There are a variety of commands you can perform with your Mac's touchpad or mouse. Ye Naiquan /EyeEm/Getty Images Your MacBook 's touchpad has a number of different commands that can let you zoom.
- What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Macbook Air
- What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Macbook Pro
- What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Mac Download
- What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Mac Os
Macs come in all shapes and sizes, but you turn all of them on and off, and do things with the keyboard and mouse or trackpad the same way. This Cheat Sheet of timesaving keyboard shortcuts, mouse and trackpad actions, Mac-related websites, and definitions can help you get the most from your Mac right away.
- Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, you’d use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move.
- 30 keyboard shortcuts Mac users need to know This collection of keyboard shortcuts for macOS can help users get the most from their iMacs, MacBook Pro and MacBook laptops.
Using Mac Special Feature Keys
Newer Macs feature keyboards with a row of dedicated special feature keys marked with descriptive icons that also double as function (Fn) keys. For instance, the fifth key from the left is the one you press to open Launchpad, which displays all the applications on your Mac. Some special feature keys evoke a second special feature when you hold down the Fn key and then press the special feature key.
From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences and then click the Keyboard icon to find all the default key command shortcuts (under the Shortcuts tab), turn on those you want to use, and then edit the key combinations to something easier for you.
Here are five Mac special feature keys you can press to help you work with and switch between multiple Mac application windows you’re running at the same time.
| Keystroke | Command |
|---|---|
| Mission Control (F3) | Displays Mission Control, which lets you switch between multiple desktops. |
| Command+Tab | Displays icons of all running applications. |
| Fn+Volume Down (F11) | Hides all windows to show the Desktop. |
| Launchpad (F4) | Displays Launchpad and all the applications on your Mac. |
| Fn+Volume Up (F12) | Displays Dashboard. |
What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Macbook Air
Common Mac Application Shortcut Keystrokes
No matter what application you’re running on your Mac, you can usually speed up using an application by performing a Mac keyboard shortcut rather than use the mouse or trackpad to point to a menu and select a command. The following table lists the most common Mac keyboard shortcuts that can speed up working with 99.99999 percent of all Mac applications.
| Keystroke | Command |
|---|---|
| Command+N | Create a new file. |
| Command+O | Open an existing file. |
| Command+S | Save an active file. |
| Command+F | Find text in an active file. |
| Command+A | Select all items in a window. |
| Command+C | Copy the selected item. |
| Command+X | Cut the selected item. |
| Command+V | Paste the most recently cut or copied item. |
| Command+P | Print. |
| Command+Z | Undo the last command. |
| Command+W | Close the active window. |
| Esc | Cancel dialogs and closes pull-down menus. |
| Command+Q | Quit an application. |
Mac Shortcuts for International Letters and Symbols
When writing, you may need to use a symbol or a letter with a diacritical mark, such as an accent (à) or a tilde (ñ). Holding down any of the letters in the following table opens a pop-up window with the variations of that letter and a number under each one. Type the number, and the variation appears in your document. For example, hold down A and then press 1 to type à. It works for uppercase letters as well.
These variations appear when you use the U.S. English keyboard. If you add a keyboard for another language, you may see more or different variations. To add a keyboard, go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences; then click the Keyboard icon. Click the Input Source tab and then click the add button (+) at the bottom left. Select the language you want, and then click the Add button. Select the Show Input Menu in Menu Bar check box. When you’re working in a document and want to switch to a different language, click the Input menu icon in the status bar and select the language you want to use.
| Letter | Variations |
|---|---|
| a | à á â ä æ ã å �? |
| c | ç ć �? |
| e | è é ê ë ė ē ę î ï í î ì |
| i | î ï í î ì |
| l | ł |
| n | ñ ń |
| o | ô ö ò ó œ ø ō õ |
| s | ß ś š |
| u | û ü ù ú ū |
| y | ÿ |
| z | ž ź ż |
Some common symbols are quickly accessed with the following key combinations:
| Combination | Result |
|---|---|
| Option-2 | ™ |
| Option-4 | ¢ |
| Option-8 | • |
| Option-r | ® |
| Option-g | © |
| Option-Shift- – | — |
To see all the key combinations, go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences and then Keyboard. Click the Input Sources tab, and then select the Show Input Menu in Menu Bar check box. Close System Preferences. An icon for the Input Menu appears on the status bar at the top of your screen. Click the Input Menu icon and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. A graphic representation of the keyboard appears on your screen. Do one of the following three actions: Hold Shift, hold Option, or hold Shift+Option. The keyboard changes to show the letter or symbol that will be typed when you now hold Shift, Option, or Shift+Option and type a letter or number.
What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Macbook Pro
There are five gold option keys. If you hold down the Option key, press one of the gold keys, release the Option key, and then press another letter, the accent associated with the gold key appears on the letter you typed. For example, press Option+E, and then type a. The result is á.
Mac Mouse and Trackpad Actions
What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Mac Download
Using your Mac’s mouse or trackpad can be a real drag — in a good way! That’s because drag (as well as click and Control-click) describes how you use your Mac’s mouse and trackpad to do things with windows, icons, and other items on the screen. The following table lists Mac mouse and trackpad action terms and what they mean.
| Action | How to Do It | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Click | Press the mouse button down and release. Press the trackpad bar or the lower part of the trackpad if there is no trackpad bar. On a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, tap anywhere on the surface. | Select an item or menu command. |
| Double-click | Press the mouse or trackpad button down twice in rapid succession. Tap twice on the surface of a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad. | Select and open an item. Also used in word processors to select an entire word. |
| Triple-click | Press the mouse or trackpad button down three times in rapid succession. Tap three times on the surface of a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad. | Used in many word processors to select an entire paragraph. |
| Click and drag | Point to an item, hold down the mouse or trackpad button, and move the mouse or drag your finger across the trackpad, and then release the mouse or trackpad button. | To move an item from one location to another or draw a line in a graphics application. To select multiple items, click and drag around them; selected items are highlighted. |
| Control-click (right-click, if your mouse has two or more buttons) | Hold down the Control key, press the mouse or trackpad button, and release. With a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, hold down the Control key and tap the surface. | Point to an item and view a shortcut menu of commands for manipulating that item. |
| Scroll | Roll the wheel or ball near the front and middle of the mouse. On a Magic Mouse, move one finger up and down or left and right on the surface. On a trackpad, move two fingers up and down or left and right on the surface. | To scroll a window up/down or right/left. |
What Are The Manual Mouse Commands On A Mac Os
If you’re switching to a Mac from a PC, you don’t have to discard all your old PC equipment and buy new. In fact, you may even be able to connect your PC’s keyboard and mouse to your new Mac. When deciding whether you can use a keyboard or mouse you already have on your Mac, here’s the short version of the story:
A two-button scroll-wheel mouse with a wire coming out of it that has a USB connector — a flat rectangular metal plug about the size of a fingernail — at the other end is worth keeping.
A Windows keyboard with a USB connector will work fine, but a couple of keys are labeled differently from Mac keyboards, which may make it more trouble than it’s worth.
Mac keyboards have two special keys in the lowest row, to the left of the spacebar. One is labeled option, and to its right is a key with an Apple logo and a fan symbol, known as the Command key in Apple-ese. On PC keyboards, these two keys are the Windows key and the Alt key, respectively. If you just plug a PC keyboard into a Mac, the Windows key works as the Command key, and the Alt key works as the Option key. Unfortunately, their positions are reversed from where they are on Mac keyboardsYou can buy a piece of software called DoubleCommand that lets you reverse these keys.
If you have an old keyboard, buy something new. The mice and keyboards that came with computers in the 1980s used an RS-232 serial port connection. These are useless. Old Apple USB keyboards work fine on current Macs. If you have an older Apple keyboard or mouse with a round plug (Apple Desktop Bus), you can get an ADB-to-USB converter, but it is probably not worth the bother.
You should also consider how your keyboard and mouse connect to your PC. The three most common methods are a USB cable, a PS/2 cable, and wireless:
USB cablesshould work just fine with your Mac.
PS/2 connectors are round and have a pastel-colored shell. PS/2 won’t work with your Mac directly, but adapters are available. Be sure that you get the kind of adapter that converts PS/2 devices to USB and not the other way around, which is much more common. Also make sure that the manufacturer supports Macs.
These days, many manufacturers make only USB keyboards and mice and include an adapter that converts it to PS/2. So you should take a closer look at what you think is a PS/2 plug to see whether it is just one of these adapters, in which case you’re in luck — just pull the USB plug out of the adapter and plug it into your Mac.
Wireless devices have a built-in radio transmitter instead of a wire. The receiver is often in a finger-sized pod that plugs into the computer, or it can be built in. Some devices transmit using technology that’s proprietary to the maker; others use Bluetooth. Most Macs come with Bluetooth inside (it’s not included in the lowest-cost iMac, and it’s an option on the Mac Pro), and Bluetooth devices generally work with Bluetooth-equipped Macs, at least at some basic level. But you may need special software to take full advantage of this feature on a Mac. A wireless device that uses a USB receiver module and a proprietary transmission scheme may need special software as well. Check with the manufacturer in either case.