Keyboard shortcuts for OS X

Learn these basic shortcuts to increase your productivity

We have published this set of useful keyboard shortcuts on our 'Apple in the Classroom' section so you can download them and print them off. Although this is not a fully comprehensive list of the OS X shortcuts we feel that Teachers especially would be able to benefit, mainly because they will save you time, lots of time!

So please refer to the list and if you feel that we have missed anything important let us know in the comments section.

⌘ command key - Your are commanding your computer to perform an action.

⌥ option key - You will be presented with options/alternatives.

⌃ control key - A modifier key. Can be used in combination with the above keys.

⇧ shift key - Rarely for shortcut modification, but those that do are worth remembering.

View/Change Application

• Keep the command key held down while pressing tab.

This allows you to view all of your open applications. You can bring one application to the top of your layer (making it the active application).

Find a file or application quickly

• command + spacebar.

You will notice the spotlight search open in the top right of your screen. Now type ‘itu’ and hit return. You just launched the iTunes application. Also a great way to find files, email etc.

Finished with an application? Close it!

• command + Q - Think, I am ‘commanding the computer to Quit’.

Other important commands are:

• command + S - Save.
• command + N - New (new email, new document, new Finder window, depending which application you have active).
• command + P - Print.
• command + A - Select all (text, images, files etc)
• command + C - Copy.
• command + X - Cut selected text to primary clipboard.
• command + V - Paste clipboard contents.
• command + Z - Undo.
• command + H - Hide active application.

Finder specific:

• command + delete - Delete selected file/folder.
• command + i - Information, such as file size about selected file/folder.
• command + option + i - using the option key here is a variation of the above command. Now the information window dynamically changes to reflect the currently selected file.

Screenshots:

• Command + Shift + 3 - Takes a fullscreen screenshot and saves it to your Desktop
• Command + Shift + 4 - Takes a screenshot of a screen area and saves it to your Desktop
• Command + Shift + 4 + Space bar + click on window - Takes a screenshot of a certain window.

My personal favourites:

• command + control + D - Mouse over any word and this key combination will reveal the dictionary definition and thesaurus option.
• command + T - New tab in a internet browser window.
• command + K - Cuts to secondary clipboard.
• command + Y - Pastes secondary clipboard contents.
• spacebar - Press when any file in selected to preview that picture, document, even movies.
• option + shift + command + V - Seriously, try this one once and you’ll never stop using it. It will paste text into a document and copy the Paragraph Styles of the document. This one will save you the most time.
• When viewing menus, such as the  menu hold down the option key - notice that About This Mac changes to System Profiler. This expansion of menu options is common with the option key.

This list may seem like a lot to remember but I can’t recommend enough that you try a few of these. Print out this document, keep it near by and I guarantee that you will save minutes everyday. Those minutes add up and you will be far more productive.

If you have any of your own favorites that are not on this list please contact us at iSupport and we’ll happily add them.

Setting your OS X System Language correctly

Do you ever find your Mac wrongly trying to correct your spelling?  A common example of this would be words such as 'organisation' wanting to be spelt with a 'z'.  Or of course colour, analyse, and fibre all having American variants.  This can be very distracting when creating beautiful page layouts when all you can see is squiggly red lines underlining everything. This is a problem for any English speaking country that is not America.  And it is no surprise that your Mac has been set up with "American English" as a standard (We'll later find that American English is listed as just English).  Which perhaps should not be the case seeming as Canadian and Australian English largely follow British usage.

Well here is how you can set your system language to suit your country of residence so that you can always get it right.

1. Your first step is to head to your System Preferences (Applications > System Preferences).
2. Click on 'Language & Text' where we can specify exactly the variation of English we require.

   

3. Drag Languages into order you prefer?  Well English is already at the top, this is in fact American English.  You'll need to locate British, Canadian or Australian English yourself.
4. Click on Edit List... and here you will find many different languages hidden away.  Scroll through the list and check the box next to the language you need.
5. Lastly make sure that you drag your preferred language to the top of the list.  If an application supports the first language in the list, its menus and dialogs will appear in that language. If it doesn’t support the first language, it will use the second language in the list, and so forth.

Once you log back in changes take effect.