Jul 21 2007

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

Tags: Mac, 11, Technical

The inspiration for these 11 keyboard shortcuts came from a dead battery in a wireless USB mouse. However, a few must be used in conjuction with a mouse click.

11 Keyboard shortcuts for Mac OS X worth remembering, in no particular order...

  1. c (on boot)

    Boot from CD.

  2. mouse down (on boot)

    Eject CD.

  3. cmd-opt-esc

    Force quit current app.

    Reminiscent of ctrl-alt-del on that other OS.

  4. cmd-`

    Cycle through current application's windows.

    Everyone knows cmd-tab to cycle through applications, but oftentimes one has multiple windows of the same application and needs to cycle through them.

  5. opt-cmd-esc

    Force Quit dialog

  6. shift-cmd-4 + space + click

    Screen dump highlighted window.

    Everyone knows the shift-cmd-3 and shift-cmd-4 screen shot shortcuts, but this one is slightly different in that it allows you to grab the chrome of a particular application window.

  7. cmd-;

    Spell checking.

  8. ctrl-F2

    Highlight the Menu.

    Starts with the Apple menu highlighted. Use arrows to navigate.

  9. ctrl-F3

    Highlight the Dock.

  10. cmd-h

    Hide current application.

    Not that you would have anything incriminating visible in the current application, right?

  11. cmd + drag background window title-bar

    Adjust a window partially obscured by the top-most window.