Mac keyboard shortcuts
How to learn the keyboard shortcuts of the Mac apps you use
Finding a shortcut is the easy half. You look it up, use it once, and
the next day you're back in the menu. This page is about making it
stick: what you can do with macOS alone, and then Keysi Pro, the paid
part of the app this site sells.
What works without installing anything
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Start from the commands you already use. Most of an
app's shortcuts are for commands you never run. Learn the ones you
pick from a menu every day; the menu prints each shortcut next to it.
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Read the keycaps on the way past. When you pick a
command from the menu, look at its shortcut before you let go, and
press the keys next time.
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A few at a time. Pick a handful in the app you use
most, not a whole cheat sheet, and add more once those are habit.
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Give a shortcut to a command that has none. System
Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts ▸ App Shortcuts lets you
assign keys to any menu command, by its exact menu title.
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Check the shortcut isn't already taken. macOS handles
some key combinations before the app sees them, so a shortcut that
does nothing is often taken, not forgotten.
How to see any Mac app's
keyboard shortcuts covers that, and the three places macOS lists
them.
None of that notices when you reach for the mouse for a command that
has a shortcut, or brings back the ones you keep missing a few days
later.
What Keysi Pro adds
Free Keysi shows every shortcut of the app you're in when you hold ⌘,
and runs any of them with a click. Keysi Pro ($14.99, once) teaches
them:
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Coach. When you pick a menu command by hand that has
a shortcut, it shows one quiet reminder, then stops mentioning the
ones you've started using. A cooldown keeps it from becoming noise;
mute one shortcut or all of it in Settings ▸ Coach, or keep it quiet
during a Focus.
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Practice Mode. It drills the ones you keep missing
with spaced repetition: get one right and it comes back after a day,
then two, four, eight and sixteen. One drill a day is free; Keysi Pro
removes the limit.
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Your own numbers. Keysi times your trips through the
menus, counts the times you pressed the shortcut instead, and shows
both. Until it has timed enough trips, it shows no time figure. The
overlay marks the shortcuts you've learned, and a weekly summary says
what stuck.
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Shortcuts for commands that have none. When you keep
clicking a command with no shortcut, Keysi suggests a combination
neither the app nor macOS uses, and shows you where to set it.
I built it for the apps people work in all day, like Xcode, Logic,
Final Cut, Figma and Excel. Coaching does nothing in web browsers unless
you turn that on in Settings; the overlay still works there.
Every install includes 14 days of Pro. After that Keysi drops to the
free tier and keeps working, and nothing you set up is deleted. Pro is
one payment, not a subscription, for up to three Macs.
Other apps that coach
Keysi is not the only one. Keylume also nudges you when you pick a
menu command that has a shortcut.
The dated comparison sets out what
each app's own site says it does.
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