Mac shortcuts | The most important keyboard com­bi­na­tions

Anyone who works with a Mac on a daily basis would like to perform routine tasks as quickly as possible. Using the mouse cursor to navigate to the right buttons in­ter­rupts the workflow and takes precious time. For this reason, Apple offers a range of Mac keyboard shortcuts to make working with an iMac or MacBook more efficient. It’s worth­while to take a look at the macOS shortcuts available.

For recurring tasks, it’s a good idea to memorize Mac shortcuts which make it much easier and more efficient to work on a computer. Although the trackpad of Apple notebooks performs ex­cel­lent­ly, MacBook shortcuts can be a really helpful tool for users.

Since Apple has provided guide­lines for the use of programs, many of the Mac shortcuts work ir­re­spec­tive of the program you use. The main Mac keyboard commands for documents are identical, no matter whether you’re working in Word, Pages, or Notes. So it’s all the more advisable to memorize these practical macOS shortcuts.

To use a Mac keyboard shortcut, you need to keep at least one of the special keys pressed down in com­bi­na­tion with the relevant keys. Key com­bi­na­tions are always performed with Macs as follows:

• Press and hold down the special key
• Press and hold down the second and third special key, where necessary
• Press and release the last key of the Mac shortcut – the command will then be executed

The following table lists the most useful keyboard shortcuts. As you know, Apple uses a number of special symbols for specific keys on Mac keyboards. These are:

• Command key (or Cmd key): ⌘
• Shift key: ⇧
• Option key (or Alt key): ⌥
• Control key (or Ctrl key): ⌃
• Caps lock key: ⇪
• Function key: (fn)