macOS Cheatsheet

macOS Symbols

• ⇧: Shift
• ⌃: Control
• ⌥: Option
• ⌘: Command

OS Shortcuts

• ⌘ + space: Spotlight (search)
• ⌃ + ⌘ + Q: Lock screen/computer
• ⌃ + ⌘ + V: Paste text without formatting
• ⇧ + ⌘ + 3: Screenshot (saved in desktop)
• ⇧ + ⌘ + 4: Screenshot draw region (saved in desktop)
• Fn + Up/Down: Text scroll page up/down
• Fn + Del: Text forward delete
• ^ + ⌘ + Space: Insert emoji
• ⌃ + ⌘ + F: Toggle full-screen
• ⌥ + Left/Right: Go to next/previous word
• ⌘ + Left/Right: Go to start/end of current line
• ⌘ + Tab: Cycle through open apps
• ⌘ + ` (backtick): Cycle through windows of the same app (when 2+ are open/running)
• ⌃ + Tab: Cycle through open tabs (Chrome, VSCode, etc.)
• ⌘ + Del: Delete a file
• ⇧ + space: Next input source (default is too cumbersome)

App Shortcuts

Firefox & Chrome

• ⌘ + R: Reload tab
• ⌘ + W: Close tab
• ⌘ + T: Open new tab

Google Meet

• ⌘ + D: mute/un-mute microphone

Rectangle

My shortcuts:

• ⌃ + ⌥ + Left: Move to left half
• ⌃ + ⌥ + Right: Move to right half
• ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ + Left: Move to previous display
• ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ + Right: Move to next display
• ⌃ + ⌥ + Enter: Maximize
• ⌥ + ⌘ + -: Make window smaller
• ⌥ + ⌘ + =: Make window bigger

Terminal

• ⌃ + Tab: cycle tabs
• ⌘ + num: switch to tab num
• ⌃ + R: reverse search

Vim

• Fix no colors: echo "syntax on" >> ~/.vimrc from a terminal

VSCode

• ⌘ + F: Find text in open file
• ⇧ + ⌘ + F: Find text in all project files
• ⌘ + P: Find file
• ⌃ + -: Go back
• ⌃ + G: Go to (often, go to a specific line number)
• ^ + Tab: Cycle through tabs (open files)

Fixes and Tweaks:

• How to launch vscode from the command line in macos
• How to compress a folder into a password-protected zip: Go to terminal and zip -er <filename>.zip <folder>
• How to specify a different language than your macOS locale: export LANG="en_US.UTF-8" at ~/.zshrc

Tools

• brew/Homebrew: The package manager for macOS.
• 7Zip: brew install sevenzip + 7zz from terminal
• caffeinate: Prevent system from sleeping, optionally waiting for a pid to finish.
• DeskPad: Virtual monitor for screen sharing.
• Flushing DNS cache: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
• Git: brew install git
• I disable the globbing pattern matching because can collide with command lines that include * or ?
• iTerm2: A better terminal, fast and very customizable
  • I recommend to change the preset at Settings ⇾ Profiles ⇾ Keys to the Natural Text Editing one
• noTunes: Because who would ever want to disable Apple Music, you can't do it easily. This open-source tool allows you not only that, but also to set any other application as the default app for music
• Python: Using brew, you can install multiple Python versions, e.g. brew install python@3.11
• Rectangle: Allows decent moving and resizing of windows. Highly customizable
• The Unarchiver: To open most compressed file formats
• Tomito: Pomodoro timer. Free and without ads

Handy Special Characters

• ⌥ + n, then n (ABC input source): ñ
• ⌥ + n, then ⇧ + n (ABC input source): Ñ
• ~ £ €
• ⇾ ← → ⇽ ✅ ❌