Programs and operating systems are designed to limit the number of times you have to move your hands off the keyboard and over to the mouse. They accomplish this by using keyboard shortcuts for the most common tasks. A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys that are pressed all at the same time.
Read on for a list of some common keyboard shortcuts for MacOS and Windows, as well as some shortcuts that work regardless of your machine.
Windows Keyboard Shortcuts:
|
Ctrl+W
|
Close current window
|
| Alt+F4 |
Quit current application |
| Alt+Tab |
Cycle through currently running applications |
| Ctrl+Shift+Esc |
Open Task Manager |
| F1 |
Help for current application |
| Win+D |
Display and hide the desktop |
| Win+L |
Lock the machine |
| Win+I |
Open Settings |
| Win+Shift+S |
Take a screenshot of part of your screen |
Macintosh Keyboard Shortcuts:
| Cmd+W |
Close current window |
| Cmd+Q |
Quit current application |
| Cmd+Tab |
Cycle through currently running applications |
| Cmd+Option+Esc |
Open Force Quit |
Both Operating System Keyboard Shortcuts:
NOTE: MacOS users can replace Ctrl in the following examples with Cmd
| Ctrl+A |
Select All |
| Ctrl+C |
Copy selection |
| Ctrl+X |
Cut selection |
| Ctrl+V |
Paste selection |
| Ctrl+Z |
Undo last operation |
| Ctrl+Y |
Redo last operation (for both undoing an undo as well as repeating the last operation you completed) |
| Ctrl+P |
Print |
| Ctrl+O |
Open a file in the current application |
| Escape (Esc) |
Don’t commit current changes or Don’t do current command |
Mouse Tip:
- Pressing the right mouse button (or holding down the Control key and clicking on a Macintosh) will display a contextual menu of options that you are likely to want to perform on the current selection.