Mac/Macbook/Pro Productivity

As a tech professional, it's very important to keep your efficiency high at your job. Knowing some of these shortcut keys will dramatically improve your productivity. To start things off, given the amount of WFH scenario post Pandemic, you may be connecting your personal keyboard to both a personal PC (such as a Windows machine) as well as your Macbook Pro through a KVM switch. In that case to make sure the feel of your normal PC keyboard hits like your Mac keyboard, you may need to modify your modifier setting. Most Windows keyboard has the key on the lower left with order:

CTRL -> Windows Icon -> ALT

While on most Macbook / Pro you have

CTRL -> Option -> Command

Type Cmd + Space to bring up Magic Search and then type in "Keyboard"

Click on Modifier Keys and adjust as necessary:

Mac Shortcuts

• Cmd + Space : Brings up your Mac Magic Search

• Cmd + W : On a browser, this will close your current tab.

• Cmd + M : Minimize Current Window (Sometimes doesn't work in a website editor when that shortcut command is captured and used by the website itself).

• Cmd + Tab: Cycle through your opened Apps. Note that if your Chrome browser has many different windows this will only cycle to one of your focused window instead of cycle through all windows.

• Cmd + Shift + Tab: Give you a center UI with icons to switch between different apps instead of "jumping through" all the apps that are open.

• Cmd + ` (Backtick): Cycle through windows in the same app (such as within Chrome)

• Control + Tab: Cycle through your current tab.

Last but not least, generally speaking, the shortcut Cmd + Enter will trigger the default action that you are interacting with. This is often an "Ok", "Commit", or other types of highlighted actions.

Inside the Mail application which we use for a lot of email operation, you can also use the following shortcuts:

• Shift+Command+L : Flagging / Unflagging the email.

To Access the Desktop area quickly just "click" on the area and you can switch between your desktop and the windows.

Window Management

Mission Control

• Trackpad: 3 Fingers Swipe Up

• Keyboard

  • Control + Up Show all windows and apps and on the top bar allows you to create new Desktop spaces.

  • Control + Down Show all windows with the "Current App" (such as Chrome when you are using browser)

  • Control + Left / Right Switch between different Desktop spaces.

For the above controls, it's better to train your muscle to use the "Right side Control" as you could handle that using the same right hand location.

To move and expand window to one side of the monitor, press the Option key and then hover the mouse to the green cross button on the top left corner and you can choose to align it to one side.

Editing

• Control + A / E goes to the beginning / end of the line.

• Hold Cmd+Shift + [Direction Left or Right] will select texts to the beginning or end of the line. This makes copying or deleting fast.

  • For selecting direction to the right Control + Shift + E also does the same.

Many people use multiple languages to input for work. Apple introduced the "Globe" key in late design of the Macbook Pro to have that capability. But in case you want to use the traditional shortcut or you have a custom keyboard connected to your Mac, you can use use Ctrl + SPACEBAR to achieve the same effect but you need to check in System settings to make sure it's enabled here:

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Most gaming keyboards out in the market are highly targeted for Windows machines. For example if you buy a GMMK Pro custom mechanical keyboard the software (Core 2.0) from the official website is for Windows only. Once connected to a Mac, in order to change up the lighting effects on the keyboard for example, you might need to use key combo directly. Like Fn + [Up]/[Down] for cycling lighting effect. FN + W/S for brightness adjustment and Fn + [Left][Right] for effect speed.