OS X KEYBOARD SYMBOLS

force-quit

About Keyboard Symbols

OS X Keyboard Symbols are the basis of all Apple Macintosh keyboard shortcuts.
Below is a table that presents all Apple keyboard symbols - taken from the book
Core Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts.

Keyboard symbols are shorthand notation designed to simplify the naming of and
referring to keyboard shortcuts.

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF VERSION

Picture 1: Keyboard Symbols

FREE DOWNLOADkeyboardsymbols

READ MORE ABOUT THE BOOK - CORE MAC OS X KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Keyboard Symbols in drop-down Menus

If you click the top menu bar on your Mac screen from within Finder, for example
“File”, you will see a vertical menu drop down displaying various words and phrases
(see picture below).

Picture 2: Shortcuts in Menus

file-menu

These words and phrases are commands. To the right of some of these commands are
groups of symbols and characters. These characters and symbols represent the
respective keyboard combination for each shortcut.

From the picture above, the keyboard shortcut for "File Open" is command-open. So to use this
keyboard shortcut simply press thecommand then "O" key at the same time. Once you
understand what each symbol means, you can apply any keyboard shortcut you like.