Sometimes you need to go back to the previous page. Why use your mouse for that when you can let your fingers do the work with a little Keyboard Kung Fu.
Substitute the back button with this simple move
Holding your thumb on the ⌘ key, tap the [ key with your index or middle finger.
Load previous webpage with Command-[
You can also go forward to the page you just left by using the Command key with the right bracket, ⌘].
Not just for web browsers
The command-bracket key combination not only works in Safari, Chrome, Firefox or any modern web browser but it’s also very useful for navigating while in Finder.
Try it now – leave this page and go back to the previous page using ⌘[ and then go forward with ⌘] to return to this page.
Do you turn off your Mac when you’re not using it, or do you put it to sleep?
You are getting very sleepy
Instead of turning your Mac off it can be put to sleep so that it can be revived instantly when you next want to use it. To do so is really easy, in fact, there are several ways to put your Mac to sleep.
In the image below I show how you can hold down the ⌘ key, then the ⌥ key, and then the ⏏ key to put your Mac to sleep.
Inducing sleep with Command-Option-Eject
Putting just the display to sleep
Sometimes you might just want to put the display to sleep while the Mac continues to work. ⌃⇧⏏ will put your Mac’s display straight to sleep, without warnings.
Additional options with Control-Eject
The ⌃⏏ combo will pop up a confirmation window that gives a few different options: Restart, Sleep, or Shutdown.
You can go a step further and shut down the computer completely with ⌃⌥⌘⏏.
Would you like to know how to easily improve your display and sound settings?
Options Aplenty
The aptly named “option” key (the one with the ⌥ symbol) provides several options when combined with particular F keys. For example, ⌥F1 brings up the Display window of the System Settings. This is because F1 is the ‘decrease brightness’ key. Similarly, F2. is the ‘increase brightness’ key and like the F1 key, when combined with the ⌥ key, brings up the system’s display settings.
Change the Display settings with Option-F1
Options for Sound Effects, Output and Input
On the top-right region of the keyboard are the volume settings, F11, F12, and F13. Using the ⌥ key with any of these will provide instant access to the Sound panel of the System Settings. There you can adjust your mic’s input volume, or adjust the volume of your alerts.
Grasshopper to Mission Control
Mission Control is great for quickly and easily getting an overview of and access to all your open windows, your Dashboard, and all your open applications. Customising your Mission Control settings to your own choice of key triggers is just as easy.
Use the ⌥F3 or ⌥F4 keyboard combination to bring up the Mission Control settings. From here you can set what key combinations you prefer for accessing things like Mission Control, open Applications, showing Desktop or Dashboard and also for setting the Hot Corner triggers for your mouse.
Young Caine: You cannot see.
Master Po: You think I cannot see?
Young Caine: Of all things, to live in darkness must be worst.
Master Po: Fear is the only darkness.
Master Po: Do you hear the grasshopper that is at your feet?
Young Caine: [looking down, sees the insect] Old man, how is it that you hear these things?
Master Po: Young man, how is it that you do not?
Let’s say you’ve sent a lot of files to the Trash and you would now like to empty it. You probably know that you can right-click on the Trash icon and choose “Empty Trash” but did you know…yep, you guessed it, there is a keyboard shortcut for that!
Empty the Trash with Finder in focus
This is a general keyboard tip for the Operating System. That is, it applies to the Finder and will have a different effect that the one described here if you use it while using an app, such as Chrome, for example.
Empty the trash with CMD-Shift-Delete.
While in the Finder, or on the Desktop, which is technically a part of Finder, put your thumb on the ⌘ key and while holding it down put your index finger on the ⇧ key and while holding both those down, add you middle finger to the mix by tapping it on the delete key.
Empty the Trash = ⌘⇧delete
A small message will pop up asking you are sure you want to permanently erase the items:
Added Option: Permission to take out the Trash
You can bypass the need to confirm that you want to empty the Trash by adding the ⌥ (option) key. It’s a bit of a handful, literally, but it is not too difficult as you can hold the ⌥ key down at the same time as the ⌘ key with your thumb.
You can always drag a file into the Trash, but there is a much faster and easier method of getting rid of unwanted files.
Send straight to Trash with Command-Delete
Instead of wrestling that file to the ground and dragging it into the Trash, kick that file straight into the bin using the ⌘delete combo! Just select the file by clicking on it with your mouse or using your shift and arrow keys, and then hold your right thumb on the ⌘ key and tap the delete key.
Take out the Trash with Command-Delete
Command key or Apple key?
As you may have noticed in the image above, and in the previous post about selecting the URL, on some keyboards the ⌘ key also has an Apple logo on it (my thumb is covering the ⌘ symbol in the photo above). To add some confusion, the Command key is sometimes referred to as the “Apple key”.
Trash files without getting your fingers dirty
The beauty of the ⌘delete combination is that, unlike the drag and drop method, you don’t have to go any where near the Trash. So if you prefer to keep your hands clean you can send unwanted files to the trash in one swift move with ⌘delete.
This week we explore the ⌘L shortcut, useful for changing the URL in the browser’s address bar and one that can be used in conjunction with earlier Keyboard Kung Fu tips such as Cut, Copy & Paste and Switching Between Open Apps.
Address the Situation with Command L
Throughout the course of a general work day I regularly need to access a website’s URL, that is, a website’s address. Sometimes I need to copy the URL and paste it into another field or application, often into an email so that I can share the website with a colleague. Other times I want to paste a URL that I have obtained from elsewhere into the address bar of the web browser.
This is where the ⌘L combination is a very useful weapon in your repertoire of Keyboard Kung Fu moves.
Highlight the URL ready to either paste over or copy
How to Select the URL in the Address Bar
Whenever you are using a web browser, be it Safari, Chrome, Firefox or other, simply holding down the ⌘ key with your thumb and then tapping the L key highlights the URL in the address bar, ready to either paste over or copy.
Exercise: Copy & Paste a URL from one browser to another
Now that we have a few Keyboard Kung Fu lessons under our belt let’s consolidate our learning by combining some of these techniques to achieve a practical task.
Task: In this scenario you have opened a website in Firefox but the page is not displaying properly so you want to see what the same website looks like in Safari. How would you do that using as many of the keyboard shortcuts we’ve already learned?
Here’s one way we could do that:
Assuming that you already have both browsers open:
1. While in Firefox use the ⌘L technique to select the URL in the address bar.
2. Use ⌘C to copy the URL.
3. Using ⌘tab will allow you to then move from Firefox to the Safari browser.
4. The ⌘L combo is then used to select the URL in the address bar of Safari.
5. Finally, use ⌘V to paste the URL into the address bar and tap return to load the website.
All of this is achieved without ever needing to take your hands from the keyboard to touch the mouse.
Using this keyboard combination to cut, copy & paste will increase your productivity on the Mac immensely.
Copy/Cut & Paste
Perhaps the most well known of all keyboard shortcuts is Copy & Paste, or Cut & Paste. It’s a very quick and easy way to copy or move text around from one document or field to another. It can also be used with files to duplicate them or move them from one location to another.
How to Copy & Paste
Select some text and hold down the Command key ⌘ and tap on the C key. This action copies the text and puts it in memory on a virtual clipboard.
Pasting via a keyboard shortcut is one that often confuses new users. Most people intuitively assume that pasting is accomplished using the ⌘P combination but this has already been allocated to the Print function. Instead, the paste function uses the ⌘V combination.
Copy & Paste with Command-C and Command-V
How to Cut & Paste
Select some text and then hold down the Command key ⌘ and tap on the X key. This action removes the selected text from it’s current position and copies it to the clipboard. This is a temporary location and will be forever lost if the copied text is not then pasted somewhere.
Paste the copied text to the new location with the ⌘V combination as described above.
Cut & Paste with Command-X and Command-V
Moving Files with Copy & Paste…and Option
As stated in at the beginning of this post, files can also be moved around with these keyboard combinations. Prior to the release of the Lion operating system (OSX 10.7), however, files could only be copied from one location to another using the keyboard, which left a duplicate in the original location. The only way to move a file was to drag and drop it. With Lion, and the later operating systems, came the ability to truly cut & paste files to easily move them from one location to another. There is just one small difference to cutting and copying text and that is the need for a ‘modifier’ key to be used when pasting the file in it’s new location.
To cut and paste files from one location to another you need to add the Option key ⌥.
Copy the file: ⌘C
Paste the file: ⌥⌘V
Note that when you copy the file it is not removed from it’s current location until it has been pasted in its new position, ensuring that the file is not lost.
