Unpublished Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac OS X

Tony Pitale, Web Developer, September 04, 2008 9

This is just the quickest of tips for everyone using Mac OS X.

Keyboard shortcuts are one of my favorite features on Mac OS X and something that I think few operating systems get right. Not only are there a staggering number of predefined shortcuts (some aren’t even advertised, but we’ll get to that in a moment) but also, for any menu item, a custom shortcut can be defined within System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts (the right-most tab).

I find this to be immensely useful, especially in overriding the shortcut behavior of a variety of third party applications that have the same function. For example, Firefox, Textmate, and almost every other application that has tabbed windows provides a shortcut on the keyboard to switch between tabs (left and right). For Apple’s application, the shortcut is likely to be Command-Option-Arrow Key. By default many other applications use Command-Option-Brace (curly brace, or square bracket?). A quick pair of keyboard shortcuts overrides these behaviors to be standard to your shortcut preference.

If you can’t recall a keyboard shortcut, users of the latest version 10.5 (Leopard), can make instant use of the help menu which, like Spotlight for files, will search for text amongst the seemingly endless sea of menu options. This feature has saved me time, and again, in applications such as any of the Adobe suite of products.

Lastly, I’d like to touch on three very useful but, unadvertised, keyboard shortcuts.
Use Command-Option-Eject Key to set your computer into a blissful sleep state,
Command-Control-Eject Key to reset your Mac immediately, or
combine those two and get Command-Option-Control-Eject Key to shut it down until you need it again.

Overall, the mouse is unbelievably slow for pre-defined activities, in comparison to a keyboard shortcut. Thanks to Apple’s latest OS X, you don’t even have to remember them all.

Posted in Tips and Tricks on 09/04/08 9 comments

datenkind said on 09/20 at 03:45 PM

Indeed. Mac OS X serves the user an insane variety of shortcuts. I already knew those you mentioned, but as you say, they’re not really documented and so well unknown. But people are always amazed of this variety when they get to know about it. I couldn’t imagine my daily workflow without all these great possibilites of interacting with my keyboard in OS X. The Exposé is a gift from above, and with Spaces this is totally awesome.
But the greatest thing are the system-wide available typographical shortcuts, just to mention  (all non-apple users: haha! ;)).

Hans Jørgensen said on 09/28 at 07:41 AM

Hey
I tried your tip on Ctrl-Opt-Cmd Eject to shutdown my Macbook
As I restarted, it took longer than usual to get from a switched off screen to the grey boot screen.

And my main power LED has now inverted its mode. So that it is off when the computer is on and briefly on when I boot the computer, then it fades and is switched off.
Sleep mode with the pulsing light works as it should, though.

I tried resetting the PRAM, but to no avail.

Do you or anybody else know a solution to this?

Hans Jørgensen said on 09/28 at 07:45 AM

...I should add that it is a black macbook running OSX 10.5.5. Let me know if you might find further info useful.

Tony Pitale said on 09/28 at 08:25 PM

You probably need to reset the EFI Open Firmware: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Instructions are towards the end of the article.

sb said on 10/03 at 11:21 PM

I wonder how many people actually know more than 1 or 2 shortcuts on OSX or any OS… I think my wrist would fall off without them due to mouse overuse!

Hans Jørgensen said on 10/04 at 05:10 AM

I tried resetting the P- and NVRAM as described above. My power led is still off whenever my computer is on. I’m stumped. Do you have any other suggestions?

Laptops said on 10/21 at 06:37 PM

Thanks for the tip on resetting the firmware. It worked for me.

Paul H.Howells said on 10/22 at 07:40 AM

if you prefer using a keyboard to the mouse try using Launch Bar, I would be much slower without it. I kinda wish Apple would buy it and merge it into the OS.
http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html

bam said on 10/23 at 08:34 PM

love the tips.. in fact the very shortcut i was looking for (set to sleep) was in this article.
i agree on almost all points with the keyboard more preferred to mouse commands. (i remember playing tie fighter back in the day -wish someone would bring this one back- the entire keyboard was used for craft commands and communication. the mouse was only for navigation… i think the same applies to super computer use)
i highly recommend Quicksilver. a friend installed it for me and set command+spacebar to launch the window where i can type my application name to launch it. i am not completely weened from the Dock, but getting less and less dependent.
in my line(s) of work: cad, sketching, video editing and business development i am required to use heavy amounts of mousing and clicking.... so any keyboard tips that i can set my brain to automate, i do it!!!
thanks for the tips, Tony!

bam

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