These keys are often represented by special symbols on the keyboard and also in menus and other parts of OS X as follows: I have blogged various shortcuts before, as have some of my colleagues, but since it is one of the most common questions I get asked by Students in training courses, I thought I would list my top ten.įirst of all, it is worth mentioning that all of these keyboard shortcuts rely on what we call ‘modifier keys’.Ī modifier key changes the way keystrokes or mouse/trackpad clicks are interpreted by OS X. The problem with a some of these shortcuts is that they are not so easy to find.

Most OS X keyboard shortcuts are therefore the same as they are in Windows, just substituting the ‘ctrl’ key used in Windows for the ‘cmd’ key on the Mac. You can see here that using the ‘cmd’ key along with the ‘C’ key will perform a copy, whilst ‘cmd’ + ‘V’ will perform a paste. Most of the more common keyboard shortcuts in OS X are displayed in the menu bar at the left top of the screen.Īll Apps including the Finder itself, will show the shortcut keys just to the right-hand side of all of the pull-down menus.įor example, the ‘Edit’ menu of an Application will provide you with the shortcuts for actions such as ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ :

So here’s a list of our Top Ten Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Therefore, keyboard shortcuts are something that you can spend ages trying to discover which ones do what and then having to memorise them! Over the years of using a Mac, I have managed to find quite a few shortcuts to save me having to revert to using my trackpad or mouse for just a couple of clicks here and there. Whether you are a technician, power user or end user, most of us prefer to use the keyboard more than our trackpad or mouse.

Macbook copy paste shortcut