Keyboard Keys’ Symbols

Monday, October 16th, 2006 | Tips

The mouse is a great invention. However, to achieve greater speed in maneuvering your Mac it helps to keep your hands on the keyboard. Shortcut keys are a great time saver. For example, to print a document you can go to File menu and select Print. You can also accomplish the same thing by pressing Command + P. You may agree with me that pressing two keys is quicker than mousing over to the File menu and selecting Print, but how do you know which keys do what?

A great way to find out is to study the menus on your Mac. The commands in the menus which can be activated with shortcut keys have the key combinations listed to the right. As you explore your menus you may find that the symbols used to reference keys on your keyboard are not all that familiar.

To help you find the right keys here are the keyboard keys’ symbols.

command symbol Â - Command key
option symbol - Option
- Shift
control symbol - Control
backspace symbol Â - Delete or Backspace for those of you familiar with Windows
delete symbol Â - Delete (erases characters to the right of the cursor)