These are 10 useful keyboard shortcuts that will help you become more efficient at using your Mac.
1. Command-S: for save
If you’re using Word, Excel, TextEdit, or almost any other application, using command-S ensures you won’t accidentally lose what you have been working on.
2. Command-Q: for quit
A quick and easy way to quit out of any application.
3. Command-tab: for moving between open applications
Instead of mousing down to the Dock to go from, say, Word to Safari, use command-tab to jump from one application to another. Keep holding down command, and hit the tab key until you get to the application you want.
4. Command-C: for copy, command-v: for paste
Is going to edit<copy and edit<paste up in the menu too slow and cumbersome? These two shortcuts are used frequently and are much faster and easier than going to the menu. Also don’t forget command-X for cut, if you want to do this instead of copying.
5. Command-Space: for Spotlight
Spotlight allows you to search for anything on your computer. Looking for that one document but don’t remember where you saved it to? Use Spotlight to help you locate it.
6. Command-click: for selecting multiple items in a list
Okay, this one does use the mouse. But it’s still a huge time-saver. If you want to select multiple files, select the first one, and then press and hold the Command key before selecting the other 4.
7. Command-delete: for moving items to the trash
Instead of selecting a document or folder and dragging it to the trash, this shortcut will move it to the trash for you.
8. Command-Shift-3: for taking a screenshot
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Sometimes the easiest way to show somebody a problem is to send them a screenshot. This keyboard shortcut takes a picture of your whole screen, and saves the file to your desktop.
9. Command-[: to go the previous page, in a web browser
How often do you go to a page on the internet, and you realize it’s not what you wanted, so you need to go back? Instead of using the mouse to click the back button, hit command-[ (that’s a square bracket). And of course command-] is the forward button in the web browser.
10. Command-Z: for undo
We all do stuff on the computer that we didn’t mean to do. Command-Z undoes the last thing you did. It doesn’t work for everything, some things can’t be undone.
For more information on other keyboard shortcuts, visit Apple’s Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts.