Since they are by far our most popular request, I wanted to run down the basic keyboard shortcuts that are essential for students as well as beneficial for any user. Can you believe that the last time we featured these it was in the plain text Kibbles archives?!
Create a new folder: Command-Shift-N
Open a new Finder window: Command-N
Switch Application: Command-Tab
Find: Command-F
Select All: Command-A
Copy: Command-C
Cut: Command-X
Paste: Command-V
Duplicate: Command-D
Undo: Command-Z
Save: Command-S
Save As: Shift-Command-S
Print: Command-P
Close window: Command-W
Close all windows: Option-Command-W
Show or Hide Dock: Option-Command-D
Hide Applications: Command-H
Empty Trash (without warning): Shift-Command-Delete-Option
Empty Trash (with warning): Shift-Command-Delete
Move an item to the Trash: Command-Delete
Force Quit: Option-Command-Escape
Eject Disk: Command-E
Sleep: Option-Command-Eject
Quit all programs and restart: Control-Command-Eject
Take a picture of a selection: Command-Shift-4 (*essential shortcut—it’s far and away my favorite)
Copy an item being dragged: Option-drag
Move an item to new location without copying: Command-Drag
Select multiple files that aren’t next to each other: Command-click
Select multiple files in a row: Shift-click
Love these but want to view them all the time? Print this list or grab our sweet mousepad for only $4.99!
Note that these shortcuts are universal for OS 10.4 and higher. We will be adding Lion-specific keyboard shortcuts in future issues.