Mac Basics and More Part Five: Keyboard Shortcuts

If you don't use keyboard shortcuts, you should be. They are a great way to save time in your everyday work on your computer. What is a keyboard shortcut? It is a combination of keys that get pressed together for completing a task on your computer. There are shortcuts for printing, opening and saving files, closing windows, and more. This article will cover some of the more well known shortcuts, and probably most useful.

First, a few note on keys:

Shift- The shift key is an easy one and clearly labeled on the keyboard.

Command- This is the key next to the spacebar. It used to have an Apple on it on Macs and was called the Apple Key.

Delete- for this article Delete is the big Delete key next to the "+" and under the Eject key.

One final note: For the purpose of this article and the information below "+" is not a key to press. If you see "+" it means hold this key and this key together.

Command+P print a document from within a program

Command+S save a document from within a program

Command+O open a document from within a program. This will also open a selected icon or application from the Finder

Command+C copy highlighted text

Command+V paste copied text

Command+X cut text. Cut means to remove selected text, but copy it to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere.

Command+Delete Send a file to the trash from the finder or from a program like iPhoto

Command+Shift+N from the finder will create a new folder

Command+Shift+L create an alias of the selected icon

Command+I Get Info. This will give information about a selected icon or document

Command+F This is for Find. In a browser this will search a webpage. In the finder this will find a word in a file. This varies from document to document.

Command+G In a browser, if you enter a word you are looking for using this combo will look for the next occurrence of the word