You probably use common keyboard shortcuts all the time, such as Command + C and Command + V to copy and paste, for example. These shortcuts are the standard ones that Mac OS X and various apps come with, and they appear next to the corresponding menu command. But it can be irritating to reach for your mouse or Trackpad if the command you want doesn’t have its own shortcut.
However, it’s really easy to set up your own shortcuts, and they can be made to work in a particular application or across all of them. All this can be done using the Keyboard pane in System Preferences.
Helpfully, Mac OS X largely prevents you from creating clashing shortcuts, so if you set up Command + A in Mail to Add Account, for example, it removes the shortcut from Select All, which is the default Command + A command. However, this isn’t foolproof, so always check that what you’re about to set up isn’t going to clash. We’ve got some tips for how to do this below.
of 6
AlbertMark
November 25, 2012 at 1:39pm
prskater,
If you haven't yet figured out your application-opening keyboard shortcut, here's a Leopard-tailored one I came up with for my Newly-Windows-to-Mac sister. It's a little wordy, but actually pretty straighforward:
1. Make sure you've recently opened TextEdit (or whatever application you want to open with a keyboard command). By "recently," I mean recently enough that the name of the application appears under "Recent Items" in the Apple Menu. This is the "key" to getting this kludge to work -- the name of the application you want to open must be a selection in some menu that's always available. So first check your Recent Items submenu to confirm that "TextEdit" appears as a selection. (If it doesn't appear, just open TextEdit, then quit it and check again.)
Side note: Unless you routinely use more than 50 applications on your Mac, you can pretty much ensure that the name of any of your applications will always appear as one of your Recent Items by opening System Preferences, selecting the Appearance panel and choosing '50' Applications in the "Number of Recent Items" popup menu. Then simply don't ever clear the Recent Items submenu.
2. Go ahead and follow the instructions in the main article -- that is:
• Open System Preferences.
• Select the Keyboard & Mouse panel.
• Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.
• Click the '+' button.
• Select "All Applications" in the Application drop-down menu.
• Type (in this case) "TextEdit" in the Menu Title box.
• Tab to the Keyboard Shortcut field and type in your chosen keyboard command. The OS won't accept "just any" keyboard combination (like 'T' by itself, for instance), and you have to be careful not to choose a key combination that conflicts with a pre-existing keyboard command in any application you're using. (Option-T worked for me.)
• Quit System Preferences.
prskater
February 15, 2012 at 3:07pm
Is there a way to create a shortcut -- such as cmd/shift/t to open TextEdit? In Windows I can do that quickly, such as control/shift/3 to open a given program.
Thank you.
Roxy
