Section 8.11. Keyboard

8.11. Keyboard

As you know by now, switching to the Mac entails switching your brain, especially when it comes to the old keyboard shortcuts. All of those Ctrl-key sequences become, on the Mac, -key sequences. (Check your Macintosh keyboard: The key is right next to the Space bar, usually on both sides.)

But plenty of other Mac keys may seem unfamiliar. For your reassurance pleasure , here's a rundown of what they do:

• F1, F2, F3 These function keys do pretty much the same thing they do in most Windows programs: Nothing.

  There are exceptions, though. F9, F10, and F11, for example, invoke the Expos window-hiding mode (Section 4.3), and F12 brings up the Dashboard (Section 4.4).

  You can also buy programs like QuicKeys X or iKey that let you attach these keys to your favorite programs, so that pressing F5 opens up Word, F6 launches your Web browser, and so on.

  On many Macs, designated function keys also correspond to the Dimmer/Brighter controls for your screen, and the Mute, Softer, and Louder commands for your built-in speaker. (You'll know if your keyboard offers these functions by the presence of little and icons for brightness, and icons for sound, andon some new PowerBookslittle glowing bar icons for keyboard brightness.)

• . This is the Eject key; it spits out whatever disc is in your drive. (If nothing is in your drive, it doesn't do anythingunless you have a tray-loading Mac, in which case holding it down for about a second makes the CD/DVD tray slide open .) When there is a disc in there, press the key once to make the computer spit it outunless the disc is currently in use.

• Home, End . In a desktop (Finder) window, Home and End are ways of saying "jump to the top or bottom of the window." If you're word processing, the Home and End keys are supposed to jump to the first or last word of the file, although some programs require you to press Ctrl or too, as described in a moment.

• Pg Up, Pg Down : These keys scroll the current window up or down by one screenful, just as on Windows. Once again, the idea is to let you scroll through word-processing documents, Web pages, and lists without having to use the mouse.

• NumLock, Clear : Clear means "get rid of this text I've highlighted, but don't put a copy on the invisible Clipboard, as the Cut command would do."

  The NumLock key is just as much of an oddball on the Mac as it is on the PC. In certain versions of Microsoft Word, the NumLock key works like a Forward Delete key, erasing the next character after the insertion point. In Microsoft Excel, the NumLock key actually does something unique, but you're free to nuzzle up to the online help for the details.

• Esc : Esc stands for Escape , and means "Click the Cancel button," such as the one found in most dialog boxes. In other words: same as in Windows.

• Delete : This is the Mac's name for the Backspace key.

• Del : This is your Forward Delete key; it erases whatever letter is just after the insertion point in text. (If your keyboard lacks a Del keyfor example, if you have a laptopthen you produce the Forward Delete function by pressing the regular Delete key along with the Fn key in the lower-left corner of the keyboard.)

• Return and Enter : In general, these keys do the same thing: wrap your typing to the next line. Be careful, though: Some programs distinguish between the two. In AppleWorks, for example, Return begins a new paragraph, but Enter makes a page break , forcing the next typing to begin on a fresh page.

• Command ( ) : This key triggers keyboard shortcuts for menu items, as described in Chapter 1.

• Control, Option : The Control key triggers contextual menus (like shortcut menus ), as described in Chapter 1; the Option key lets you type special symbols and access secret features.

• Help : This key opens the online help screens (at least in certain programs).

8.11.1. Text-Navigation Keystrokes

In Windows, you may have grown accustomed to certain common keystrokes for navigating textkey combinations that make the insertion point jump to the beginning or end of a word, line, or document, for example.

Mac OS X programs offer similar navigation keystrokes, as you can see here:

Table 8-1.

Function	Windows keys	Mac keys
Move to previous/next word	Ctrl+arrow keys	Option-arrow keys
Move to beginning/end of line	Home/End	Home/End [1]
Move to previous/next paragraph	Ctrl+up/down arrows [2]	Option-up/down arrows [3]
Move to top/bottom of window	Home/End	Home/End (but see below)
Select all text	Ctrl+A	-A
Select text, one letter at a time	Shift+arrow keys	Shift-arrow keys
Select text, one word at a time	Ctrl+Shift+arrow keys	Option-Shift-arrow keys
Undo	Ctrl+Z	-Z
Cut, Copy, Paste	Ctrl+Z, C, P	-Z, C, P
Close window	Alt+F4	-W
Switch open programs	Alt+Tab	-Tab
Hide all windows	+D	Option- -click Finder icon on Dock

^[1] in some programs

^[2] in some programs

^[3] in some programs

Incidentally, the keystroke for jumping to the top or bottom of a window varies widely on the program. You need -Home/End in Microsoft Word, -up/down arrow in TextEdit and Stickies, and Home/End in iPhoto and Finder list windows.

As a consolation prize, though, here's a bit of good news: All Cocoa programs (Section 4.8)TextEdit, Stickies, iPhoto, iDVD, Safari, Keynote, iChat, iCal, Mail, Address Book, and so onoffer an amazing quantity of consistent, Unix-based navigation keystrokes that should last you the rest of your life. Here they are:

• Control-A . Moves your insertion point to the beginning of the paragraph. ( Mnemonic : A = beginning of the alphabet.)

• Control-E . Deposits your insertion point at the end of the paragraph. ( Mnemonic : E = End.)

• Control-D . Forward delete. Deletes the letter to the right of the insertion point.

• Control-K . Instantly deletes all text from the insertion point to the right end of the line. ( Mnemonic : K = Kills the rest of the line.)

• Control-O . Inserts a paragraph break, much like Return, but leaves the insertion point where it was, above the break. This is the ideal trick for breaking a paragraph in half when you've just thought of a better ending for the first part.

• Control-T . Moves the insertion point one letter to the rightand along with it, drags whichever letter was to its left. ( Mnemonic : T = T ranspose letters .)

• Option-Delete . Deletes the entire word to the left of the insertion point. When you're typing along in a hurry, and you discover that you've just made a typo, this is the keystroke you want. It's much faster to nuke the previous word and retype it than to fiddle around with the mouse and the insertion point just to fix one letter.

Four additional keystrokes duplicate the functions of the arrow keys. Still, as long as you've got your pinky on that Control key

• Control-B, Control-F . Moves the insertion point one character to the left or right, just like the left and right arrow keys. ( Mnemonic: Back , Forward).

• Control-N, Control-P . Moves the insertion point one row down or up, like the down and up arrow keys. ( Mnemonic: Next , Previous).