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The foundation for being productive on any computer is knowing how to use the hardware. Apple (or for that matter, any computer manufacturer) provides a keyboard with every computer (and we don’t count the Apple TV as a computer during today’s discussion). They also provide a mouse. Did you know that? Of course you did. They’ve been doing that for over 20 years. We believe computer productivity breaks down whenever you have to take a hand off the computer and move it to the mouse and then back again. We find ourselves doing it just out of habit and because that’s the way we learned to interface with our modern computers.

While this may not seem like a productivity killer in the short term, we don’t like it and we are sure there is an armada of programmers out there who would agree with us. There’s at least a couple of seconds lost when we move our hand away from our keyboard and over to our mouse. Over the course of time that could be, oh…several thousands of days spread over a 10 to 20 years. By the way…we didn’t do the math on this one kids. We’re just saying.

So how do we save those thousands of days in our lifetime? We learn keyboard shortcuts to keep our fingers on the computer and off that nasty disease infested rodent. Today we will introduce you to a quick assortment of our favorite Mac keystrokes that we use on a regular basis to streamline our computer workflow. There is no way we can list every keystroke combination and we recommend you continue to explore the numerous combinations of finger twisting (we call it Mac Twister) that you can use to access commands. Let’s begin with a quick key of the keys (no pun intended) you will need to press in all manner of combinations to access various shortcuts.

• shift - The Shift key, there’s two ’em. One on the left next to the z key and one on the right next to the /key. We bet you knew that though.
• ctrl - The Control key. It sits comfortably under the left Shift key.
• opt - The Option key sits to the right of the Control key.
• cmd - The Command key (previously referred to as the open apple key). There are two of them and they both sit on either side of the Space Bar.

Alright, we have a roadmap, let’s begin saving time and becoming more productive on a day-to-day basis. Lets start with some very basic combinations that we use all the time. These are probably not new to many of you; however we bet you find yourself often taking your hands off the keyboard to perform these functions. We’ve listed them based on the combinations we use most.

Finder Keystrokes
Here are some common keystrokes you can use within the finder

cmd-N | Creates a new folder
cmd-n | Opens a new Finder window
cmd-i | Opens the info window
cmd-f | Opens the search window
cmd-? | Opens the Help Viewer
shift-cmd-a | Opens a window to your applications folder
shift-cmd-c | Opens a window to your computer folder
shift-cmd-h | Opens a window to your home folder
shift-cmd-u | Opens a window to your utilities folder

Here’s one last Finder combination we love:

shift-cmd-delete | Empties the trash

We bet you thought you could only do that one using the mouse.

Common Application Keystrokes
The Mac has a wonderfully integrated and controlled user interface standard that Apple expects programmers to follow. Doing so ensures that keystrokes within applications perform the same or similar functions. What that means is that a keystroke combination in one application should yield similar results in another. This is one of those reasons folks love the Mac. They immediately become comfortable in all applications once they have mastered another

cmd-N | Create a new document
cmd-n | Opens a new window within the application
cmd-o | Opens an existing document
cmd-s | Saves the current document – do this every few seconds
cmd-S | Saves the current document with with a new file name
cmd-f | Searches (Find) within a document
cmd-b | Bolds the selection or begin bolding new characters
cmd-i | Italicizes the selection or begin italicizing new characters
cmd-p | Prints the current document
cmd-? | Opens the Help Viewer
cmd-, | Opens the application’s preferences dialog box
cmd-w | Closes the current application window
cmd-q | Closes the current application

That’s quite a few keystrokes for you to remember and there are many more for you to discover. You’ll find your own favorites. Remember to practice using keystrokes on a regular basis to enhance our productivity. We have found that it is hard to resist the urge to move our hands to the mouse, but if we take time and actually resist that temptation and use our keyboards, these keystrokes quickly become natural and our use of the mouse decreases. Do you have a keystroke combination you can’t live without? Post a comment and let us know.

We continue our series next time by learning how to move around within our applications using just the keyboard.

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