Keyboard is definitely the easiest way to communicate with a Mac. Irrespective of the Mac OS X version you are using, you will definitely find information provided here about Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac. Yes there are lots and lots of keyboard shortcuts and most of the times the applications that provide those shortcuts do display those shortcuts in their menu items. You do not need to learn each and every keyboard shortcut, just try to remember only those shortcuts that you feel might be really useful. You can also bookmark this page and return to it the next time you need to know about another keyboard shortcut on your Mac.
Keyboard Shortcuts are defined by applications and many times commonly used keyboard shortcuts are often supported in almost simular fashion by lots of software applications or utilities. Software developers try to make sure that you can easily use their software and hence they do try to follow the trend of keyboard shortcuts in other applications and offer similar keyboard shortcut. Let’s take an example of Command + F Key which is the keyboard shortcut to open up the Find Window. This Command + F Keyboard Shortcut Key opens up a find window of the software with focus. Let’s say you have a Mac Finder open up and it has got the focus, now if you press the Command + F Key, a find window will appear automatically at the top right corner with which you can search for files / folders on your Mac or on specific drives on your Mac. Command + F Keyboard shortcut when pressed in Google Chrome, Safari, etc will also open up a find window but that window will help you to find text in the browser window and not files or folders on your Mac.
Command + M with focus on a Window will minimize the window with animation as if like you have pressed the Minimize button on the application Window. On the other hand the Command + H Keyboard Shortcut will hide the Window and will not display animation. Similarly Command + W Keyboard Shortcut on Mac will signal the application to close it as if you have pressed the close button the software screen. This Window Close Keyboard Shortcut on Mac wil be handled by the respective application in the best possible way. Let’s say you have a TextEdit Window open with some unsaved text, pressing the Command + W key will just signal the TextEdit to close, but TextEdit will display you a prompt asking whether and where you want to save the unsaved text, similarly google chrome handles the Command + W key by closing the active tab only instead of closing the google chrome altogether.
There are two types of Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac. The first type of keyboard shortcuts are discussed briefly above where every application exposes specific / similar keyboard shortcuts and handles them in best possible way. On the other hand there are Global Keyboard Shortcuts available on Mac which can be used even when the application exposing such global keyboard shortcut is minimised, hidden or does not have active focus. MurGaa.com has lots of Mouse and Keyboard Automation Utilities which expose Global Keyboard Shortcuts so that you can start / stop automatic keyboard typing or automatic mouse clicking irrespective of whether you have current focus on a Game, Application or anything else.