Generally I prefer using the keyboard to a mouse. I can touch type at a reasonable speed and every time I have to take my hands off the keyboard I feel I’m slowed down. (Less use of the mouse means the batteries last longer too!) So I tend to try and use keyboard shortcuts when I can remember them. But this is the problem with shortcuts – you have to remember them. If you’re sitting there trying to recall which keys you need you would probably have been quicker using the mouse. It’s best to have a small range of shortcuts that you regularly use as they should then be easier to remember.
These are my favourite Mac command-key (⌘) shortcuts that I use on a regular basis:
- Save: ⌘-S
- Select all: ⌘-A
- Copy: ⌘-C
- Paste: ⌘-V
- New item: ⌘-N
- Refresh: ⌘-R
- Quit application: ⌘-Q
- Close window (without quitting): ⌘-W
- New tab in Safari: ⌘-T
- Go to the tab to the right: ⇧-⌘-right arrow
- Go to the tab to the left: ⇧-⌘-left arrow
- Back: ⌘-[
- Forward: ⌘-]
- Increase the font size (try it in Safari!): ⌘-plus sign
- Decrease the font size: ⌘-minus sign
- First bookmark in the bookmark bar: ⌘-1
- Second bookmark (and so on): ⌘-2
I believe a lot of these work in Windows if you use alt in place of the command key.
Other miscellaneous shortcuts that I use:
- Go to the top of a page: Home
- Go to the bottom of a page: End
- Screenshot: ⇧-⌘-3
- Screenshot of a selection: ⇧-⌘-4 (you then have a cross-hair which you drag and then click with the mouse – not strictly a keyboard shortcut as you need the mouse but handy none-the-less)
- Show Spaces: F8
- Exposé: F9
- Show the desktop: F11
- Dashboard widgets: F12
- Fill in a password with 1Password: ⌘-\
Hopefully you’ll find some of these useful and they may end up saving you a little time.
Also:
