Mac tips: keystrokes to efficiency

For leisurely Internet browsing and movie watching, using the old mouse or trackpad works fine. However, if your job requires efficiency, you’ll no doubt recognize the benefits of quick keys and function keys.

Learn to use quick keys in OS X

For you seasoned vets, you probably utilize quick keys better than any, but you surely remember the time when you fumbled around your keyboard, perhaps wondering why “Control+P” wouldn’t print your document (if you were transitioning from PC).

This is a quick refresher of how to make the best of those simple quick key commands.

“Command” (again, for new users, this is the Apple key) mixes with many letters to give you easy control of your operations. Below I’ll tag the keys it can be mixed with, and what effect the combo has.

- a – select all

- c – copy selected material

- e – eject disc

- h – hide present program window (I’ll explain why I don’t use this)

- k – connect to server…used in mail programs to connect to server to upload and download messages, synchronize

- m – minimize current program window (I use this over hide because I can still see the document on the dock, and it has that pretty animation. If you’re going for secrecy, go with h)

- n – open new window in current program (blank document in Pages, new Camino window, etc.)

- o – open

- p – print current window

- q – quit current program (note: on Macs, you can either close the current window and keep the program running, or completely quit the program. It is always humorous to encounter new Mac users who have all their programs running, and can’t figure out why all those triangles stay beneath every program they open. Use the “command+q” if you’re done with the program, otherwise your RAM will fill up)

- t – you can use this to add something to a sidebar, or favorites, but I use it to add a tab to my current window browser. Tabbed browsing is old news, but if you don’t use it, start! Save yourself the time of clicking around 8 different browser windows, and save the memory.

- v – paste current selection. Staple quick key, along with copy, quit, etc.

- z – undo last action. If you do any sort of creating (writing, photo editing…anything really) this will be your best friend.

That list seems extensive, and it is; however, once you start using them, you won’t go back to using the Finder bar to browse for these commands.

Function keys

Here’s an outline of what the function keys do:

F1 – brightness down

F2 – brightness up

F3 – mute

F4 – volume down

F5 – volume up

F6 – number lock

F7 – display voice-over menu

F8 – open voice-over utility

F9 – exposé function that separates all open windows so you can select which you’d like. Play with it and see if its your style; some people use it, some people don’t. It’s handy if you’re trying to maximize desktop space

F11- hide all open windows. I don’t know about you, but in my life there are moments when hiding my current windows is adviseable. For instance, when my professor directs his gaze at my screen as he passes by. However, I have a better solution to the secrecy problem which I will highlight later.

F12 – show dashboard. I like to use this key, coupled with setting my dashboard to appear when I move my mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen. Depends on my mood, really.

If there’s something you’d like me to cover in a future “Mac tips” article, please leave a comment.

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