Keyboard Shortcuts on Macintosh Computers - What Works and What Doesn't
By Martin Odellt
If you have used a Windows computer your whole life and you've finally decided to take the plunge to the "ultimate PC upgrade" - a Mac, you'll probably catch yourself worrying as soon as you open the box and take out your gleaming new Mac, about whether you really know how to use your new purchase. Some things are the same on the Mac - like clicking on something to open it. Try to go in a little deeper, like using a program to send an e-mail, and everything seems to work differently. For instance, switching between different open windows on the PC, you just have to press Ctrl + Windows Key + Tab to activate the Flip 3D function. One reason this won't work on Macintosh computers is that there is no Windows key. You'll have to learn all-new keyboard shortcuts to make your way around a Mac. Let's look at a list of some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts you can use on Macintosh computers.
The Macintosh has something called a Command Key. In a curious way, the icon for it does look something like the Windows logo. Roughly speaking, it performs a function that's analogous to the one performed by the Control key in Windows. If you press Command C, that's Copy, Command V is to paste.
How about that move where you need to flip between all open programs? On Macintosh computers, you use the Command-Tab function for it. If you have three or four browser windows open, this is not the shortcut that will help you switch among them. The Command-Tab combination only helps you flip among different programs, and not different windows of the same program. For that, you need to use the Command-Tilde function. Things just work slightly differently on Macintosh computers. Before long, all of this will be second nature.
There are keyboard shortcuts you can use to close a window that's open. On Windows computers Alt+F4 would be what does the trick for you. Apple computers feel that Command Q would be a much more sensible key combination. There is little wrinkle that they add to it though. Command Q only closes all instances of a program. If you just want to close the one window that the focus is on, you need to use Command W.
On a browser for the Macintosh, you don't use the term Address Bar for the field in the browser where you type in the URL of the website. They call it the Location Bar. To go to the Location Bar, Command L would be what you need. If you type in Command K., you're taken directly to the search box that's next to the location bar.
Macintosh computers can be really intuitive. Before long, you should be whizzing along with these keyboard shortcuts.
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