The engineering behind each of Apple’s touchpads makes them some of the best on the market today. A quick swipe can move the cursor wherever you need it, while gestures give you unprecedented levels of control over windows, apps, and more.
A user might be forgiven if they think a smooth touchpad is all they need, but there are keyboard shortcuts that can completely change your macOS experience.
Many people have a misconception that keyboard shortcuts are for “power users” only, that the average macOS user can’t use the shortcuts or doesn’t use them. It is simply wrong. The following shortcuts are the absolute most useful macOS keyboard shortcuts you need to memorize. Knowing these shortcuts will help you in every aspect of your macOS experience.
Close Windows and quit apps with Command + Q
The red “X” in the upper left corner of any macOS application indicates that it will close the program, but it does not. Only closes the window. If you want to close the window and the program at the same time, you have to press Command + Q. The Command key, also called the Apple key, is located to the left and right of the space bar on most Apple keyboards.
This is easy to remember if you ever forget – select the app from the top left menu bar and you’ll see the link displayed next to the “Sign Out” option.
Switch between Windows and apps with Command + Tab
If you don’t use software to split your screen into multiple segments (or you need full screen functionality from a single app) and still need to control something in another window, you can quickly switch between them with Command + Tab. This shortcut moves from the current window to the most recently used window.
A quick tap of the combination will switch between windows, but if you hold down Command + Tab, a series of icons will appear representing all the open apps. Pressing Tab will scroll through them. Select the window you want to open and release the Command key to open it.
Force quit frozen and unresponsive apps with Command + Option + Esc
Sometimes apps freeze or crash for various reasons. In this case, you can right-click the application in the taskbar or press the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + Esc.
This brings up a list of active programs. Select the unresponsive one and choose to force it to close.
Raise the spotlight with Command + Space
The built-in Spotlight search on macOS is one of the most useful tools the platform has to offer. You can quickly recall it by pressing Command + Space.
The search will appear on the screen and you can start typing your request without ever removing your hands from the keyboard. Spotlight will search your files, emails, messages, and the web for any mention of your search phrase.
Quickly save your work with Command + S
Almost everyone has experienced the excruciating terror of a sudden crash when the document was not saved. There is no need to reach for the floppy disk icon every time you want to save your work; just hit Command + S to save your file.
It is instantaneous and takes very little time; in fact, you can make it part of your workflow. Finish a sentence and press Command + S. If you save a file that you haven’t previously saved, a message will appear to select its destination and give it a file name.
Select All on screen or in a document with Command + A
If you need to select all files in a folder for deletion or copy and paste an entire document, press Command + A. This will select all text or files on the screen. You will know this because the selected sections will be highlighted
If you need to quickly copy and paste, press Command + C And Command + V.
Skip the trash and delete a file permanently with Command + Delete
Sometimes you just have to delete a file that you know you will never need again. Maybe you took a screenshot of the wrong part of the screen or it was something that got saved accidentally due to the uncontrollable habit of pressing Command + S constantly.
Whatever the reason, you can avoid filling up your computer’s memory and permanently delete a file by selecting it and pressing Command + Delete. Beware, however, this action cannot be resumed.
Take a screenshot with Command + Shift + 3
You can take a screenshot of the entire screen by pressing Command + Shift + 3but you can also take a screenshot of a specific part of the screen with Command + Shift + 4.
This will turn your cursor into a crosshair. Click and hold the cursor to select the part of the screen you want to take a photo of, then release the cursor to take the photo.
You can also hit Command + Shift + 5 to display a list of secondary options for taking screenshots, for example Capture the entire screen And Capture the selected part. Command + Shift + 5 is also capable of screen recording on some Mac computers.