12 Tips To Help You Type Like a Pro On Your Mac

If you do a lot of writing on your Mac, here are a bunch of tips to help you type and manipulate text more efficiently. You can use the arrow keys along with modifiers to move around and select text without taking your fingers off the keyboard. You can also quickly delete words and lines without using your mouse or trackpad. You can complete and correct spelling, substitute a few keystrokes for longer pieces of text, and type accent marks and symbols quickly.

Comments: 10 Responses to “12 Tips To Help You Type Like a Pro On Your Mac”

    Ian MacGregor
    5 years ago

    Thank you, Gary. I had no idea about Control+Command+Spacebar, very helpful!

    Ian MacGregor
    5 years ago

    Gary, in your text replacements you have "1/2". Where can those fractions be found? I couldn't find them with Control+Command+Spacebar. Also, someone told me about an Apple icon/font, can't find that one either.

    5 years ago

    Ian: Try Control+Command+Space and searching for "fraction." For some reason Apple doesn't put the  symbol in there. Maybe they don't want people over-using it. But Option+Shift+k will get it for you in many fonts.

    Ian MacGregor
    5 years ago

    Gary, Thank you! MacMost ROCKS!

    Ulrich Maasmeier
    5 years ago

    That's cool!

    I did know much of it, but not the alt/command - delete combinations – until now.

    James Moore
    5 years ago

    In the Character Viewer (Control+Command+Space), I add common characters I use to Favorites. This allows me to reuse commonly used characters quickly and efficiently.
    I've added common math symbols, fractions, common subscripts and superscripts, and a few other characters I find useful.
    This way I don't have to search for them.
    𝛑√∛∜℃℉½⅓⅔¼∞≤≥∑❌•𝓪𝓫𝓬𝓭𝓮 𝓲 etc

    John F.
    5 years ago

    Here's a weird question (I think)... sometimes when I'm typing on my Mac, I'll get emoji substitutions for words. For instance, if I type "cash" it will be replaced with a moneybag image, etc. It's not every time either. And it doesn't seem to be app specific. It's as if I were typing in Messages on my phone. I'd love to shut it off but can't find out how.

    5 years ago

    John: That's odd. Check in System Preferences to see if you added some text replacements for that. Otherwise, try to notice exactly what it is doing when that happens. Does that appear as a choice with an X next to it when typing?

    Bruce
    5 years ago

    Very helpful! One trick I learned for text substitution: use a semi-colon (;) at the beginning of the abbreviation. Imagine you want your initials expand to your name, but your name is Bart Emory, if you use BE as the abbreviation, you can't use "be" as a word. But if you use ;BE as the abbreviation, there is never a conflict. No word starts with a ; symbol. It also allows abbreviations to be more intuitive. ";name" expands to my full name, but "name" does not.

    TimA
    5 years ago

    Type Like A Pro On Your Mac

    Left Right Up Down (Arrows)

    Option Word Paragraph
    Cmd Line (freezes) Body
    Opt Sh Select Word Select Paragraph
    Cmd Sh Select Line Select Body

    Opt Del Word
    Opt Forwd Del

    Opt Escape - auto completion
    Auto correction (escape to override)

    Accent marks - hold down key
    Cnt Cmd Spacebar Special Char Palette

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