6 Mac Keyboard Shortcuts You Can Use Every Day

Just like Windows, Macs are full of keyboard shortcuts. Some, of course, are more interesting than others. Here are 6 rules to know and use every day.

No matter what you do on your Mac, chances are you use the special keys on your keyboard, the Command and Option keys, the most important ones. Indeed, these keys allow you to create very interesting shortcuts. The simplest and most common are certainly those that allow you to Copy (Cmd+C) and Paste (Cmd+V), but there are also much more complex ones.

There are so many things you can do with the Command key, and it turns out that this key is a lot more powerful than you might think. Even if you’ve been using a Mac for a long time and think you know almost everything, here are six fairly simple keyboard shortcuts to help you in your daily life.

1. Navigating open windows on the desktop

The Cmd + Tab shortcut allows you to move between open windows on your desktop. As long as the window is open and not minimized to the dock, pressing and holding Cmd + Tab displays a window with all open applications. Press and hold the Cmd key and then press Tab to switch between applications. Releasing the Cmd key will bring the selected application back to the foreground.

2. Hide open window on desktop

Instead of minimizing the window with the little yellow icon in the top left corner, you can easily and quickly hide it with the keyboard shortcut Cmd + H. Unlike the minimize action, the shortcut hides the window on the desktop and in the dock without closing it. fully. To open it again, click the application icon in the dock or elsewhere. And if you want to hide all windows except the one that is open, you can use Option + Cmd + H.

3. Open Spotlight to search for a file or application.

Spotlight search is one of the most powerful Mac features. Open it, enter what you are looking for and see the results. You can use the small magnifying glass in the menu bar to display Spotlight search, but this keyboard shortcut is much easier and more accessible: Cmd + Space.

4. Highlight URL in Browser to Share Quickly

Usually, to share a web address, you double-click in the address bar and copy the selected text to your clipboard. There’s a faster way: Cmd + L. This immediately selects the contents of the address bar in Safari, Chrome, or another web browser, whether it’s the URL of the site you’re on or whatever you just typed there. You can then press Cmd + C to copy this text and paste it wherever you want.

5. Reopen the closed browser tab.

You are probably familiar with Cmd + T in your browser to open a new tab, but there is a shortcut to reopen the last closed tab. Press Cmd + Shift + T and the last closed tab, accidentally or not, will reopen. And if you’ve closed a few tabs and want to reopen them all, you can keep pressing Cmd + Shift + T to reopen more.

6. Discover something new in native Apple apps

The shortcut Cmd+N is really underused. While it’s common knowledge that many popular apps open a new window, on your Mac the Cmd+N keyboard shortcut opens a new email in Mail, a new message in iMessage, a window in Safari, a note in Notes, a calendar event. and more. Try it on your favorite apps and see what this shortcut can do for you.