Skip to main content

What do those weird mac keyboard symbols actually mean?



I bought my first mac around the last part of 2010, and till this day I haven't learned what those weird looking sings are, but lucky you, I did some research (maybe not enough but) here's what I found:

The command key (or cmd in some keyboards)



This is one of the keys that I use the most, also one of the ones that if I see the symbol ill recognize almost instantly (mainly because the symbol is printed into the key). This key is used as the control key in macs, so instead of making copy/paste like you will do in Windows (control + c/v), you use the keys 'command + c' to copy and 'command + v' to paste. There are a ton of functions that this key can be used for and some cool tricks, but Ill talk about that in another entry.

Alt of Option key


This key, although I use it regularly, is one key that I have trouble memorizing the symbol (contrary to the command key, the symbol is not printed in the key). One way you cold memorize the symbol is by associating it with a weird looking 'T', as in alT... Well that's one way, but you are free to do whatever you want, feel free to leave a comment on how you associate the symbol with the key.

Shift Key


Now this is where it gets a little bit tricky, yeah I know its an arrow and that is basically the same as in a regular PC keyboard but this key can be confused with another symbol, the 'control key'.

Control key

Yes, this is not the shift key symbol. Often mistaken for the shift key the control key.. well its there and you should learn that is different from the shift key.

Escape key

You probably use this key a lot without knowing its symbol, but and are probably tired of having to actually drag the mouse pointer across the screen in order to reach that 'Force Quit' menu when that occasional program stops responding, but from now on things will be easier. PS the 'Force Quit' short cut is Alt + Command + Escape.


And there you have it, the most common keys with their respective symbols to get you out of trouble next time that you need (or want) to use that keyboard short cut but don't know what those symbols actually mean. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why is my MacBook fan so loud from boot?

I thought my Mac was getting old since the fan was creating a really loud noise, you could start hearing the fan since about five minutes after turning on my computer. So I did a little bit of digging and found the reason. First of all, In order to identify the process that is eating all of your CPU usage, to do this, we will use Activity Monitor, which comes installed in all  Mac OSX . To open the program, go to your Applications folder -> Utilities folder, and it should be at the top,  or do a simple Spotlight search (Command + space bar) and search for "Activity Monitor" Opening Activity Monitor, we should get a window like the one below, from here we can easily identify which is the process that is consuming the most of our resources and we can see if there is something we can do or not. In this example, we can see that the processes that are consuming the most CPU power are "fseventsd" and "launchhd" doing some quick internet research, I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Whats my computer's IP address?

IP addresses identify devices connected to your home network (WiFi), each time a new device is connected to a network, your router assigns a new, available IP address. Different configuration settings on your router can be set to rehuse IP addresses with a certain frequency. Maybe you need to set your computer's IP static to be able to get to a service hosted inside your computer from anther device, or you are configuring any other software, knowing your IP might not be extremely straight forward. Following the next steps will allow you to find your IP in no time. Mac devices: Using System Preferences:  Open your  "Network Preferences"  either from the System Preferences dashboard or by clicking the Wifi Icon on your menu bar. Select WiFi and cick  "Advanced" Select the "TCP/IP"  tab Your IP address will be displayed in the IPv4 Address (usually starting with 192) Using the Terminal: 1.- Open the terminal by doing either of the foll...
Post a Comment
Read more