The 3 Best Mac Shortcuts You’re Not Using—but Should Be

Ever accidentally close a tab and then fall into a pit of despair? Of course you have. I do it every day. Fortunately for you and I, Apple’s developers baked into macOS a bunch of keyboard shortcuts.

Some are obvious, like Command + C for copy and Command + V for paste. Everyone knows those. These three are my favorites, and not many people are even aware of their existence.

fingertip lifesavers

Command + Shift + T. Let’s start with my favorite one, which I use every day because I’m a fumblefingers who’s always closing tabs either accidentally or before I’m sure I actually need to close them. No matter. Hold these three down, and your previous browser tab will reopen right where you left off.

It doesn’t matter which browser you use. Safari, Chrome, Firefox. Whatever. Whether I’ve just mistakenly hit the X or Command + W (which closes the active window), or because I realize I wasn’t done with the closed webpage, this shortcut is the quickest way back. And you can go back two, three, four, five, or however many closed tabs if you keep hitting it. Just don’t close the recently rescued tabs until you reach the one you were looking for.

Command + Tab. This one cycles through your open apps. Hold these two buttons down, and you’ll see a pop-up appear with the icons of your open apps. If you just release the buttons, it’ll take you to your last-looked-at tab, but if you keep Command held down and tap Tab again, it’ll cycle to the next app. Keep cycling until the one you want is highlighted, and then let go of the buttons. It’ll switch right to it more quickly than using the trackpad and mouse.

Command + Space. This brings up Spotlight, a pan-macOS search bar that you ought to be using more of. I ought to, also. Perhaps I forget it exists because it’s not exactly front and center. Apple puts a small magnifying glass on the system toolbar for it, but otherwise, it’s out of sight, out of mind.

Spotlight is a powerful search bar. Punch in what you’re looking for, and it’ll search your Mac’s files, folders, pictures, the internet, calendar events, emails, and even make Siri recommendations. Having it at the tips of your fingers, like these other shortcuts, unlocks a powerful set of tools.