Hotkeys exist to make your life easier, but often go unused or forgotten by many users. Hotkeys make things like managing files,applications, and other system task a mere tap of the fingers. I’ve compiled a list of the many useful hotkeys I use on a daily basis when working on my Mac.
These following hotkeys are useful for managing windows and open applications. They can help to reduce onscreen clutter or quickly move between programs.
Command-W — Close the current window
Command-Q — Quit the current program
Command-M — Minimize the current window to the Dock
Command-H — Hide the current program but keep it running
Command-Tab — Cycle through open programs
Command- Tilde — Cycle between open windows for current program
This set of commands is useful when working with the Finder application or otherwise managing files.
Command-I — Get information on a file or folder such as timestamps, file size, or file type
Command-N — Create a new Finder window (can also be used with programs like Safari)
Shift-Command-N — Create a new folder in the current window
Command-delete — Move any selection to the trash (hold Shift with this hotkey to empty the trash)
Command-P — Print the current document, or any selection of documents in the Finder (works with most applications as well)
Command-O — Open any document, or any selection of documents in the Finder
Save your self the trouble of having to drag and drop multiple files from place to place.
Command-C — Copy the current selection to the clipboard
Command-V — Paste that selection, copying it to the specified location. Include “Option” here to move the item instead of copying
Command-Space — Open a new Spotlight window
Command-F — Open a Finder Search starting at the current location (useful for quickly finding specific info in a word document or on a webpage)
These final hotkeys are especially useful when troubleshooting or trying to solve a problem with your mac.
Option-Command-Esc — Show the force-quit window to close frozen applications
Control-Eject — Shut down
Command-R— hold while starting your computer to boot to the recovery partition and access options for repairing your Mac like Disk Utility or reinstall OS X
Again, these are just hotkeys that I find exceptionally useful and help to make my work easier. Are there any other useful ones that you use that you didn’t see on our list? Let us know down in the comments below.