If you ’ve read much of my writing here atMacworld , you know I love using the keyboard as much as potential . I find that reaching for the shiner ( or trackpad , as much as I love mine ) slacken me down and interrupt my flow . If you ’d wish to use the keyboard more and the shiner less , here are some ways to do just that — and some advice on how to superintend your growing collection of keyboard shortcuts .
System-wide shortcuts
OS X includes a number of global keyboard shortcut that you may already be intimate with : obscure and unhide the Dock ( Command - Option - D ) , spark off Spotlight ’s fare streak cliff - down ( Command - Space ) , take a screenshot ( switching - Command-3 ) , and show Mission Control ( Control - Up Arrow ) . What you may not know is that these shortcuts are customizable , and that you’re able to assign crosscut to other organization - wide activeness .
To customise the exist cutoff , or to add more , spread out the Keyboard panel in System Preferences , and clack on the Keyboard Shortcuts lozenge . Choose a category in the left - hand pane , and the consort project show up on the right field . Changing an be shortcut is as simple as clicking on the exhibit keystroke , then type your own replacement . It ’s likewise simple to make a new keyboard shortcut ; tap the unclouded - grayish None , and hit your combination of keys .
Add your own
you’re able to easily contribute your own keyboard crosscut to often - used commands that lack them .
The Keyboard tab is also where you’re able to create covering - specific keyboard shortcuts . Why might you need those ? moot Mail , where I use a lot of reguar and impudent mailboxes to machinate my ever - growing ingathering of electronic mail . Unfortunately , Mail does n’t have keyboard shortcuts for things like creating fresh mailboxes . But it ’s childlike to add shortcuts for the fare item I use most : Back in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences , tap program Shortcuts in the left - hand side of the Keyboard yellow journalism , then click the Add clit ( + ) to add a new shortcut .
A young window will open . When it does , select Mail ( in this instance ) in the first pop - up , enrol theexact nameof the menu command in the next box ( you may typecast the “ … ” by press Option- ;) , and eventually , the keyboard shortcut you ’d like to make . Repeat as necessary , and when you ’re done , you ’ll find your raw shortcuts in the app ’s carte ready to go .
You can easily add your own keyboard shortcuts to often-used commands that lack them.
While you’re able to allot your own shortcuts in most ( but not all ) applications , you may find that sure menu commands refuse to cooperate . regrettably , there ’s no rule for set which ones will mould and what wo n’t ; just give it a try and see what happens .
Use a utility
Another way to keep your hands on the keyboard is through the use of launcher utilities such asAlfred ( ) , Butler ( ) , LaunchBar ( ) , or Quicksilver ( ) ; and via keyboard macro programs such as Keyboard Maestro ( ) or QuicKeys ( ) . ( disavowal : I now work for the company that makes Butler . ) All of these program have a brawny admixture of features , some of which let in the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts .
One downside to being keyboard - centric is the sheer turn of keyboard shortcuts that be . Consider Mail ’s carte du jour , for instance : I count 89 defined keyboard cutoff in just that one app . lend in the shortcut for your other apps , as well as those you ’ve created yourself , and you could have literally thousands of keyboard combination to remember . How could you possibly recall them all ? The honorable answer is that you ca n’t , so you should n’t even try .
alternatively , you should memorize just those you apply most often , use some other help to help you recall the unity you do n’t apply quite as often , and then trust on even more help for those you rarely use .
The pop-up menu I use to open my shortcut cheat-sheet (lower right) and the actual sheet itself.
The first level , your most - used shortcut , is the easiest : You naturally memorize them through sheer repetition . For me , this is n’t a huge leaning ; perchance five to ten key shortcuts per app .
The next stratum down , though , is where things get more complicated . You ’ve got keyboard shortcuts that you use a lot , but not often enough to fully commit to memory . How do you think those shortcuts quickly and easily ? One possible solution isKeyCue ( ) , which can pop - up a tilt of every shortcut in an covering ’s menus . ( you could also add entries for shortcut that are n’t shown in menus . )
Create a cheat-sheet
KeyCue ca n’t , however , aid you with shortcuts you may have make using a launcher or keyboard macro broadcast . Because that ’s how I ’ve created many of my most - utilitarian shortcuts , I come up with an alternative answer : I created a new document in Pages , listing these essential shortcuts , and what each does . I then saved that Thomas Nelson Page as a PDF ( because Preview open up much more quickly than does Pages ) .
The come out - up fare I use to spread out my crosscut beguiler - canvass ( lower right ) and the genuine sail itself .
To check that I can always get to my shortcut darnel - sheet promptly , I created a menu using Butler ( which I summon with — you guessed it — a keyboard shortcut ) and then assigned a touchpad gesture to “ typecast ” that shortcut for me usingBetterTouchTool . With this solution in place , I can either summon the Butler card with its shortcut or a tap on the down remaining corner of my Magic Trackpad to crop up up a menu whose first item opens my shortcuts sheet .
Once I ’ve bet up a crosscut on that sheet , I ’ll commemorate it for a little while , so I do n’t have to bear on to it incessantly .
For those shortcuts you rarely use , here ’s one last tip , though it ’s only useful for key - combinations that are in a program ’s menu : Use Shift - Command-/ , the global shortcut for the Help menu in nearly every OS ecstasy covering .
Even if I do n’t recollect the shortcut tonality for a particular command , I can usually recollect the command ’s name . So after trip the Help card from the keyboard , I can start typing that name . aid then seek the app ’s menus for command that match what I ’ve typed . As it finds bid , it also shows their keyboard shortcuts .
Obviously , you do n’t have to apply this trick only to notice crosscut for the statement you want . you may just as easily search for a mastery , then habituate the cursor arrows to navigate to the one you want . Press Return , and the command will be follow through .
Senior Contributor Rob Griffiths is master of observance atMany Tricks Software .
