Part two of my notes of moving from Windows to Mac – read part 1 here
One of the most popular posts in the blog is the shortcut key in windows to ‘show desktop’. I love shortcut keys, but they’re all different on the Mac so I’m having to learn them all over again.
Here are the one’s I’ve found so far along with their Windows equivalent;
| Action | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Show Desktop | |
Windows Key + D |
| Lock Screen (when going away from my desk) | Ctrl + Shift + Eject | Windows Key + L |
For some things though, I’ve found I need to use a shortcut where I used to use a key. For example, “Delete” on windows, is the delete key. It removes the character to the right, as opposed to the “Backspace” key, which removes the character to the left. My Macbook Pro doesn’t have a delete key, but the action is available using Fn + Backspace.
It also doesn’t have a right mouse button… I’m still learning to live without that but haven’t quite memorised the shortcut. I’m also finding gestures a little hard. While I’m remembering to use two fingers to scroll the page (my previous HP had a scroll function on the right side of the mousepad area), I’m finding a feeling of fatigue in my fingers similar to that I remember from learning to type or play the guitar. I like the principle of the gesture control though, so I suspect I’ll wonder how I managed without it once I’m used to it.
Update May 2012 – For some reason Fn + F11 isn’t working for me any more. So, I looked in [apple menu top left of screen] > System Preferences > Mission Control and I see the shortcut is: [ctrl] + [down arrow]. Maybe I got it wrong before, maybe I changed it and forgot, maybe it changed with an update… but this is what it is for me now.
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