Learning keyboard shortcuts can save time, prevent headaches, and help you avoid repetitive stress injuries. This is a list of the most commonly used shortcuts intended for both digital professionals and amateurs.

To use these shortcuts, hold down Command (cmd) or Shift and then press the other keys. Many of these shortcuts also work on PC, by replacing the Command keyboard shortcuts with Control (Ctrl).

1. Find misspelled words:  Command + Semicolon   (hold command and tap ; repeatedly to cycle through all the misspelled words in a document)

2. Undo: Command + Z   (hold Command and press Z repeatedly to keep undoing)

   This is a common shortcut for many applications.

3. Redo: Command + Shift + Z   (hold Command and press Z repeatedly to keep redoing)

4. Find and replace:  Command + F   

   If you have a misspelled word that occurs in multiple places in a document, it may make sense to find everywhere this word is in a document or web page, and replace it with the correctly spelled word. This is one of the best ways to do this.

5. Move the cursor to the end of a word: Option + Arrow   (in the direction of the word)

   This is usually the fastest way to edit a word in the middle of a sentence.

6. Move the cursor to the end or beginning of a sentence: Command + right arrow   (or left arrow)

7. Move to the beginning and end of a page: Command + (down arrow or up arrow)

8. Highlight a letter or letters: Shift + Arrow   (to move the cursor)

   If you intended to highlight a sentence, but missed a letter, this is useful.

9. Highlight a word: Shift + Option + Arrow   (In direction of highlighting)

10. Highlight a sentence: Command + Shift + Arrow   (In direction of highlighting)

11. Highlight everything on a page or document: Command + A   

    Try these shortcuts after highlighting a word, sentence, or everything.

12. Copy: Command + C

13. Paste: Command + V 

14. Cut: Command + X  

15. Underline: Command + U

16.  Italicize: Command + I

17. Bold: Command + B

18. Add a link to highlighted text: Command + K 

    Common shortcuts after editing a document

19. Save a file: Command + S

20. Print a web page: Command + P

21. Bookmark a page or find a bookmarked page: Command + D

    Web-related keyboard shortcuts

22. Open links in a new tab: Command + Click

23. Page navigation by links: Press Tab to move through the links on a page. Hold Shift + Tab (repeatedly) to navigate through the links in reverse. When filling out forms, excel sheets, and other text fields, usually tab or the arrow keys can be used to quickly navigate through the text fields.

24. Open links in a new window: Shift + Click

25. Open a new tab: Command + T

26. Switch between tabs: Command + 1–9 (Number of Tab)  

    Pro tip: move your most active tabs to the leftmost positions for easy access, since it’s easiest to move between tabs one through four, by pressing Command + (1,2,3,4) 

27. Open a new browser window: Command + N

28. Close the current window: Command + W

29. Switch between open applications / windows. Command + Tab (press tab repeatedly to navigate). 

30. Find a file, or application (spotlight search): Command + Spacebar

31. Open a file: Command + O (Open)

    When used inside a program, this will open up the files saved within the program.

32. Zoom in: Hold Command and +   (press plus repeatedly to keep increasing the window view size)

33. Zoom out: Hold Command and –   (press minus repeatedly to keep decreasing the size of the window view)

34. Make the screen size 100%: Command + 0   (zero)

35. Move cursor to the address bar and highlight current web address: Command + L 

36. Refresh an application or web page: Command + R 

    If you encounter a loading error with an application or web page, it may need to be refreshed.

37. Hard refresh an application of web page: Command + Shift + R

    This option makes your computer ignore its stored cache (memory) when loading a web page.

While all these tricks may only save you a few seconds each, when used consistently, they will save you a lot of time. 

Don’t worry if you make any mistakes when learning these shortcuts, you can always press command + z to undo the damage, or contact Spin Group.