Mac Usage

Shortcuts and commands that earn their keep on a daily-driver Mac.

Upgrading and Checking Packages

# `bubu` is a personal alias: brew update && brew outdated && brew upgrade && brew cleanup
bubu
brew doctor

ncu -g       # check global npm packages for newer versions
npm doctor

gem update
gem cleanup

For machine reproducibility (declarative install list), see Brewfile in Mac development setup.

CLI Utilities

pbcopy < file.txt              # pipe stdin to clipboard
pbpaste > file.txt             # pipe clipboard to stdout
say "build finished"           # speak text aloud
caffeinate -i make release     # keep Mac awake while a command runs
screencapture -i clip.png      # interactive region capture
sips -Z 1024 in.png --out out.png  # resize, keeping aspect ratio
mdls -name kMDItemKind file    # Spotlight metadata for any file

Keyboard Shortcuts

Mac keyboard shortcuts

Common Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘,	Open preferences for the front app
⇧⌘T	Reopen the last closed tab
⇧⌘[ / ⇧⌘]	Previous / next tab
⌃⌘F	Toggle full screen
⌘W / ⌥⌘W	Close window / close all windows
⌃⌘Q	Lock screen immediately
⌘⇧3 / ⌘⇧4 / ⌘⇧5	Full / region / capture overlay

Finder

Shortcut	Action
⇧⌘.	Toggle show hidden files
⌘↑ / ⌘↓	Parent folder / open selection
⌘⇧G	Go to folder by path
⌘⌥V	Move (cut/paste) after ⌘C
Space	Quick Look preview

System Sliders (open the right pane fast)

⌥ plus any media key opens the matching System Settings pane. Add ⇧ to step in finer increments:

Shortcut	Action
⌥-Volume	Open Sound settings
⌥⇧-Volume	Adjust volume in smaller steps
⌥-Brightness	Open Displays settings
⌥⇧-Brightness	Adjust brightness in smaller steps

Text Editing

⌃A, ⌃E, ⌃K, ⌃Y work in any standard text field, since AppKit borrows Emacs bindings.

Shortcut	Action
⌥← / ⌥→	Jump by word
⌥⌫	Delete previous word
⌃A / ⌃E	Start / end of line
⌃K	Kill from cursor to end of line
⌃Y	Yank (paste killed text)
fn fn	Dictation (toggle in Keyboard settings)