{"id":302,"date":"2020-08-27T21:53:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T16:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openapex.org\/spaces\/tech\/?p=302"},"modified":"2024-02-20T17:41:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T12:11:44","slug":"top-15-shortcut-keys-in-mac-and-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/top-15-shortcut-keys-in-mac-and-windows.html","title":{"rendered":"Top 15 Keyboard Shortcuts in Mac and Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The keyboard shortcuts help us tremendously to perform repeated tasks faster and save us a lot of time. In every platform, default keyboard shortcuts are available; many are common across platforms. A classic example is &#8211; shortcuts for cut, copy, paste, find, etc. are the same on all platforms. On Mac, the primary key for shortcuts is <strong><code>\u2318<\/code><\/strong> , and on Windows, the primary key for shortcuts is <code>Ctrl<\/code>. These keys, in combination with <code>Shift<\/code>, <code>Option<\/code>, <code>Alt<\/code> etc. and other alphanumeric keys, form the shortcut keys to perform various operations. The function keys <code>F1<\/code> to <code>F12<\/code> are also used as shortcut keys for various purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/openapex.org\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/08\/keyboard-shortcuts-final.jpg\" alt=\"Mac Keyboard\" class=\"wp-image-403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/08\/keyboard-shortcuts-final.jpg 800w, https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/08\/keyboard-shortcuts-final-300x100.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/08\/keyboard-shortcuts-final-768x256.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mac Keyboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Mac and Windows provide options to customize the default shortcut keys. While most applications adopt the system default shortcut keys, some applications may define a slightly distinct set of shortcut keys. Look for a Key-map customization option in the application and change the shortcuts as you need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shortcut keys listed in this article are my top picks and I hope familiarity with these shortcut keys will help you to do your work better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\"><p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<\/div><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/top-15-shortcut-keys-in-mac-and-windows.html\/#Mac_Top_Shortcut_Keys\" >Mac Top Shortcut Keys<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/top-15-shortcut-keys-in-mac-and-windows.html\/#Windows_Top_Shortcut_Keys_Hotkeys\" >Windows Top Shortcut Keys (Hotkeys)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"mac-top-shortcut-keys\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Mac_Top_Shortcut_Keys\"><\/span>Mac Top Shortcut Keys<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We can change the default Mac Keyboard shortcuts from <code>System Preferences =&gt; Keyboard =&gt; Shortcuts (tab) =&gt; Keyboard (list item) <\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table><thead><tr><th>#<\/th><th>Category<\/th><th>Shortcut<\/th><th>Function<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1<\/td><td>Navigation between Windows<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + Tab<\/strong><\/td><td>Use this to switch between active applications. Hold the <strong>\u2318<\/strong> key and keep pressing <code>Tab<\/code> key to switch to the desired application.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + `<\/strong><\/td><td>Use this to switch between the windows of an application. Hold the <strong>\u2318<\/strong> key and keep pressing ` key to switch to the desired window.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>Navigation between Tabs<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + \u2325 + Left\/Right Arrow<\/strong>                                        <br><br><\/td><td>Use this to switch between tabs in a browser like Chrome and other applications that support tabs. Hold \u2318 and <strong>\u2325<\/strong> keys and press the left or right arrow to navigate between tabs.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2303 + Tab<\/strong><\/td><td>Hold <strong>\u2303<\/strong> key and press tab or <strong>\u21e7<\/strong> + tab to navigate between tabs.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>Navigate Back and Forward<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + [<\/strong> or <strong>\u2318 + ]<\/strong><\/td><td>Go back to a page or go forward in a browser<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + <strong>Left\/Right Arrow<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><td>Go back to a page or go forward in a browser<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>Menu Navigation<\/td><td><strong>\u2303 + F2<\/strong><\/td><td>Move focus to the menubar. Use the left, right, up, and down arrow keys to navigate between menu options.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>Open<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + N<\/strong><\/td><td>Open a New Window<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + T<\/strong><\/td><td>Open a New Tab<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + <strong>\u21e7<\/strong>+ T <\/strong><\/td><td>Reopen a closed tab<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + O<\/strong><\/td><td>Open a file<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6<\/td><td>Close<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + W<\/strong><\/td><td>Close a Tab<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + Q<\/strong><\/td><td>Close an Application<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7<\/td><td>Hide<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + H<\/strong><\/td><td>Hide the active application. This is very useful when you instantly want to hide the currently visible app window. <\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>F11<\/strong><\/td><td>Launch the Spotlight Search tool to search for anything on Mac<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8<\/td><td>Select, Cut, Copy, Paste<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + <\/strong>A<\/td><td>Select all text or all files<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + X<\/strong><\/td><td>Cut selected text<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + C<\/strong><\/td><td>Copy selected text<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + V<\/strong><\/td><td>Paste selected text<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9<\/td><td>Undo, Redo<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + Z<\/strong><\/td><td>Undo the last operation<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + \u21e7 + Z<\/strong><\/td><td>Redo the last operation<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10<\/td><td>Save<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + S<\/strong><\/td><td>Save the content to the file<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11<\/td><td>Search<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + F<\/strong><\/td><td>Find \/ Search<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + Space<\/strong><\/td><td>Launch the Spotlight Search tool to search anything on Mac<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12<\/td><td>Print<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + P<\/strong><\/td><td>Print the content of the active application that supports print<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>13<\/td><td>Screenshot<\/td><td><strong>\u2318 + \u21e7 + 5<\/strong> (or 3 or 4)<\/td><td>Take a screenshot with various options. Use the key <code>3<\/code> or <code>4<\/code> instead of <code>5<\/code> to take a screenshot of the entire visible window or a select part of the window.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>14<\/td><td>Lock<\/td><td><strong> \u2303 + <strong>\u2318<\/strong> + Q<\/strong><\/td><td>Lock your Mac<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>15<\/td><td>Emoji Palette<\/td><td><strong>\u2303 + <strong>\u2318<\/strong> + Space <\/strong><\/td><td>Launch Emoji palette<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"windows-top-shortcut-keys-hotkeys\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Windows_Top_Shortcut_Keys_Hotkeys\"><\/span>Windows Top Shortcut Keys (Hotkeys)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The default Windows shortcut keys are not very different from Mac except that instead of <strong><code>\u2318<\/code><\/strong>, Windows uses the <code>Ctrl<\/code> key. We can change the Windows keyboard shortcuts from <code>Start (<strong>Windows (\u229e)<\/strong>) =&gt; <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/accessories\/downloads\/mouse-keyboard-center\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center<\/a><\/code>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"310\" src=\"https:\/\/openapex.org\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/10\/keyboard-windows-1024x310.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/10\/keyboard-windows-1024x310.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/10\/keyboard-windows-300x91.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/10\/keyboard-windows-768x233.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/10\/keyboard-windows-1536x466.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2020\/10\/keyboard-windows-2048x621.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Windows Keyboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table><thead><tr><th>#<\/th><th>Category<\/th><th>Shortcut<\/th><th>Description<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1<\/td><td>Navigation between Windows<\/td><td><strong>Alt + Tab<\/strong><\/td><td>Use this to switch between active applications. Hold the <code>Alt<\/code> key and keep pressing <code>Tab<\/code> key to switch to the desired application.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>Navigation between Tabs<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + Tab<\/strong><\/td><td>Use this to switch between tabs in a browser like Chrome and other applications that support tabs. Hold the <code>Ctrl<\/code> key and keep pressing <code>Tab<\/code> key to switch to the desired tab.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>Open<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + N<\/strong><\/td><td>Open a New Window<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + T<\/strong><\/td><td>Open a New Tab<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + O<\/strong><\/td><td>Open a file<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>Close<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + W<\/strong><\/td><td>Close a Tab<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Alt + F4<\/strong><\/td><td>Close an Application<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>Hide<\/td><td><strong>Windows (\u229e) + D<\/strong><\/td><td>Minimize all Windows and show Desktop<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6<\/td><td>Rename<\/td><td><strong>F2<\/strong><\/td><td>Rename a file<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7<\/td><td>Select, Cut, Copy, Paste<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + A<\/strong><\/td><td>Select all files or all text depending on the context<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + X<\/strong><\/td><td>Cut the selected file or text<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + C<\/strong><\/td><td>Copy the selected file or text<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + V<\/strong><\/td><td>Paste the selected file or text<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8<\/td><td>Undo, Redo<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + Z<\/strong><\/td><td>Undo the last operation<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + Y<\/strong><\/td><td>Redo the last operation<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9<\/td><td>Save<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + S<\/strong><\/td><td>Save the content to the disk.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10<\/td><td>Search<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + F<\/strong><\/td><td>Find<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>11<\/td><td>Print<\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + P<\/strong><\/td><td>Print the content of the active application that supports print<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>12<\/td><td>Screenshot<\/td><td><strong>Windows (\u229e) + Print Screen<\/strong><\/td><td>Save a Screenshot of the currently active window<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>13<\/td><td>Lock<\/td><td><strong>Windows (\u229e) + L <\/strong><\/td><td>Lock the screen<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><td><strong>Ctrl + Alt + Del<\/strong><\/td><td>Open the option for Lock Screen, Task Manager, etc.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>14<\/td><td>Refresh<\/td><td><strong>F5<\/strong><\/td><td>Refresh the desktop or reload a page in the browser<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>15<\/td><td>Open Explorer<\/td><td><strong>Windows (\u229e) + E<\/strong><\/td><td>Open the Windows Explorer<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The keyboard shortcuts help us tremendously to perform repeated tasks faster and save us a lot of time. In every platform, default keyboard shortcuts are available; many are common across platforms. A classic example is &#8211; shortcuts for cut, copy,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[23,19,22,21,20],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity","tag-hotkeys","tag-mac","tag-shortcut-keys","tag-shortcuts","tag-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":988,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions\/988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutesoft.com\/spaces\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}