Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet — Complete Reference

Complete reference for macOS keyboard shortcuts — every shortcut that ships built-in, organized by what you're trying to do. Print-friendly single page.

The modifier keys (memorize these first)

Symbol	Key
⌘	Command
⌥	Option (Alt)
⌃	Control
⇧	Shift
⇪	Caps Lock
⏎	Return / Enter
⌫	Delete (backspace)
⌦	Forward delete
⎋	Escape
⇥	Tab
fn	Function key

Screenshots (the most-Googled mac shortcut)

Shortcut	What it captures
⌘ + ⇧ + 3	Full screen → saved to Desktop
⌘ + ⇧ + 4	Select an area (drag) → saved to Desktop
⌘ + ⇧ + 4, then Space	Capture a specific window
⌘ + ⇧ + 5	Open screenshot toolbar (record video, set timer, choose save location)
⌘ + ⇧ + 6	Capture Touch Bar (if present)
⌃ + any above	Copy to clipboard instead of save
Space while dragging	Move the selection without changing size
⇧ while dragging	Constrain selection to one axis
⌥ while dragging	Resize from the center
Esc	Cancel screenshot

System

Shortcut	Action
⌘ + Space	Open Spotlight search
⌘ + ⌥ + Space	Open Spotlight in Finder window
⌘ + Tab	Switch between open apps
⌘ + ` (backtick)	Switch windows within current app
⌘ + Q	Quit current app
⌘ + ⌥ + Esc	Force Quit dialog
⌘ + ⇧ + Q	Log out
⌘ + ⌃ + Q	Lock screen
⌘ + ⌃ + Power	Force restart
⌘ + ⌥ + Power (hold)	Put display to sleep
⌘ + H	Hide current app
⌘ + ⌥ + H	Hide all other apps
⌘ + M	Minimize window
⌘ + ⌥ + M	Minimize all windows
⌃ + ↑	Mission Control (all windows)
⌃ + ↓	App Exposé (current app windows)
⌃ + ← / →	Switch between Spaces
F11	Show Desktop
fn + F12	Open Notification Center / Today view

Finder

Shortcut	Action
⌘ + N	New Finder window
⌘ + ⇧ + N	New folder
⌘ + T	New tab
⌘ + W	Close window/tab
⌘ + O	Open selected item
Space	Quick Look (preview)
⌘ + I	Get Info
⌘ + ⌫	Move to Trash
⌘ + ⇧ + ⌫	Empty Trash
⌘ + D	Duplicate
⌘ + C then ⌘ + ⌥ + V	Move (cut + paste — note ⌥)
⌘ + ⌥ + V	Paste as move (after copy)
⌘ + ⇧ + .	Show/hide hidden files
⌘ + ↑	Go to parent folder
⌘ + ⇧ + H	Go to Home folder
⌘ + ⇧ + D	Go to Desktop
⌘ + ⇧ + G	Go to folder by path
⌘ + ⇧ + A	Applications folder
⌘ + ⇧ + U	Utilities folder
⌘ + ⇧ + R	AirDrop window
⌘ + 1 / 2 / 3 / 4	Switch Finder view (icons/list/columns/gallery)

Text editing (works in most apps)

Shortcut	Action
⌘ + X / ⌘ + C / ⌘ + V	Cut / Copy / Paste
⌘ + ⇧ + V	Paste and match style (no formatting)
⌘ + Z / ⌘ + ⇧ + Z	Undo / Redo
⌘ + A	Select all
⌘ + F	Find
⌘ + G / ⌘ + ⇧ + G	Find next / previous
⌘ + ← / ⌘ + →	Start / end of line
⌘ + ↑ / ⌘ + ↓	Start / end of document
⌥ + ← / ⌥ + →	Previous / next word
⇧ + any move	Extend selection
⌘ + ⇧ + arrow	Select to start/end
⌃ + A / ⌃ + E	Start / end of line (emacs-style; works everywhere)
⌃ + D	Delete character ahead
⌃ + K	Delete from cursor to end of line
⌃ + T	Transpose two characters around cursor
⌥ + ⌫	Delete previous word
⌘ + ⌫	Delete to start of line

Safari / browser

Shortcut	Action
⌘ + T	New tab
⌘ + ⇧ + T	Reopen closed tab
⌘ + W	Close tab
⌘ + L	Focus address bar
⌘ + R	Reload
⌘ + ⇧ + R	Reload without cache (hard refresh)
⌘ + 1 - 9	Switch to nth tab
⌘ + ⇧ + ←/→ or ⌘ + ⌥ + ←/→	Previous / next tab (varies by browser)
⌘ + + / ⌘ + - / ⌘ + 0	Zoom in / out / reset
⌘ + ⌥ + I	Open DevTools (Chrome/Edge); Safari uses ⌘ + ⌥ + C
⌘ + ⇧ + N	Private/Incognito window
Space / ⇧ + Space	Page down / up

Special characters & symbols

Shortcut	Produces
⌃ + ⌘ + Space	Emoji picker
⌥ + 2	™
⌥ + G	©
⌥ + R	®
⌥ + 5	∞
⌥ + 8	•
⌥ + ;	…
⌥ + -	–
⌥ + ⇧ + -	—
⌥ + [ / ⌥ + ⇧ + [	" / "
⌥ + ] / ⌥ + ⇧ + ]	' / '

Accessibility

Shortcut	Action
⌘ + ⌥ + F5 or triple-press Touch ID	Accessibility shortcuts
⌘ + ⌥ + 8	Toggle Zoom
⌘ + ⌥ + ⌃ + 8	Invert colors
⌘ + F5	Toggle VoiceOver

Startup combos (hold during boot)

Hold	Effect
Power button (Apple Silicon)	Boot to recovery / boot options
⌘ + R (Intel)	Recovery Mode
⌘ + ⌥ + P + R (Intel)	Reset NVRAM
D	Apple Diagnostics
Shift	Safe boot
T (Intel)	Target Disk Mode

Related tools

Need to format / count what you copy from a Mac app? word counter, character counter, case converter.

Tip: most "Open" / "Save" / "Print" dialogs accept the typical ⌘ + O / S / P — those work site-wide and aren't repeated above.