When users switch from Windows to Mac one of the problems they have is adjusting to
the new keyboard shortcuts.
Mac has some different keyboard shortcuts than Windows.
They're similar though which sometimes even makes it more difficult because the differences
are subtle.
For instance let's start by looking at the basics of Copy, Cut, and Paste.
Copy on Windows is Control C. On the Mac it's almost the same thing.
It's Command C. Let's look at what the difference is.
If you look at the Mac keyboard you'll see here that you've got four modifier keys.
The Shift key, the Control key, the Option key, and Command key.
So you see there's a Control key there so right away you think, okay just like on Windows.
Control C. But on Mac the primary modifier key is Command, not control like Windows.
So, in fact, most keyboard shortcuts on Windows that are Control plus the letter are actually
Command plus a letter on Mac.
So instead of control C for copy it's Command C. Control is kind of a secondary modifier
key.
It's not as important as Command.
Most things use Command for the modifier.
So if I were to select some text here and want to Copy and Paste it I would use Command
C and then Command V to paste.
If I wanted to cut it I would use Command X and then Command V to paste.
Likewise if I wanted to select All, instead of Control A it's Command A. If I were to
make a mistake, say delete everything, I would use Command Z rather than Control Z to undo.
Undo is kind of interesting because there's also a Redo command that's typically available.
So, for instance, if I type some new text and then I delete it and I Command Z to undo
then I realize that I want to redo what I just undid.
On Windows very often it's Control Y.
But on Mac it's not Command Y.
It's actually Command Shift Z.
So the shift kind of reverses the Command Z to make it a Redo.
Now this varies by app.
So here in Pages I can see that Undo Typing is Command Z and Redo is Shift Command Z.
However some apps, like for instance Adobe apps, still use Command Y for Redo.
So you can always check for any keyboard shortcut by going into the Menu and then looking on
the right side and seeing everything that's there.
Like for instance Select All there's Command A. Notice it uses the symbol on the Command
key rather than the word Command.
So let's look at some other shortcuts that are different Windows to Mac.
So one is using the F1 key to access help.
That doesn't work on the Mac.
But you do have this Help menu up here and you can click it and get to different help
things there.
A keyboard shortcut that always works to bring up the Help menu is Command Shift slash.
That's easy to remember because the slash key, the shift on that is the question mark.
So you're kind of doing Command question mark.
Command Shift slash and then you can immediately start typing for getting help on something
specific or looking for a menu item or you can down arrow right to one of these documents
or windows that will popup and hit Return to bring it up.
Another one you may find that on Windows you use Alt and tab to go between apps.
On the Mac it's Command tab.
So that's a little different there because typically you would go from Control to Command.
But here you're going Alt to Command.
So you can Command tab to go between apps.
So another one is using Alt F4 to close something in Windows.
Close the window or close the app.
On Mac you do various different things depending upon which one you want.
So, for instance, to close a current window that's open you would use Command W and that
closes, say if you have three Pages documents open it closes the front most on.
If you have a one page document open it closes that window but Pages is still running.
If you want to quit the app then typically you use Command Q.
This can vary by app but typically it's Command W for close and Command Q for quitting an
app.
So another popular command I see on Windows is using F2 to rename a file.
You don't need to do that on the Mac.
All you need to do is select the file and you can click in the file name after it's
selected and now you're in edit mode.
You can edit the file name.
Another quick way to get there is to hit the Return key and it immediately goes into edit
mode for the file name for the file that's selected.
Note there's a key on your Mac keyboard that's labeled Option.
On many versions of the Mac keyboard also you see the word Alt there.
On Window systems you always refer to this as the Alt key, alternate key.
On Mac you refer to it as the Option key but they are in fact the same key.
So sometimes you see people say one or the other.
Now probably the most famous keyboard shortcut on Windows is Control Alt Delete to be able
to force quit an app.
The same thing on the Mac except it's Command Option Escape.
That brings up this window here which allows you to switch to an app or force quit an app
by selecting it and pressing the force quit button.