window does not quit the app but what they do not know is that there a Mac keyboard shortcut for this too! Yes no more closing the app then right clicking and pressing quit. On your keyboard just hit Command-Q and this will quit the app you currently have open. This will help you save time and not have to worry about losing data or leaving something open.

10.Force Quitting

Have you been using Chrome or listening to music and you get the one notification we all dread. “This app has stopped responding”, now in a windows device you would open task manager and force quit the app or in Mac OS you would open Activity monitor and do the same but there is a really easy Mac keyboard shortcut for this too! Just hit Command-Option-Esc and this will bring up the force quit dialogue , incase this does not work just switch apps using Command-Tab as the app that is not responding might be frozen or hit Command-Shift-Option-Esc and this will close the app as well!

Well these were 10 Mac Keyboard shortcuts to make your life while using your computer more streamlined and much easier and faster. For more Shortcuts you can have a look at Apple’s own vast and extensive guide for Keyboard shortcuts.