Keyboard Control

The novelty of operating a computer using a mouse, trackpad or trackball soon wears off. Having become familiar with the machine you’ll soon want more control from the keyboard.

Keyboards

The keyboards on modern Mac OS computers are similar to those on other machines, consisting of QWERTY keys, numerical keys, special character keys and modifier keys.

Most keyboards have between 101 and 105 keys, including twelve or more function keys, as well as Apple’s special Command key, the latter of which is usually marked with the Apple icon as well as a ⌘ (clover-leaf) symbol.

The following table shows which keys are equivalent on Mac OS and Windows systems:-

Mac OS	Windows
⌘	Ctrl (Control)
Option	Alt (Alternative)

This means that pressing similar key combinations can have much the same effect. For example, pressing ⌘-C in the Mac OS gives the same result as pressing Ctrl-C in Windows.

Preferences

The behaviour of the keyboard is set by the Keyboard ＆ Mouse pane in System Preferences. The Keyboard tab includes two settings, Key Repeat Rate and Delay Until Repeat, both of which should be adjusted to match your own style of typing.

The Keyboard Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard ＆ Mouse pane lets you modify existing keyboard shortcuts or create new ones of your own. To add a shortcut requires you must choose the application in which the shortcut will be used and then enter the menu item’s name exactly as it appears on the screen. As an example, you could choose to use the key combination of Ctrl-Shift-Option-T to select Secure Empty Trash in the Finder.

The keyboard layout is set in the Input Menu tab of the International preferences pane. Each item in the list can be used to match your Mac’s software to the physical layout of the keys. If you pick the wrong one you’ll get incorrect characters.

Special Keys

Key(s)	Purpose
(Power) •	Machine control
Function (F1, F2 …)	Special and user-defined purposes
Esc	Cancel dialogues or reverts to default
Del	Deletes text right of cursor (opposite to Delete)
Home, Page Up, Page Down, End	Window navigation
Help	Fast access to an application’s help facility
Numeric (1, 2 …)	Calculations and rapid numeric entries
Fn	Modifies actions of other keys on portables

Power Key

This key or button, usually marked with a symbol, lets you turn your computer on or off. However, such a key on a USB-connected keyboard can only be used to turn the machine off.

When you use to switch off the machine, a dialogue appears, allowing you to choose Shut Down, Restart or Sleep. The last option saves power and lets you quickly resume operations by pressing any key. Some machines will also sleep if you press ⌘-Shift-O.

Function Keys

Full-sized keyboards usually have fifteen function or F keys, numbered from F1 to F15, although some PowerBook and iBook models only have the first 12 keys. These shouldn’t be confused with the Fn key, also found these machines and also known as the ‘function’ key.

Modern PowerBook and iBook models often assign the following F keys as shown below:-

Key	Operation
F1	Brightness Down
F2	Brightness Up
F3	Volume Down
F4	Volume Up
F5	Number Lock
F6	Sound Mute
F12	Eject CD/DVD •

• This function is accommodated by a separate button on some machines

For these keys to behave ‘normally’, you must press Option as well as an F key, although on some machines the behaviour can be modified by pressing Fn at the same time. Since the F keys were originally designed as function keys, this way of working appears to be a retrograde step.

Unless otherwise defined, each F key can also be used by a frontmost application, although they’re rarely used this way and aren’t always shown in pull-down menus.

Numeric Keys

This part of a keyboard, when provided, is designed for entering numbers during calculations. Although most of these keys have counterparts on the main keyboard they’re not always treated the same by an application. PowerBook models don’t come with a numeric area, although part of the main keyboard can be used for this purpose in conjunction with the Fn key (see below).

Shift

The Shift key operates in exactly the same way as it does on an old-fashioned typewriter. However, the operation of ‘shifting’ letters and numbers can be confusing to an inexperienced typist.

Holding down Shift at startup places the computer in what is known as Safe mode.
Pressing Shift after entering your user name and password at log-on prevents items in Library/StartupItems from running. These are often .kext files that modify the system.

Fn

With suitable software, the Fn (function) key, as found on portable machines, can change the action of other keys, making it possible to simulate all 105 keys. Typically, it modifies the F keys as follows:-

Key	Operation with Fn
F5	Num Lock
F7	Insert
F8	Delete (Forward) •
F9	Print Screen
F10	Scroll Lock
F11	Pause

• This operation requires special software on machines without a Fn key

In addition, it modifies the arrow keys as follows, without the need for any extra software:-

Key	Operation with Fn
⇡	Page Up
⇣	Page Down
⇠	Home
⇢	End

By pressing Fn and F5 together you can switch the keyboard into Number Lock or Num Lock mode. This modifies the keyboard to work as follows :-

Keys	Results
7 8 9 0 -	7 8 9 / =
U I O P	4 5 6 *
J K L ;	1 2 3 -
M , . /	0 . +
Return	Enter

In this mode all other keys are locked out of action, but can be temporarily restored by pressing any such key at the same time as the Fn key.

Ctrl (Control)

The Ctrl key is often used for Ctrl-clicking, which brings up a contextual menu, in the same way as the right hand button on a two-button mouse. It also modifies the operation of the Eject button on an Apple keyboard (see below).

Option

The Option key is normally used to generate characters that aren’t provided by other keys, either on their own or in combination with the Shift key. Any character produced by using Option in combination with other keys is outside the range of normal ASCII characters.

This key is often labelled as Alternate (Alt) on non-Apple keyboards.

Command

This key is identified by an Apple icon and/or ⌘ (clover-leaf) symbol. When pressed in combination with another key it can send a command to your current application.

Pressing this key during startup forces the computer to start from the CD-ROM drive.

Other Keys

Pressing Return or Enter often has the same effect, since both keys usually actuate the default button in a dialogue box. However, in dialogues that also let you to enter text the Return key should only insert a CR (carriage return or new line) character whilst Enter should activate the button. Inevitably, the role of these keys varies between applications: for example, pressing the Enter button is the usual means of confirming the data that you’ve typed into a calculator application.

Older PowerBook models have extra buttons that can disable the loudspeaker, increase or decrease the sound volume and adjust the screen brightness. Recent designs use the F keys for this purpose, requiring you to press Fn to get the normal function key to operate (see above).

The Eject button on an Apple keyboard also performs special functions when used with the Ctrl key. For example, holding down Ctrl-Eject and pressing Enter shuts down the computer, whilst holding Ctrl-Eject and pressing S puts it to sleep.

Keyboard Symbols

Keyboards and menus with keyboard equivalents usually use symbols for modifier keys, including ⌘, Shift, Ctrl, Option and other special keys.

Standard Shortcuts

Several shortcuts are provided as standard, as shown in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard ＆ Mouse preferences pane. The following extract images from the computer screen:-

Key Combination	Function
⌘-Shift-3	Saves desktop image in a PDF file
⌘-Shift-Ctrl-3	Copies desktop image to clipboard
⌘-Shift-4	Saves selected part of desktop in a PDF file
⌘-Shift-Ctrl-4	Copies selected part of desktop to clipboard

In the second pair of shortcuts the area is selected by clicking and dragging: it can be constrained to a square by pressing Shift whilst dragging. You can also press ⌘-Caps Lock-Shift-4, which creates a PDF file of a selected window. The camera icon that appears should be dragged into the required window and clicked. If you press Ctrl at the beginning of the process, or continue to hold this key down whilst clicking in the window, the image is copied to the clipboard.

If you click on Turn on full keyboard access in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab you can also use the following:-

Finder Shortcuts

Common Finder shortcuts are listed below. Variations on these commands, actuated by pressing modifier keys, such as Option or Shift at the same time, are also shown. Such modifiers also work when you choose the appropriate item in the menu bar. Pressing Option either provides more options (hardly surprising) or makes a currently active item disappear or close when you select the new item.

Disk Control

Files and Folders

Duplicate ⌘-D

Duplicates of locked files aren’t locked.

Get Info ⌘-I

Make Alias ⌘-L

Open ⌘-O

Option: closes the current window first.

Find Original ⌘-R

If an alias is selected you’ll see the original file.

Add to Finder’s sidebar ⌘-T

Prior to Mac OS X 10.3, this adds selected items to Favorites.
Shift: adds selected items to Favorites folder.

Move to Trash ⌘-Delete

Edit name of item selected in Icon or Column View Return

Confirm modified name Return

Clear name whilst editing Delete

Move items to new location Drag the items

Option: the items are copied to the new location.
⌘-Option: makes aliases of items at the new location.
⌘: moves items to a second disc, removing them from original disc.

Move items in or out of the System folder Shift-Option-drag the items

Lets you extract and modify files or copies of files and install new versions.
Only works in Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, requiring you to enter name and password.
Such operations are also possible if you log on as root user.

Navigation

Working through a window full of icons can be tedious. The following keyboard commands can give your mouse a rest:-

Some users, particularly those who normally work in a single window, may prefer to use the ⌘-N combination to create a new folder instead of a new window (see below). To make this slightly technical change, you must first go to the Keyboard Shortcuts panel of the Keyboard ＆ Mouse preferences pane and create a shortcut called New Folder with the Shortcut set to ⌘-Shift-N. Now open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist in a suitable text editor and find the new shortcut: duplicate it and then name it New Finder Window. Finally, delete the $ from the New Folder key, save the file and relaunch the Finder.

The Finder’s Find dialogue, initiated with ⌘-F, has a Search in pop-up menu, where you can select Specific places. In this window you can press Tab to highlight locations, Space to turn them on or off and Ctrl-Tab to leave Specific Places.

Window

The following shortcuts are available when working in a Finder window:-

View as Icons ⌘-1

View as List ⌘-2

View as Columns ⌘-3

Go to Documents folder ⌘-4

Go to Users folder ⌘-5

Hide Toolbar ⌘-B

You can also click the lozenge in the upper right-hand corner.

Go to Applications folder ⌘-A

Go to Computer folder ⌘-C

Go to Favorites folder ⌘-F

Go to Folder ⌘-G

You must type the required path, using ~ as a shortcut for the path to your home folder.

Go to iDisk ⌘-Option-I

Show View Options ⌘-J

Connect to Server ⌘-K

New window ⌘-N

Close window ⌘-W

Option: closes all open windows.

Go Back ⌘-[

Go Forward ⌘-]

Add item to toolbar Drag item onto the toolbar or use contextual menu

Move item on toolbar ⌘-drag item

Remove item from toolbar ⌘-drag item off the toolbar

Move the window Drag the window

⌘: moves window without activating if you click on the drag bar or frame.
The folder containing a window can be moved by dragging the ‘proxy’ icon shown at the top of the window to a new location, can be copied by pressing Option at the same time, or an alias can be created whilst pressing ⌘-Option.
Note: This technique can also be used with the windows of files in normal applications.

Move within a window ⌘-click, hold and move mouse

Dock Shortcuts

Dialogue Shortcuts

The operation of dialogues and panels varies between applications. In some instances the ⌘ key, used in combination with a letter, activates the item that begins with a matching character.

Open and Save Panels

Most applications let you open and save files. Having selected Save, a panel appears, showing all the items in the current folder. The following commands work in standard Open or Save panels:-

Shortcuts in Applications

The shortcuts shown below work in many applications, as well as in the Finder:-

Editing

Some applications have special features, as in AppleWorks, where you can press Ctrl-⇡ or Ctrl-⇣ to move the current paragraph up or down a paragraph, or Ctrl-⇢ or Ctrl-⇠ to increase or reduce a line’s indent by half an inch.

Cocoa Editing

Cocoa-based applications also accommodate the following Emac-style of editing:-

Other Shortcuts

The following shortcuts work most of the time, irrespective of the application:-

Hide front application ⌘-H

This can also be used to hide the System Preferences application: clicking and holding on this application’s icon in the Dock then reveals a pop-up menu of all the preferences.

Hide other applications ⌘-Option-H

Minimise window ⌘-M

Option: minimises all open windows.

Print ⌘-P

Page Setup ⌘-Shift-P

Save ⌘-S

Save as ⌘-Shift-S

Close ⌘-W

A dot in the close button in a Cocoa application indicates that unsaved changes exist.

Undo ⌘-Z

Some applications have a multi-level undo feature.

Open Preferences pane for current application ⌘-,

Cancel current operation ⌘-. or Esc

You may need to repeatedly press the key, but don’t overdo it.
If you’ve accidentally started a long process you should wait for it to finish.

Force application to quit ⌘-Option-Esc

Only use this if an application seriously misbehaves: press Return twice to confirm default options.

Force application to quit without confirmation dialogues ⌘-Shift-Option-Esc

Only works in Mac OS X 10.3 or higher.

Activate application window and hide other applications Option-click on a window

Activate Finder and hide applications ⌘-Option-click on desktop

Drag and drop Drag the item

To cancel the operation in midstream press Esc and then release the mouse.

Select a contextual menu item Ctrl-click (or right-click) the menu and press the first couple of letters for the item

Set the alert volume Option-click speaker icon in the menubar and adjust

This doesn’t change the main volume setting.

Universal Access

Universal Access is for those who have difficulties with a keyboard, although it also includes features that anyone can use. It appears as a panel in the System Preferences window.

Mouse Keys lets you use the keys on the numeric part of your keyboard to move the mouse in one-pixel increments, with 8, 6, 4 and 2 operating in the same way as on a PC. Slow Keys is for slow typists whilst Sticky Keys can produce (for example) ⌘-W if you press ⌘ followed by W.

Keyboard Codes in Detail

The keyboard in most computers actually generate two codes. The scan code indicates the physical key that has been pressed whilst a second code conveys its meaning with normal coding. Hence the = key on the main part of keyboard generates a different scan code to the = key on the numeric section, although both produce the number 61 (hex 3D), as used to represent the equals sign. This mechanism allows different applications to use these keys in different ways.

The code generated by a key changes when used with a modifier key, such as Shift, Ctrl, Option or Command. The effect of a toggle key, such as Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock and Ins is similar, although the key must to be pressed again to cancel its effect. And although such key combinations produce a specific scan code they don’t always generate a character code.

Not all keyboards can produce every code. For example, a standard Mac keyboard can’t generate the numbers 252 to 255, whilst those above 218 are ignored by some computers. Codes that don’t represent a character are often shown in text as a

(missing character box).

The Mac OS accommodates various physical keyboard layouts, using a keyboard map to assign a character to each key. You can check the characters produced your keyboard using KeyCaps, a small application supplied with the system.