Complete List of MacBook Keyboard shortcuts [Updated]

If you want to increase productivity in office work then you should know keyboard shortcuts as this will save you a lot of times. We have listed all the MacBook keyboard shortcuts that enhance your workflow.

These keyboard shortcuts are very handy if you are working in a corporate as these keyboard shortcuts will help to finish your task quickly.

Although in the past few years Apple has been slow in giving groundbreaking innovations still their hardware is best in class and are still in use in various industries such as technology, movies, etc.

Note: that this list is compiled from various big sources on the internet and all credit goes to them. In this post, I have compiled mostly all shortcuts.

MacBook Keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet

1. Show and hide Spotlight Search: Command + Space bar
2. Show and hide the Dock: Option + Command + D
3. Show the Character Viewer: Control + Command + Space bar
4. Display the current app in full screen: Control + Command + F
5. Full display screenshot: Command + Shift + 3
6. Selection screenshot: Command + Shift + 4
7. Open Screen Utility: Command + Shift + 5
8. Open the Computer window: Shift + Command + C
9. Open the Desktop folder: Shift + Command + D
10. Open the Recents folder: Shift + Command + F
11. Open the Downloads folder: Option + Command + L
12. Open the Documents folder: Shift + Command + O
13. Open the Utilities folder: Shift + Command + U
14. Open the AirDrop window: Shift + Command + R
15. Open a Go To Folder window: Shift + Command + G
16. Open the iCloud Drive folder: Shift + Command + I (uppercase i)
17. View items in Finder as icons: Command + 1
18. View items in Finder as a list: Command + 2
19. View items in Finder as columns: Command + 3
20. Create a new folder: Shift + Command + N
21. Create a new Smart Folder: Option + Command + N
22. Show and hide the Sidebar: Option + Command + S
23. Show and hide the Path Bar: Option + Command + P
24. Show and hide the Status Bar: Option + Command + /
25. Bold and un-bold text: Command + B
26. Italicize or un-italicize text: Command + I (uppercase i)
27. Underline or un-underline text: Command + U
28. Page up: Fn + Up arrow
29. Page down: Fn + Down arrow
30. Go to the beginning of the document (Home): Fn + Left arrow
31. Go to end of the document (End): Fn + Right arrow
32. Command s Save document: Command + S
33. Command p Print document: Command + P
34. Command H Hide the windows of the front app: Command-H
35. Command z Undo: Command + Z
36. Redo: Shift + Command + Z
37. Command x cut: Command + X
38. Command c copy: Command + C
39. Command v paste: Command + V
40. Select all items: Command + A
41. Command f Find items: Command + F
42. Minimize front window: Command + M
43. Close the front window: Command + W
44. Open preferences for the front app: Command Comma (,)
45. Force quit an app: Option + Command + Esc
46. Switch to the next most-recently-used app: Command-Tab
47. Empty the Trash: Shift-Command-Delete

Here is a video from beebom which tells that there is some setting that you can change for better user experience

Some uncommon useful shortcuts

1. Put your Mac to sleep: Option + Command + Power button
2. Put your display to sleep: Control + Shift + Power button
3. Log out of your Mac user account: Shift + Command + Q
4. Force restart without an option to save open files: Control + Command + Power button
5. Quit all apps and shut down with the option to save open files: Control + Option + Command + Power button
6. Display a dialog box to restart, sleep, or shut down: Control + Power button

Sleep, log out, and shut down shortcuts

1. Press to turn on your Mac or wake it from sleep: Power button
2. Immediately lock your screen: Control-Command-Q
3. Log out of your macOS user account: Shift-Command-Q
4. Put your Mac to sleep: Option–Command–Power button
5. Put your displays to sleep: Control–Shift–Power button

Doing web browsing over Safari? Use these shortcuts

1. To slowly scroll up, down, left, or right: Press the corresponding Arrow key.
2. To scroll in larger increments: Hold Option and press the corresponding Arrow key.
3. To scroll down a page or screen: Press the Spacebar. Or, if your keyboard has one, press the Page Down button.
4. To scroll up a page or screen: Hold Shift and press the spacebar. Or, if your keyboard has one, press the Page Up button.
5. Scroll to the top of a page: Hold Command and press the Up Arrow. Or, if your keyboard has one, press the Home button.
6. To scroll to the bottom of a page: Hold Command and press the Down Arrow. Or, if your keyboard has one, press the End button.

Using Preview? Top Preview App shortcuts!

1. Enter slideshow mode Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + F.
2. Zoom in or out the zoom out function is accessed by pressing Command (⌘) + Minus (-) on your keyboard, while the zoom in function is accessed by pressing Command (⌘) + Plus (+) on your keyboard.
3. Zoom to selections your mouse or trackpad and draw a selection on an image, then press Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + 8 and the image will be zoomed to the selected area only.
4. Adjust the color of an image: –Command (⌘) + Option (⌥) + C on your keyboard
5. Rotate an image:- To rotate an image to the left 90º, press Command (⌘) + L on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can rotate an image to the right 90º by pressing Command (⌘) + R on your keyboard.
6. Crop an image
   To quickly crop an image that you’ve opened with Preview, you can press Command (⌘) + K on your keyboard, and this will bring up the cropping boundaries. You may now use your mouse or trackpad to adjust the cropping boundaries to your satisfaction.
7. Toggle sidebar options: –You can switch to table of contents view by pressing Command (⌘) + Option (⌥) + 3 or you can hide the sidebar completely by pressing Command (⌘) + Option (⌥) + 1 on your keyboard.
8. Show or hide the image inspector Command (⌘) + I
9. Duplicate the opened Command (⌘) + Shift (⇧) + S

So guys this it! This is the extensive list of all the shortcuts that you need to know to be a pro in a MacBook environment

Finder and system shortcuts

• Command-D: Duplicate the selected files.
• Command-E: Eject the selected disk or volume.
• Command-F: Start a Spotlight search in the Finder window.
• Command-I: Show the Get Info window for a selected file.
• Command-R: (1) When an alias is selected in the Finder: show the original file for the selected alias. (2) In some apps, such as Calendar or Safari, refresh or reload the page. (3) In Software Update, check for software updates again.
• Shift-Command-C: Open the Computer window.
• Shift-Command-D: Open the desktop folder.
• Shift-Command-F: Open the Recents window, showing all of the files you viewed or changed recently.
• Shift-Command-G: Open a Go to Folder window.
• Shift-Command-H: Open the Home folder of the current macOS user account.
• Shift-Command-I: Open iCloud Drive.
• Shift-Command-K: Open the Network window.
• Option-Command-L: Open the Downloads folder.
• Shift-Command-N: Create a new folder.
• Shift-Command-O: Open the Documents folder.
• Shift-Command-P: Show or hide the Preview pane in Finder windows.
• Shift-Command-R: Open the AirDrop window.
• Shift-Command-T: Show or hide the tab bar in Finder windows. 
• Control-Shift-Command-T: Add selected Finder item to the Dock (OS X Mavericks or later)
• Shift-Command-U: Open the Utilities folder.
• Option-Command-D: Show or hide the Dock. 
• Control-Command-T: Add the selected item to the sidebar (OS X Mavericks or later).
• Option-Command-P: Hide or show the path bar in Finder windows.
• Option-Command-S: Hide or show the Sidebar in Finder windows.
• Command–Slash (/): Hide or show the status bar in Finder windows.
• Command-J: Show View Options.
• Command-K: Open the Connect to Server window.
• Control-Command-A: Make an alias of the selected item.
• Command-N: Open a new Finder window.
• Option-Command-N: Create a new Smart Folder.
• Command-T: Show or hide the tab bar when a single tab is open in the current Finder window.
• Option-Command-T: Show or hide the toolbar when a single tab is open in the current Finder window.
• Option-Command-V: Move the files in the Clipboard from their original location to the current location.
• Command-Y: Use Quick Look to preview the selected files.
• Option-Command-Y: View a Quick Look slideshow of the selected files.
• Command-1: View the items in the Finder window as icons.
• Command-2: View the items in a Finder window as a list.
• Command-3: View the items in a Finder window in columns. 
• Command-4: View the items in a Finder window in a gallery.
• Command–Left Bracket ([): Go to the previous folder.
• Command–Right Bracket (]): Go to the next folder.
• Command–Up Arrow: Open the folder that contains the current folder.
• Command–Control–Up Arrow: Open the folder that contains the current folder in a new window.
• Command–Down Arrow: Open the selected item.
• Right Arrow: Open the selected folder. This works only when in list view.
• Left Arrow: Close the selected folder. This works only when in list view.
• Command-Delete: Move the selected item to the Trash.
• Shift-Command-Delete: Empty the Trash.
• Option-Shift-Command-Delete: Empty the Trash without confirmation dialog.
• Command–Brightness Down: Turn video mirroring on or off when your Mac is connected to more than one display.
• Option–Brightness Up: Open Displays preferences. This works with either Brightness key.
• Control–Brightness Up or Control–Brightness Down: Change the brightness of your external display, if supported by your display.
• Option–Shift–Brightness Up or Option–Shift–Brightness Down: Adjust the display brightness in smaller steps. Add the Control key to this shortcut to make the adjustment on your external display, if supported by your display.
• Option–Mission Control: Open Mission Control preferences.
• Command–Mission Control: Show the desktop. 
• Control–Down Arrow: Show all windows of the front app.
• Option–Volume Up: Open Sound preferences. This works with any of the volume keys.
• Option–Shift–Volume Up or Option–Shift–Volume Down: Adjust the sound volume in smaller steps.
• Option–Keyboard Brightness Up: Open Keyboard preferences. This works with either Keyboard Brightness key.
• Option–Shift–Keyboard Brightness Up or Option–Shift–Keyboard Brightness Down: Adjust the keyboard brightness in smaller steps.
• Option key while double-clicking: Open the item in a separate window, then close the original window.
• Command key while double-clicking: Open a folder in a separate tab or window.
• Command key while dragging to another volume: Move the dragged item to the other volume, instead of copying it. 
• Option key while dragging: Copy the dragged item. The pointer changes while you drag the item.
• Option-Command while dragging: Make an alias of the dragged item. The pointer changes while you drag the item.
• Option-click a disclosure triangle: Open all folders within the selected folder. This works only when in list view.
• Command-click a window title: See the folders that contain the current folder.

Sleep, log out, and shut down shortcuts

• Power button: Press to turn on your Mac or wake it from sleep. Press and hold for 1.5 seconds to put your Mac to sleep.
• Option–Command–Power button* or Option–Command–Media Eject : Put your Mac to sleep.
• Control–Shift–Power button* or Control–Shift–Media Eject : Put your displays to sleep.
• Control–Power button* or Control–Media Eject : Display a dialog asking whether you want to restart, sleep, or shut down.
• Control–Command–Power button:* Force your Mac to restart, without prompting to save any open and unsaved documents.
• Control–Command–Media Eject : Quit all apps, then restart your Mac. If any open documents have unsaved changes, you will be asked whether you want to save them.
• Control–Option–Command–Power button* or Control–Option–Command–Media Eject : Quit all apps, then shut down your Mac.
• Control-Command-Q: Immediately lock your screen.
• Shift-Command-Q: Log out of your macOS user account. To log out immediately without confirming, press Option-Shift-Command-Q.

Last Few words

These are just a few of the useful Mac shortcuts. For each and every Apple’s default app, the number of shortcuts varies. We would be adding more Shortcut tutorials in the coming future.