6 ms·

⌘+⇧+L and other useful OS X hidden features

44 points by nickb 18y ago

pxlpshr 18y ago
My personal favorite is ⌘+⇧+4 in conjunction with GrabUp. http://www.grabup.com http://www.grabup.com
- PStamatiou 18y ago
  thank you for that. i like grabup!
- nickb 18y ago
  Wow... that's even faster than Skitch! I've been using Skitch (http://www.skitch.com http://www.skitch.com) for over a year now and has saved me a ton of time. I'll give GrabUp a try!
- dchest 18y ago
  And don't forget that spacebar after ⌘⇧4 toggles between grabbing window and area.
  - pxlpshr 18y ago
    learn something new everyday, nice!
zzzmarcus 18y ago
My favorites are the emacs-style shortcuts that work in all native textfields is OSX: ctrl+f - move one character forward ctrl+v - move one character backwards ctrl+n - next line ctrl+p - previous line ctrl+k - delete to the end of the line ctrl+d - delete the next character ctrl+h - delete the previous character (backspace) ctrl+o - insert a newline below the current Using the ctrl key takes some getting used to if you've used a Mac for a long time (I mapped mine to caps lock in the system preferences) but once you learn these keys they are incredibly useful.
- dchest 18y ago
  ^T - change letters: colo| -> cool| ^L - center selected line (edit: center current line in window) ^E - move cursor to line end ^A - move cursor to the beginning of the line ^Y - yank (paste previously deleted text with ^K) Corrections: ^B - move one character backwards (^V is page down)
  - qqq 18y ago
    Could you explain ^L more clearly? I tried it and nothing happened.
    - dchest 18y ago
      Sure, try moving cursor to some line in TextEdit (with a document that is large enough to have scroll bars), then press ^L — the line with cursor becomes centered.
      - qqq 18y ago
        Ah, the scrollbar gets centered vertically on the current line. Got it.
  - mechanical_fish 18y ago
    As an emacs user, two problems with these key combos that are constantly burning me: When I hit ^A in a text field of my webmail app (Fastmail) it reloads the page I'm typing in, losing all the text I've entered so far. You have no idea how hard it is for an emacs user to stop doing this. So be very careful on web pages. I keep using kill-and-yank subconsciously because I'm trained in it. But the kill ring (is it even a ring?) gets preserved... idiosyncratically in Mac OS X, particularly when you move from app to app, and of course it is completely separate from the clipboard where copies and pastes go. I quite commonly kill something and then can't get it to yank, or kill something and then try to paste it and fail.
    - jrockway 18y ago
qqq 18y ago
Help! My screen is inverted now, but he didn't include an undo command. What do I do!? I already tried cmd-z. Do I have to restart?
- zzzmarcus 18y ago
  srsly? type it again.
- Zev 18y ago
  ctrl + opt + cmd + 8 … which is probably the combo that you hit in the first place to invert it.
- river_styx 18y ago
  Is this a joke?
  - qqq 18y ago
    yes
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
nirmal 18y ago
I like CMD + CTRL + D while hover your cursor over any word in a Cocoa app. This brings up the dictionary entry for that word. You can also access the Thesaurus this way and click "More..." to get the full Dictionary app to load. Very useful when reading long academic papers outside of my field.
- GHFigs 18y ago
  If you hold Cmd+Ctl after that, you can mouse over other words and the panel will follow. Also, for those that like the panel but can't always remember the shortcut, in the Dictionary app's preferences you can set the "Look Up in Dictionary" context menu item to open as a panel instead of opening the app. Having a system-wide Dictionary is something I would not have thought anywhere as valuable as it has turned out to be.
- nickb 18y ago
  I use this all the time. Incidentally, if you open up the Dictionary app itself, you have access to complete Wikipedia as well. I really like the way Apple formats Wikipedia's pages... they're much cleaner than Wikipedia.org. And yes, the pages are current... it's just that Dictionary app uses a different CSS sheet.
dchest 18y ago
Don't press ctrl + opt + cmd + . more than 20 times ;) (Undo: ctrl + opt + cmd + , )
That_Jim 18y ago
Thanks everyone! I wrote the original article. Not only have I learned a bunch of new ones (the floating dictionary is sweet) but I've discovered ycombinator too! Thank goodness for pingback, eh?

44 points by nickb 18y ago

pxlpshr 18y ago

My personal favorite is ⌘+⇧+4 in conjunction with GrabUp. http://www.grabup.com http://www.grabup.com

PStamatiou 18y ago
thank you for that. i like grabup!
nickb 18y ago
Wow... that's even faster than Skitch! I've been using Skitch (http://www.skitch.com http://www.skitch.com) for over a year now and has saved me a ton of time. I'll give GrabUp a try!
dchest 18y ago
And don't forget that spacebar after ⌘⇧4 toggles between grabbing window and area.
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  learn something new everyday, nice!

zzzmarcus 18y ago

My favorites are the emacs-style shortcuts that work in all native textfields is OSX: ctrl+f - move one character forward ctrl+v - move one character backwards ctrl+n - next line ctrl+p - previous line ctrl+k - delete to the end of the line ctrl+d - delete the next character ctrl+h - delete the previous character (backspace) ctrl+o - insert a newline below the current Using the ctrl key takes some getting used to if you've used a Mac for a long time (I mapped mine to caps lock in the system preferences) but once you learn these keys they are incredibly useful.

dchest 18y ago
^T - change letters: colo| -> cool| ^L - center selected line (edit: center current line in window) ^E - move cursor to line end ^A - move cursor to the beginning of the line ^Y - yank (paste previously deleted text with ^K) Corrections: ^B - move one character backwards (^V is page down)
- qqq 18y ago
  Could you explain ^L more clearly? I tried it and nothing happened.
  - dchest 18y ago
    Sure, try moving cursor to some line in TextEdit (with a document that is large enough to have scroll bars), then press ^L — the line with cursor becomes centered.
    - qqq 18y ago
      Ah, the scrollbar gets centered vertically on the current line. Got it.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  As an emacs user, two problems with these key combos that are constantly burning me: When I hit ^A in a text field of my webmail app (Fastmail) it reloads the page I'm typing in, losing all the text I've entered so far. You have no idea how hard it is for an emacs user to stop doing this. So be very careful on web pages. I keep using kill-and-yank subconsciously because I'm trained in it. But the kill ring (is it even a ring?) gets preserved... idiosyncratically in Mac OS X, particularly when you move from app to app, and of course it is completely separate from the clipboard where copies and pastes go. I quite commonly kill something and then can't get it to yank, or kill something and then try to paste it and fail.
  - jrockway 18y ago

qqq 18y ago

Help! My screen is inverted now, but he didn't include an undo command. What do I do!? I already tried cmd-z. Do I have to restart?

zzzmarcus 18y ago
srsly? type it again.
Zev 18y ago
ctrl + opt + cmd + 8 … which is probably the combo that you hit in the first place to invert it.
river_styx 18y ago
Is this a joke?
- qqq 18y ago
  yes

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

nirmal 18y ago

I like CMD + CTRL + D while hover your cursor over any word in a Cocoa app. This brings up the dictionary entry for that word. You can also access the Thesaurus this way and click "More..." to get the full Dictionary app to load. Very useful when reading long academic papers outside of my field.

GHFigs 18y ago
If you hold Cmd+Ctl after that, you can mouse over other words and the panel will follow. Also, for those that like the panel but can't always remember the shortcut, in the Dictionary app's preferences you can set the "Look Up in Dictionary" context menu item to open as a panel instead of opening the app. Having a system-wide Dictionary is something I would not have thought anywhere as valuable as it has turned out to be.
nickb 18y ago
I use this all the time. Incidentally, if you open up the Dictionary app itself, you have access to complete Wikipedia as well. I really like the way Apple formats Wikipedia's pages... they're much cleaner than Wikipedia.org. And yes, the pages are current... it's just that Dictionary app uses a different CSS sheet.

dchest 18y ago

Don't press ctrl + opt + cmd + . more than 20 times ;) (Undo: ctrl + opt + cmd + , )

That_Jim 18y ago

Thanks everyone! I wrote the original article. Not only have I learned a bunch of new ones (the floating dictionary is sweet) but I've discovered ycombinator too! Thank goodness for pingback, eh?