10 Mac OS Keyboard Shortcuts That You Should Know

Sometimes a small shortcut can be a life savior. Shortcuts improve efficiency and speed. There are multiple mac keyboard shortcuts which are effective and unique. Also, mac devices have very different builds and settings than Windows OS. Thus a new mac user can find it difficult to adapt to those changes. Here are the 10 mac keyboard shortcuts every Mac user must know:

1. Basic Cut, Copy and Paste: One of the most commonly used and well known mac keyboard shortcuts are cut, copy and paste.  

• Command+X : Cut the contents  with removing it from the document.
• Command+C : Copy the contents without removing it from the document.
• Command+V : Pasting the contents in desired location.
• Command+Shift+V : Pasting contents without formatting
• Command+A : Select All the contents on that page

2. Take a Screenshot: This shortcut always comes handy. Unlike windows which has destined buttons to take a screenshot, in mac the procedure becomes tedious without shortcuts.  

• Command+Shift+3 : Taking a shot of entire screen
• Command+Shift+4 : Take a shot by selecting specific area of the screen using cursor
• Command+Shift+4+Space Bar : Taking a  shot of the current window screen without changing dimension.

3. Quick Lock/logout: This mac keyboard shortcut is extremely useful when we have to urgently walk away from our device and want to quickly lock the device or log out from the account.

• Control+Command+Q : Locking screen immediately
• Command+Shift+Q : Log out from the mac user account with confirmation message.  

4. Force Quit: Command+Option+Esc:- Force quit the current application

• Esc : Cancel previous command

5. Delete

• Command+Delete : Moving selected item to  trash
• Shift+Command+Delete : Emptying trash

6. Precise Adjustment in Volume: It is used to make changes to display and music.Note that those changes can be done without  shortcuts but using mac keyboard shortcuts makes the changes precise and minuscule,

• Option+Shift +F11 or F12 : Volume can be increased or decreased

7. Basic Document Tools

• Command+S : To save an item or a document
• Command+Z : Undo the action
• Command+Shift+Z : Redo the action
• Command+Up/Down : Move from the beginning to the end of a file, or vice versa, quickly

8. Spotlight

• Command+Spacebar : Show spotlight search field. One can search any files or webs or apps
• Command+Enter : To find the folder of a specific file. Highlight the file  before using the shortcut  

9. Quick Shutdown: This is one of the most essential mac keyboard shortcuts known. With these commands one can make power changes to the device in no time.

• Option+Command+Media Eject : Put the device to sleep
• Control+Option+Command+Eject : Shutdown the device
• Control+Media Eject : Dialogue box pops asking to  restart shutdown or sleep

10. Switch between Apps: 

• Command+Shift+Tab : Cycle through all the open apps and choose needed apps.

Explore our Comprehensive Guide to Computer Shortcut Keys, where we cover a wide range of shortcuts, including Windows, Linux, MS Office, Gmail, YouTube, and many more.