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The Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet You'll Actually Use
Every Mac keyboard shortcut worth memorizing, organized by use case. No 200-row tables you'll never read. Sonoma and Sequoia tested.
The internet is full of “Complete List of 247 Mac Shortcuts!” articles. Nobody reads them. Nobody remembers them. This is the trimmed list — only shortcuts that real people actually use enough to memorize, grouped by what you’re trying to do.
Universal text editing
These work in every text field on macOS — Mail, browsers, Word, Notes, Slack, anything:
- Cmd-A — select all
- Cmd-X / C / V — cut, copy, paste
- Cmd-Z / Cmd-Shift-Z — undo, redo
- Cmd-Left / Right — start/end of line
- Cmd-Up / Down — start/end of document
- Option-Left / Right — previous/next word
- Option-Delete — delete previous word (faster than holding Delete)
- Cmd-Delete — delete to start of line
- Fn-Delete — forward delete on a keyboard without a Delete key
The one most people don’t know: Cmd-Shift-V in many apps does “paste and match style,” stripping formatting. If it doesn’t work, try Cmd-Option-Shift-V.
App and window management
- Cmd-Tab — switch apps
- Cmd-` (backtick) — switch windows of the current app
- Cmd-H — hide current app
- Cmd-Option-H — hide all other apps
- Cmd-M — minimize window
- Cmd-Option-M — minimize all windows of current app
- Cmd-W — close window
- Cmd-Q — quit app
- Cmd-Option-Esc — Force Quit dialog
- Cmd-Option-Shift-Esc (held 3 sec) — force quit frontmost app silently
The shortcut that changes everything: Ctrl-Cmd-F — fullscreen toggle. Faster than the green button.
Mission Control and Spaces
- Ctrl-Up — Mission Control
- Ctrl-Down — App Exposé (windows of current app)
- Ctrl-Left / Right — switch between Spaces
- Ctrl-1 / 2 / 3… — jump directly to Space N
- F11 — show Desktop (or Fn-F11 on laptops)
To get the Ctrl-N shortcut for Spaces, enable it in System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Mission Control. Off by default.
Finder
- Cmd-N — new Finder window
- Cmd-Shift-N — new folder
- Cmd-T — new tab
- Cmd-W — close tab/window
- Cmd-Up — go to parent folder
- Cmd-Down — open selected
- Cmd-Option-V — move (cut) files after Cmd-C
- Cmd-Delete — move to Trash
- Cmd-Shift-Delete — empty Trash
- Cmd-Shift-. (period) — toggle hidden files
- Cmd-Shift-G — Go to Folder dialog
- Cmd-I — Get Info
- Space — Quick Look preview
- Cmd-Y — open Quick Look as floating window
The one that’s life-changing: Cmd-Shift-G, then type ~/Library/. Direct access to the hidden Library folder without changing any settings.
Spotlight and search
- Cmd-Space — Spotlight
- Cmd-Option-Space — Finder Search
- Inside Spotlight: Cmd-Return — open the file’s enclosing folder instead of the file
- Inside Spotlight: Cmd-L — Look up dictionary definition
Screenshots and recording
- Cmd-Shift-3 — full screen to desktop
- Cmd-Shift-4 — region to desktop
- Cmd-Shift-4, then Space — window with shadow
- Cmd-Shift-5 — screenshot toolbar with screen recording
- Add Ctrl to any (e.g., Cmd-Ctrl-Shift-4) — copy to clipboard instead of saving
The trick: in the Cmd-Shift-5 toolbar, click Options to set the timer, location, and turn off the floating thumbnail.
Browsers (Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave)
- Cmd-T — new tab
- Cmd-Shift-T — reopen closed tab
- Cmd-W — close tab
- Cmd-Shift-W — close window
- Cmd-1 through Cmd-9 — jump to nth tab (in Safari, last tab in Chrome)
- Cmd-L — focus address bar
- Cmd-R — reload
- Cmd-Shift-R — hard reload
- Cmd-F — find on page
- Cmd-Option-Left / Right — previous / next tab (Chrome) / Ctrl-Tab in Safari
- Cmd-Y — show history
- Cmd-D — bookmark page
- Cmd-N — new message
- Cmd-R — reply
- Cmd-Shift-R — reply all
- Cmd-Shift-F — forward
- Cmd-Shift-D — send
- Cmd-Shift-J — mark as junk
- Cmd-Shift-U — mark as unread
Messages
- Cmd-N — new message
- Cmd-K — search messages
- Cmd-Up / Down — navigate conversations
- Cmd-Delete — delete current conversation
Universal everything
- Cmd-, — open Settings/Preferences in any app
- Cmd-? — open Help in any app (and you can type any menu command into the search)
- Ctrl-Cmd-Space — emoji and special character viewer
- Cmd-S — save
- Cmd-P — print
- Cmd-O — open
- Cmd-N — new
- Cmd-+ / Cmd— — zoom in / out
System
- Cmd-Option-D — toggle Dock auto-hide
- F11 (or Fn-F11) — show Desktop
- F3 (or Fn-F3) — Mission Control
- F4 (or Fn-F4) — Launchpad
- Ctrl-Shift-Power — sleep display
- Cmd-Option-Power — sleep Mac
- Ctrl-Cmd-Q — lock screen
Trackpad and Spaces (gestures, not keys, but worth listing)
- Three-finger swipe up — Mission Control
- Three-finger swipe left/right — switch Spaces
- Three-finger swipe down — App Exposé
- Four-finger pinch — Launchpad
- Spread thumb and three fingers — Show Desktop
How to make your own
System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, App Shortcuts, click +. Pick the app, type the menu item name exactly as it appears in the menu (including ellipsis if there is one), assign a key combo. This is how you get Cmd-Shift-D to mean “Delete with confirmation” in Finder, or Cmd-Option-N to mean “New Note” in any app.
The other route is a tool like Karabiner-Elements (free, open source) for system-wide remapping — Caps Lock to Esc, Right-Cmd to a hyper key, that sort of thing.
How to actually memorize these
Take this list, kill 80% of it, keep only the 5-10 shortcuts you’d use today. Use those exclusively for two weeks. Then add 5 more. Then 5 more.
Trying to learn 50 shortcuts at once is the same as learning none. Pick the few that map to your most-repeated tasks, force yourself to use them instead of the trackpad, and let the muscle memory build. After three months you’ll be doing things in 1 second that used to take 10.