OS X Keyboard Shortcuts

Mac OSX Shortcuts

Searching with Spotlight

• In OS X, cmd-space allows you to open Spotlight and search for files on your computer.

Applications and Windows

• cmd-space open up spotlight and type in the name of an app
• cmd-shift-[ or cmd-shift-] cycle through tabs
• cmd-w close tab
• cmd-shift-w close a window
• cmd-q quit a program
• cmd-o open a file
• cmd-n make a new file
• cmd-s save a file
• cmd-tab will let you cycle through windows and choose one to bring to the top of your GUI (also known as switching applications)

Text Editing

• cmd-left_arrow or cmd-right_arrow move cursor to the beginning or end of a line
• cmd-up_arrow or cmd-down_arrow move cursor to the top or bottom of a document
• option-left_arrow or option-right_arrow move cursor word by word
• cmd-backspace delete entire line before the cursor
• option-backspace delete entire word at once

Selecting/Moving Text

• cmd-a select all
• cmd-c copy selected item to the clipboard
• cmd-x remove selected item and copy it to the clipboard
• cmd-v paste copied item

Undo/Redo

• cmd-z undo
• cmd-y redo