Apple Macintosh Keyboard Shortcuts

This group of pages has my contributions to the Internet community.

Contents:

Stopping a Program (try in order)

Clover + Q quit program
Clover + . interrupt
Clover + Option + Esc force quit
Clover + Shift + Option + Esc force quit, Cocoa & Panther only
Reset reset
Power power button for over 5 seconds
Clover + Control + Power restart immediately, no chance to save, may corrupt disk

Back to top.

Booting (hold down while...)

click or hold eject CD
C boot from CD/DVD
D start from hard disk's first partition; if the first install disk is in the drive, start diagnostic tests
N start from the network server
Option + N start the default boot image from a NetBoot server
Clover + Option + N + V reset NVRAM
Clover + Option + O + F bring up Open Firmware
Clover + Option + P + R reset PRAM
R force PowerBook screen reset
Clover + S boot single user moder (OSX)
T put the Mac into FireWire target disk mode
Clover + V boot verbose: show messages while booting (OS X)
X start in OS X (if OS 9 is on the same disk)
Option show icons of all start-up disks or partitions and lets you select older machines: restart in OS 9
Shift boot with no extensions (OS9); holding Shift down after the list of services begins to appear disables auto-login, holding it down after you've logged on disables login items
Clover + Option rebuild desktop (OS9?)
Clover + Option + Shift + Delete bypass startup checks; start up from an external drive, if present; otherwise, start up in Safe mode
Eject eject CD (may not work on USB); F12 is used if there is no dedicated eject key

Back to top.

Login

Shift + Return don't run startup items; while showing user list, Option + Enter on a name switches to prompt for name mode, Back goes back to name list mode
in name mode... You can enter these special names:
  • >restart
  • >shutdown
  • >sleep
to do the corresponding function.

Back to top.

Other

Clover + Shift + 3 snapshot screen to file/desktop (which depends on version)
Clover + Control + Shift + 3 snapshot screen to clipboard
Clover + Shift + 4 then click/drag snapshot screen selection to file/desktop (which depends on version)
Clover + Shift + 4 then hold Control snapshot screen selection to clipboard
Clover + Shift + 4 then Space snapshot screen selection to desktop
Clover + Shift + CAPS + 4 snapshot window to file
Clover + Shift + CAPS + 4 and then click/drag snapshot window selection to file
Clover + Control + Shift + 4 then click/drag snapshot screen selection to clipboard
Clover + Control + Shift + CAPS + 4 snapshot window to clipboard
Clover + Control + Shift + CAPS + 4 then click/drag snapshot window selection to clipboard
Clover + Shift + Q log out
Eject eject CD/DVD
Reset reset used for firmware upgrades
Reset reset
Power sleep on/off; restart if pressed for over 5 seconds

Back to top.

Finder

Option + click on minimize minimize all Finder windows
Option + double-click open selected folder and close parent window
Clover + drag file or folder location move to a new volume without copying
Option + drag file or folder location copy file or folder to a new location
Clover + Option + drag file or folder location make an alias in a new location
Clover + uparrow opens the parent folder
Clover + Option + uparrow open parent folder and close the current window
Clover + Option + Shift + uparrow selects the Desktop
Clover + downarrow moves down one level
Clover + rightarrow expand folder (List view)
Clover + Option + rightarrow expand folder and nested subfolders (List view)
Clover + leftarrow collapse folder (List view)
Tab selects the next item alphabetically
Shift + Tab selects the previous item alphabetically
Clover + Option + 8 toggle zoom
Clover + Option + Control + 8 toggle white-on-black mode
Clover + Option + = zoom in
Clover + Option + - zoom out
Clover + Shift + A opens your Applications folder
Clover + Option + D toggle the Dock between show and hide
Clover + Shift + H opens your Home folder
Clover + L create an alias
Clover + Option + O open selected folder and close parent window
Clover + R when an alias is selected, jump to its target
Clover + T move an item to the sidebar
Clover + Option + W close all Finder windows
Clover + Shift + Delete empty trash
Clover + Delete move the selected item(s) to the trash
Clover + Option + Shift + Delete empty trash immediately without any warning dialog

Back to top.

Dashboard

F12 toggle Dashboard activation (if you don't have a dedicated eject button, F12 will eject the CD)
F12 and hold shows Dashboard while key is held down (if you don't have a dedicated eject button, F12 will eject the CD)
Clover + = (after Dashboard activated) toggle Widget bar
Clover + R (after Widget selected) reload Widget

Back to top.

Spotlight

Clover + click opens the file in a new Finder window
Clover + Space opens the Spotlight menu
Clover + Option + Space opens the Spotlight window
Clover + Return opens the Top Hit item
arrow keys navigate the list of results
Return opens the selected search result

Back to top.

General Keystrokes

Clover + Tab switches to the next open program; press ONCE and release the z key to switch to the program used most recently
Clover + Shift + Tab switches to the previous open program
Clover + Option + D hides/shows the Dock
Clover + Option + H hides all windows except the one you're in
Clover + ` cycle through application or Finder windows (if more than one open)
Clover + Shift + ` cycle through application or Finder windows (if more than one open), in reverse order
Clover + ~ switches to the next open window in this program
click on Dock icon (Application) shows applications's windows
Control + click on Dock icon (Folder) shows folder's contents; also Force Quit option
Clover + click on Dock icon reveals the original item in the Finder
Clover + Option + click on Dock icon switches to this program and hides all others
Clover + click window toolbar button cycle through available window views
Clover + click window title show path to folder or document
Option + click yellow button dock all this application's open windows (some applications)
Option + click on another application's icon switches to this program and hides all others
Option + empty trash empties the trash without asking "are you sure?" and also empties locked files

Back to top.

On Keyboards Without a Power Key

Control + Eject brings up the dialog box for shutdown, sleep, or restart
Clover + Control + Eject forces a restart
Clover + Option + Eject puts the Mac to sleep
Clover + Control + Option + Eject shuts down

Creative Contributions

Others' Contributions

Apple-related

Internet FAQs

Code

“How-Tos”

Data

Neat


 
 

I am Craig A. Finseth.

Back to Home.

Back to top.

Last modified Tuesday, 2011-03-15T16:48:11-05:00.