Essential Mac Keyboard Shortcuts For Every Designer

Modern computers are incredibly versatile and powerful, but everyday users still don’t know half of what they can do. You have to save every second to work as efficiently as possible, and shortcuts are the best way to do it. Today we’ll list our favorite shortcuts that help us streamline our work.

Read also: Uptime Monitoring: Why It’s So Important

Keyboard shortcuts for every user

Quicklook

Some people have been using Macs for over 20 years and still don’t know about one of the easiest and most helpful shortcuts there is. Quicklook is a compelling feature that allows you to open full-sized previews of almost any file type by simply pressing Spacebar (or Cmd+Y). Just choose the file you’re interested in, and press Spacebar. It works with images and text, and it’s a massive time saver

Close window

There’s no doubt that the three colorful dots at the top left of windows are iconic, but when you aim at a little red dot every time you need to close a window, you lose a lot of time — a lot more than you realize. Instead, try to press Command + W. This only closes the window, not the app itself. If you want to close an app, use Cmd + Q.

Screenshot

Another feature many people don’t know is a built-in screenshot utility. You don’t need a third-party solution, even though those are usually more powerful. But for most users, the built-in app is more than enough! If you need to quickly make a screenshot of a particular area, press Command + Shift + 4. It sounds a bit convoluted, but it’ll save you a lot of time! You can save the image to the clipboard or a particular folder.

Hide that dock

The Dock is legendary, no doubt, but when you’re using a MacBook, it might take too much of your space. If you, like us, both love and hate it, you’d do better to use the Command + Option + D shortcut. It immediately hides the dock — and brings it back. Very nifty!

Scroll through all open applications

Another neat little trick is to use the Cmd + Tab to open a list of all open applications. That way, you can not only see every open program but also go to it with a Tab.

Re-open the previous tab

We’ve all been there: the tab you’ve been actively using has suddenly disappeared, and you need it back. You can use History, of course, but it is much easier to just press Command + Shift + T, which will instantly revive the tab. It works with all browsers, including Safari.