Command Line: This is the actual line in a console where you type your command. Prompt: This is the beginning of the command line. It usually provides some contextual information like who you are, where you are and other useful info. It typically ends in a $. After the prompt is where you will be typing commands. The symbols in the key combinations represent special keyboard keys, called modifier keys. You can press the key combinations shown in menus to perform actions without opening the menus. If you turn on Sticky Keys in Accessibility preferences, you see the Command, Shift, Option, and Control key symbols on your screen when you press those keys.
This is the ultimate guide for working with MacBook keyboards, including accessing special functions, characters, accents, and using keyboard shortcuts in Mac OS system. Click on the list below to jump to an appropriate section.
MacBook Keyboard Diagram / Map
MacBook Keyboard Diagram / Map
MacBook keyboard has few distinctive sections: Function keys (in light blue), which provides access to various functions in MacBook itself or Mac OS system. By combining them with the FN key, you'll get access to F1 - F12 keys, which can be associated with particular application features (useful in Photoshop for example).
How To Type Command Symbol Mac
- As above, press Control-Command-Space to bring up the Emoji pallet then click on the icon in the top right of the Emoji box to bring up the Character Viewer. Here you'll find more than Emoji: there.
- . This may not work in Word X. Instead, create a keystroke such as Control-X to insert this symbol. To do so, open the Insert menu, select Symbol, and select the × symbol. Click the 'Shortcut Key' button and choose a shortcut.
- Using a keyboard shortcut on a Mac is pretty convenient, and since macOS displays shortcuts in the menu bar, it is even easier to remember them. However if you are new to Mac, then understanding the shortcuts shown on the Mac can be difficult if you don't know what key symbols mean. Mac Shortcut Symbol Meaning.
The second section is the modifier keys (in light yellow). Shift allows to type uppercase letters and other additional characters. Command and Alt/Option are used in keyboard shortcuts, as well as the Control key, which is used almost exclusively by Mac OS X and Apple programs.
Return and left Shift has two variants, one used in the US and Eastern Asia (horizontal Return and long Shift), and second, used in Europe, Middle East and Africa (vertical Return and short left Shift). On the diagram, this is shown by dashed lines. Of course, MacBook keyboards have lots of localizations, the most common - US English - is shown above. If you're unsure about the localization you have, go and check it with this guide.
MacBook Air 11' has slightly different keyboard, with smaller top and bottom row keys to accommodate smaller laptop size. Newest MacBooks Pro with TouchBar don't have upper F keys row, instead, they have a touchscreen which changes displayed options based on context.
MacBook Keyboard Symbols Chart
Symbol | Meaning | Notes |
Screen brightness down | ||
Screen brightness up | ||
Launches Mission Control | Icon available on MacBooks Unibody | |
Launches Mission Control | Icon available on MacBooks pre-unibody | |
Launches Dashboard | Icon available on MacBooks Unibody | |
Launches Dashboard | Icon available on MacBooks pre-unibody | |
Keyboard backlight down | ||
Keyboard backlight up | ||
Rewind | ||
Play / Pause | ||
Fast Forward | ||
Sound: mute | ||
Sound: volume down | ||
Sound: volume up | ||
Eject | Available on MacBooks with CD/DVD drive | |
Power | Available on MacBooks without CD/DVD drive | |
Command | On MacBooks 1st generation this is replaced by Apple logo | |
Alt / Option | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Tab | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Backspace | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Shift | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Caps Lock | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Return | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Enter | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts, accessed with FN key | |
Delete | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Clear | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Home | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing. Can be substituted by CMD + up arrow shortcut. | |
End | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing. Can be substituted by CMD + down arrow shortcut. | |
Page Up | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Page Down | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Arrows | Used to move things or pointer |
MacBook Keyboard Special Characters and Accents Map
If you want to type special characters or accents, change your keyboard language to US International PC (thanks, Steve!) and use the map below to get them. You can also check out our solution to the two languages on one keyboard problem.
Where is the Print Screen Button?
Unlike PC keyboard, there is no Print Screen key on MacBook keyboard. This functionality is accessed by keyboard shortcuts and - on Mac - you have greater flexibility:
- Command + Shift + 3 - captures entire screen;
- Command + Shift + 4 - captures selected region. Your cursor turns to crosshair and by clicking and dragging you can specify which area you want to capture;
- Command + Shift + 4 + Space - captures selected window. First press the shortcut from above, then - when you have crosshair - hit Space. The cursor will turn to the camera and the active window will have a blue overlay. Click on it to get it captured.
In some apps, like Photoshop, you need to add Control into the mix, to paste the screenshot into the app.
MacBook Keyboard Tricks
There's a lot you can do in Mac OS by using the keyboard only. Here's a list of highly useful and not-so-useful keyboard shortcuts:
Shortcut | Action |
Command + W | Quickly closes the active window in Safari or any other browser. Works also with many applications, like Pages, Numbers, Photoshop. Great way to quickly close something when your boss is coming around :) |
Command + H | Hides the active application. Useful for hiding something quickly ;) |
Option + Shift + F11/F12 | Makes tiny changes in volume level instead of standard jumps. |
Control + Option + Command + 8 | Reverses colors on the screen. |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 | When watching YouTube video, this will advance you to 10%, 20%, 30%.. of movie completion. |
Option + Delete | Deletes whole word in text editors |
Control + Command + V | Pastes copied text without formatting. Useful when copying something from Pages and pasting into eg. Wordpress :) |
Control + Command + Option + Eject/Shutdown | Shuts down the MacBook without the need to provide username and password. |
Command + Shift + A | Opens the Applications folder in Finder. |
Command + Shift + U | Opens the Utilities folder in Finder. |
Command + Shift + D | Opens the Desktop folder in Finder. |
Command + Shift + I | When in Safari, this shortcut copies the URL, opens Mail app and creates a new email with the copied URL pasted as a link in a message. |
Command + Option + M | Minimizes all open windows, showing Desktop. |
Command + Option + Shift + Esc | Hold for 3 seconds to force quit any app. |
Command + Tab | Cycle through opened apps from left to right. |
Command + Shift + Tab | Cycle through opened apps from right to left. |
Command + ` | Cycles through active app windows. |
Command + Q | Quit active app. |
Command + T | Opens a new tab in Finder. Opens a new tab in a web browser. |
Command + N | Creates new Finder window. |
Command + Shift + N | Creates new folder in Finder. |
Command + Space | Launches Spotlight. |
Command + Option + Space | Switches to next keyboard language (if you have more than one). |
Command + Control + Space | In some websites and apps this will give you the emoji keyboard. |
Command + Delete | Sends selected files/folders to trash. |
Fn + Delete | Deletes text from left to right. |
F10 + Shutdown | Hold while launching MacBook to get a silent start. |
Command + up arrow/down arrow | Jump to the beginning or end of a page. This is equivalent to PC's Home and End keys. |
Command + up arrow + L | Highlights the address bar in a web browser. |
Mac Keyboard Symbols List
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Page Content
- Letters with Accents – (e.g. ó, ò, ñ)
- Other Foreign Characters – (e.g. ç, ¿, ß)
- Currency Symbols – (e.g. ¢, £, ¥)
- Math Symbols – (e.g. ±, °, ÷)
- Other Punctuation – (e.g. &, ©, §)
- Extra Accents:Extended Keyboard for OS X – (e.g. Ā, ý, č) New Page
Letters with Accents
This list is organized by Accent type. For the Template, the symbol 'V' means any vowel. The format is to hold the first two keys down simultaneously, release, then type the letter you wish to be accented.
ACCENT | SAMPLE | TEMPLATE |
---|---|---|
Acute | ó Ó | Option+E, V |
Circumflex | ô Ô | Option+I, V |
Grave | ò Ò | Option+`, V |
Tilde | õ Õ | Option+N, V Only works with 'n,N,o,O,a,A' |
Umlaut | ö Ö | Option+U, V |
Examples
Example 1: To input the letter ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.
Example 2: To input the letter Ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type capital O.
Other Foreign Characters
To insert these characters, press the Option key (bottom of keyboard) then other 'code' key to make the symbol appear.
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
¡ | Free word application for mac. Upside-down exclamation mark | Option+1 |
¿ | Upside-down question mark | Shift+Option+? |
Ç,ç | French C cedille (caps/lowecase) | Shift+Option+C |
Œ,œ | OE ligature (caps/lowecase) | Shift+Option+Q |
ß | German Sharp/Double S | Option+S |
º, ª | Masculine Ordinal Number (Span/Ital/Portuguese) Feminine Ordinal Number | Option+0 |
Ø,ø | Nordic O slash (caps/lowecase) | Shift+Option+O |
Å,å | Nordic A ring (caps/lowecase) | Shift+Option+A |
Æ,æ | AE ligature (caps/lowecase) | Shift+Option+' (apostrophe key) |
« » | Spanish/French quotation marks | Option+ |
Examples
Example 1: To input French ç (Option+C), hold down the Option, then the C key. The ç will appear.
Example 2: To input French Ç (Shift+Option+C), hold down the Shift key, then the Option key,then the C key. The ç will appear.
Currency Symbols
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
¢ | Cent sign | Option+4 |
£ | British Pound | Option+3 |
¥ | Japanese Yen | Option+Y |
€ | Euro Sign. | Shift+Option+2 May not be in older fonts. |
ƒ | Dutch Florin | Option+F |
Math Symbols
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
÷ | Division sign | Option+/ |
± | Plus/minus sign | Shift+Option+= |
° | The degree symbol | Shift+Option+8 |
¬ | 'not' symbol | Option+L |
≥ | Greater than or equal to | Option+> |
≤ | Lesser than or equal to | Option+< |
√ | square root radical sign | Option+V |
π | Pi symbol | Option+P |
∞ | Infinity symbol | Option+5 |
≈ | Approximately | Option+X |
Δ | Delta/Difference | Option+J |
Σ | Sum Sign | Option+W |
∏ | Product Pi Symbol | Shift+Option+P |
Ω | Ohm sign | Option+Z |
µ | Micro | Option+M |
∂ | Partial Derivative | Option+D |
∫ | Integral Sign | Option+B |
‰ | Per Mil (1/1000) Sign | Shift+Option+R |
Other Punctuation
SYMBOL | NAME | CODE |
---|---|---|
© | Copyright symbol | Option+G |
® | Registered | Option+R |
™ | Trademark | Option+2 |
¶ | Paragraph Symbol | Option+7 |
• | Dot | Option+8 |
§ | Section Symbol | Option+6 |
– | en-dash. Option, then minus sign | Option+- |
— | em-dash | Shift+Option+- |
† | Dagger | Option+T |
Other Symbols
If the symbol you need is not on this page, try these options.