Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac OS X

Because I’ve looked up this information maybe over a few hundred times in the last three years, I’m hoping to make it easier for myself in the future.

General Typing

  • For the German left double quotation character » on the Mac use Option-Shift-\ (backslash)
  • For the ellipsis character on the Mac use Option-; (semicolon)

General Magic

  • To cycle through windows use Command-` (backtick)

Within Apps

  • Universal preferences in any app is Command-, (comma)
  • To see your desktop use Command-Option and click anywhere on desktop
  • To minimize just one window Command-Shift-M or Command-Option-M for all

Within Finder

  • In desktop use Command-Shift-D (for desktop) -A (for applications) -U (for utilities) -H (for home)

Within Browser

  • To shuffle through browser tabs use Command-Shift-] or command-shift-[
  • To jump to search bar in browser use Command-L

Now let’s see if I can remember this without visiting this page a hundred times more … —JM


More contributed tips are off of this Twitter thread:

2 Comments

For the German (or French) double quotation character left and right « » : on the Mac use Option-\ (backslash) and Option-Shift-\ for the other one (backslash).