Mac Keyboard Shortcuts List: The Keys That Move You Between Apps
Every Mac keyboard shortcuts list has the same problem. Apple's own reference runs to several hundred entries, the cheat sheets reprint them in a different order, and nobody has ever learned a keyboard by reading 300 rows. The combinations that change how a day feels number about thirty, and almost all of them do one thing: they move attention from one place to another without the hand leaving the keys.
What follows is organised that way, by what each shortcut moves between rather than by which menu it lives in. Every combination is documented by Apple for macOS 27 and was checked against Apple's own pages on 26 September 2026.
Read the menus first, then the list
Modifier keys appear in menus as symbols, and a reader who cannot decode them is stuck copying lists instead of learning shortcuts from the app in front of them. Apple's set is short.
| Symbol | Key |
|---|---|
| ⌘ | Command |
| ⌥ | Option, or Alt |
| ⌃ | Control |
| ⇧ | Shift |
| ⇪ | Caps Lock |
| ⎋ | Esc |
| ⇥ | Tab |
| ⌫ | Delete |
| ⏎ | Return |
To use a shortcut, hold the modifiers, press the last key, then release. On keyboards made for Windows PCs, Alt stands in for Option and either Ctrl or the Windows logo key stands in for Command.
The fastest way to learn shortcuts is to read the right hand side of a menu you already use. Every app publishes its own bindings there, and they beat any general list for the app you spend the most hours in.
One more piece of keyboard mechanics saves confusion later. The top row on many Apple keyboards carries brightness, Mission Control and similar functions rather than F1 to F12. Combining those keys with Fn, or with the Globe key, produces the standard function keys instead, and some of them combined with Option open the matching system settings directly.
Moving between apps and windows
This is the group that pays for itself fastest, because switching is the action repeated most often in any working day.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Command-Tab | Switch to the next most recently used app |
| Command-Grave accent | Switch between windows of the app in use |
| Control-Up Arrow | Open Mission Control |
| Control-Down Arrow | Show all windows of the front app |
| Command-Mission Control, Fn-H or Fn-F11 | Show the desktop |
| Command-H | Hide the windows of the front app |
| Option-Command-H | Show the front app and hide all others |
| Command-M | Minimise the front window to the Dock |
| Option-Command-M | Minimise all windows of the front app |
| Control-Command-F | Use or stop using the app in full screen |
| Command-W | Close the front window |
| Option-Command-W | Close all windows of the app |
| Command-Q | Quit the app |
| Option-Command-Esc | Force quit an app |
Two of those are worth singling out. Command-Grave accent is the one most people never learn, and it is the answer to the specific frustration of Command-Tab landing on the right app but the wrong window. The key varies by keyboard layout; it is generally the one above Tab and left of the number 1.
Option-Command-H is the other. It hides everything except what is in front, which is a faster way to reach a clean screen than minimising windows one at a time, and unlike quitting it costs nothing to undo.
The distinction between Command-W and Command-Q is where real work gets lost. Command-W closes a window. Command-Q quits the whole app and every window in it. On a browser holding a day's worth of tabs, the two keys are adjacent and the consequences are not.
Moving between tabs and documents
Tab shortcuts are where lists disagree most, because they belong to the app rather than to macOS. The combinations below are documented by Apple for Safari, and the ones marked also apply in Chrome according to Google's own shortcut reference.
| Shortcut | What it does | Also in Chrome |
|---|---|---|
| Command-T | Open a new tab | Yes |
| Command-W | Close the active tab | Yes |
| Shift-Command-T | Reopen the last closed tab | Yes |
| Shift-Command-W | Close the window and all its tabs | Yes |
| Control-Tab, or Shift-Command-] | Go to the next tab | Yes |
| Control-Shift-Tab, or Shift-Command-[ | Go to the previous tab | Yes |
| Command-1 to Command-8 | Select one of the first eight tabs | Yes |
| Command-9 | Select the last tab | Yes |
| Command-L | Select the address field | Yes |
| Shift-Command-\ | Show tab overview | Safari |
| Command-[ and Command-] | Back and forward | Safari |
Command-9 is the underused one. It selects the last tab rather than the ninth, which means the newest tab is always one keystroke away no matter how many are open.
Command-1 through Command-8 is the honest limit of this whole approach. It works beautifully with six tabs and becomes meaningless with thirty, because position stops being something a person can remember.
The Finder and system list worth keeping
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Shift-Command-G | Open a Go to Folder window |
| Shift-Command-H | Open the Home folder |
| Shift-Command-D | Open the desktop folder |
| Option-Command-L | Open the Downloads folder |
| Shift-Command-F | Open the Recents window |
| Shift-Command-N | Create a new folder |
| Control-Command-N | New folder containing the selected items |
| Space bar | Quick Look preview of the selected item |
| Command-Delete | Move the selected item to the Trash |
| Shift-Command-Delete | Empty the Trash |
| Command-1, 2, 3, 4 | Icon, list, column and gallery views |
| Command-Up Arrow | Open the folder containing the current folder |
| Command-Down Arrow | Open the selected item |
Command-I |
Show the Get Info window |
| Command-Comma (,) | Open settings for the front app |
| Command-Space bar | Show or hide the Spotlight search field |
| Shift-Command-5 | Screenshot and screen recording options |
| Control-Command-Q | Lock the screen |
Control-Command-N is the one to steal. It takes whatever is selected and puts it in a new folder in one action, which replaces the four step version most people still do by hand.
Command-Comma is the other. It opens settings for whichever app is in front, in every app that has settings, which means the location of a preferences menu item never has to be learned again.
Moving the cursor inside text
The text editing group is the one most lists bury at the bottom, and it is the group that removes the most trackpad trips for anyone who writes for a living. These behave consistently across almost every app on the Mac, because they come from the system text field rather than from the app.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Option-Left Arrow, Option-Right Arrow | Move the insertion point by whole words |
| Command-Left Arrow, Command-Right Arrow | Move to the beginning or end of the current line |
| Command-Up Arrow, Command-Down Arrow | Move to the beginning or end of the document |
| Option-Shift-Left Arrow, Option-Shift-Right Arrow | Extend the selection by whole words |
| Shift-Command-Left Arrow, Shift-Command-Right Arrow | Select to the beginning or end of the line |
| Option-Shift-Up Arrow, Option-Shift-Down Arrow | Extend the selection by whole paragraphs |
| Option-Delete | Delete the word to the left of the insertion point |
| Fn-Delete | Forward delete on keyboards with no Forward Delete key |
| Fn-Up Arrow, Fn-Down Arrow | Page up and page down |
| Fn-Left Arrow, Fn-Right Arrow | Jump to the start or the end of a document |
| Control-Command-D | Show or hide the definition of the selected word |
Option-Delete is the single highest return shortcut on this page. Deleting a mistyped word takes one keypress instead of holding Delete and watching characters disappear, and it works in search fields, address bars and chat boxes as well as in documents.
The arrow key family follows one rule that makes it learnable rather than memorisable. Option means by word, Command means to the edge, and adding Shift selects instead of moving. Three ideas cover eighteen combinations.
The Fn key row most lists omit
Apple has been quietly moving functions onto the Fn key, and the older cheat sheets do not have them.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fn-A | Show or hide the Dock |
| Fn-C | Show or hide Control Center |
| Fn-D | Start or stop dictation |
| Fn-N | Show or hide Notification Center |
| Fn-E | Show the Character Viewer |
| Fn-Fn | Open the Character Viewer |
| Fn-Q | Create a Quick Note |
| Fn-Shift-A | Show or hide Apps in macOS Tahoe 26 or later, or Launchpad in earlier versions |
| Command pressed twice | Open or close Type to Siri |
Two more exist only on the current release. In macOS 27 with Siri AI turned on, Shift-Command-6 asks Siri about a selected area of the screen and Shift-Command-Space bar asks Siri about the active window. Both are worth knowing even by someone who will never use them, because they are now occupied combinations that a third party app cannot safely claim.
Making your own, and why new ones silently fail
Custom shortcuts live in System Settings, under Keyboard, then Keyboard Shortcuts, then App Shortcuts. Apple's documentation for that pane contains four constraints that explain nearly every failed attempt.
The menu title has to be typed exactly as it appears in the app, including punctuation. A submenu path uses the characters for an arrow, typed as a hyphen and a greater than sign, so a nested command reads as a chain. An ellipsis in a menu item is typed as three periods with no spaces.
A shortcut can only be attached to an existing menu command. Apple states this plainly: keyboard shortcuts cannot be created for general purpose tasks such as opening an app. Anyone trying to bind a key to launching an application needs a launcher or the Shortcuts app, not this pane.
A duplicate does not warn at the moment of creation. Apple's wording is that if the combination already exists for another command or another app, the new shortcut will not work, and one of the two has to change. That is the explanation for the most common report in this area, which is a newly created shortcut that does nothing at all.
Conflicts that already exist are visible, though. Selecting a category such as Mission Control or Spotlight in the Keyboard Shortcuts pane shows a warning icon next to any conflicting binding, and double-clicking one allows a new combination to be recorded.
Where the list stops
Read the tables above together and a boundary appears. Every shortcut on this page moves between apps, between windows of an app, between tabs of a browser, or between folders in the Finder. There is nothing that moves between the things inside a browser.
That gap matters more each year, because the applications that hold the day's work are no longer applications. Gmail, a second Gmail for a different client, Slack, Notion, Figma, a support inbox, a project tracker: all pages, all in one browser, all indistinguishable in a strip of tabs. Command-Tab reaches the browser in 50 milliseconds and then stops. Command-1 through Command-8 covers a third of them on a good day.
The tool that extends the list into that territory is a browser built around apps rather than pages. Each web app gets its own window and its own cookie container, so two accounts on the same service can be open at once and each workspace can be reached by name with a keystroke, which is exactly what Command-Tab does for local apps. Anyone who also keeps a terminal open all day will want to look at the built in shell rather than adding another window to switch to.
What to change first
Pick three shortcuts from this page that are not already habits, and use only those for a week. Command-Grave accent, Option-Command-H and Control-Command-N are the usual best returns. If the week shows that the switching that actually costs time happens inside the browser rather than between apps, extend the keyboard into that layer with SpaceDeck.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Command-W and Command-Q on a Mac?
Command-W closes the front window and Command-Q quits the app entirely, including every other window it has open. The keys are next to each other, which is why a browser full of tabs sometimes disappears when only one was meant to close. Shift-Command-T reopens the last closed tab in Safari and Chrome, which recovers the smaller mistake.
How do you switch between two windows of the same app?
Command-Grave accent cycles through the windows of the app currently in use, while Command-Tab moves between apps. The key is generally the one above Tab and to the left of the number 1, and its printed character varies by keyboard layout. Control-Down Arrow shows all windows of the front app at once if a visual choice is preferred.
Why does a newly created keyboard shortcut in System Settings do nothing?
The most likely reason is that the combination is already used by another command or another app, in which case Apple documents the new shortcut as simply not working until one of the two is changed. The second most likely reason is that the menu title was not typed exactly as it appears, including punctuation and the three periods that stand in for an ellipsis.
Can a keyboard shortcut be set to open a specific application?
Not through the App Shortcuts pane. Apple states that shortcuts can only be created for existing menu commands, not for general purpose tasks such as opening an app. Launching an app by keystroke needs either a launcher, a Shortcuts app shortcut with a hotkey, or an app that provides its own global binding.
Where is the full official Mac keyboard shortcuts list?
Apple publishes it as a support article covering common shortcuts, sleep and shutdown, Finder and system, text editing, accessibility and app specific shortcuts. It is the authoritative reference, and it is also several hundred rows long, which is why working from the menus of the apps you actually use is the faster way to build habits.