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I've Switched from Windows, Now What?
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Here are some of the basic keyboard commands under Mac OS X that I've found most helpful. Again, many will be familiar as they're just a matter of using the Command key rather than the Ctrl key:

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Keystrokes

Action

Cmd-C

Copy

Cmd-X

Cut

Cmd-V

Paste

Cmd-A

Select all

Cmd-?

Help

Cmd-Z

Undo

Shift-Cmd-Z

Redo (often -- however some applications toggle Undo/Redo using only Cmd-Z rather than supporting multiple levels of Undo)

Cmd-F

Find (and usually brings up Replace options also)

Cmd-G

Find Again

Shift-Cmd-3

Take a screen shot of the entire display (saves it as .tiff file to your desktop)

Shift-Cmd-4

Take a screen shot of the section of screen you select (cross-hairs will appear; also saves as a .tiff file to your desktop)

Cmd-M

Minimize window

Option-Cmd-M

Minimize all windows open for that application.

Cmd-N

Open a new window.

Cmd-Tab

Cycle through open applications on the Dock.

That last one--Cmd-Tab to cycle through open applications--is just close enough to the Windows Alt-Tab to be annoying. But cycling through applications is quite different than using Alt-Tab to toggle back and forth in Windows. In Windows you can use Alt-Tab to flip back and forth between two applications or windows with one keystroke--but Cmd-Tab in Mac OS X cycles through open applications in the order in which they appear on the Dock. It does not move you through open windows in each application, and if you have four applications open it will move you from one to the next, not back and forth between them.



By changing a few System Preferences, you can access the Dock by keyboard commands in even more powerful ways. Check out the System Preferences -> Keyboard, and choose the "Full Keyboard Access" tab.

Screen shot.
Turning on full keyboard access.

Related Reading

Mac OS X Pocket Reference
A User's Guide to Mac OS X
By Chuck Toporek

First, check the box next to "Turn on full keyboard access". This allows you to use keystrokes to navigate through the menu, the Dock, and so on. To determine how you reach those areas from the keyboard, use the "Use control with" section of the dialog box. You can choose function keys, letter keys, or custom keys. I like using the letter keys, so I can just press Ctrl-M to jump to the menu bar Ctrl-D to jump to the Dock. Once there, you can use the arrow keys to navigate through your options, which can be surprisingly fast. Plus in this mode, you can navigate through all the choices on the Dock via the keyboard, including unopened applications and minimized windows.

You can also press ctrl-F1 to turn full keyboard access on and off. Remember, though, the iBook's F1 key's default task is to dim the screen. To press "ctrl-F1", you really need to press three keys -- fn-ctrl-F1. Use the default state for the F1 thru F5 keys to control screen brightness and audio volume.

If you just want to move through open Internet Explorer windows, you can use Cmd-~. But this is specific to MSIE and is not a standard used by other programs.

Arrow Keys

A lot of my work involves text editing, and I've become pretty speedy using arrow, home, end, and pg-up/pg-dn keys to navigate through text. But these keys sometimes work differently on Mac OS X and an iBook.

The arrow keys work pretty much the same as you'd expect for moving around in a document. Add the shift key to select text as you move through it. Add the option key to increase the cursor movement by one unit--option-right-arrow moves the insertion point right a word at a time; option-up-arrow moves the insertion point up a paragraph at a time.

Using the Command key with the arrow keys will give you a cursor jump to the "next semantic unit"--usually the beginning or the end of the line. In typical applications, using the Command up/down arrow moves the insertion point to the top and bottom of the document. Command left/right arrow moves the insertion point to the beginning and the end of the line.

Use the fn key to get the home/end/pg-up/pg-dn functions. But remember- using these keys does not move the insertion point--they work the same as scroll bars do. If you're typing away and press Home, you'll see the top of your document, but if you just start typing you'll be inserting text at the location you were at when you pressed the Home key.

iBook key combo

Usual action

option-left/right

Moves insertion point one word left/right

option-up/down

Moves insertion point one paragraph back/forward

Cmd-left/right

Moves insertion point to beginning/end of line.

Cmd-top/bottom

Moves insertion point to top/bottom of document

fn-home/end/pg up/pg dn

Moves to beginning/end/one screen up/one screen down -- but does not change insertion point.

A Word of Warning

Whether or not these keyboard commands work in any given program depends, of course, on how well that program supports them (and there are some differences when using non-English systems as well). I've found that keyboard commands and navigating with arrow keys are quite different in BBEdit. I'm a new BBEdit user, so I'm hoping that this is only a result of some setting, perhaps for legacy users, but I haven't found it yet. Note: see the talkbacks below, including "Info on BBEdit Keyboard Commands", for additional information on keyboard commands in BBEdit.

If you're interested in more nitty-gritty interface details, check out Apple's Aqua Human Interface Guidelines--it's the ultimate authority on how things should work.

See you next time!

Terrie Miller is an amateur naturalist, citizen scientist, permaculturist and writer from Northern Calfornia. Her personal weblog is TerrieMiller.com.

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