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Mac Shortcuts @ Red Ventures 2019-08-21
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mac-shortcuts.md

💻 Mac Shortcuts

tl;dr Use your keyboard. Avoid the mouse.

 

How do we get faster?

  • Typing
  • Traversing
  • Tooling

Bonus: Remove distractions. Clear your screen.

 

 

👨‍💻 Typing

When it comes down to it, you’re only as fast as you can type. Gain a solid foundation with regular practice, then build on that with more powerful settings.

 

Practice, Practice, Practice

Let’s race!

Try keybr.com (or search for others).

 

Make It Faster

System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard

  • Key Repeat: Fast
  • Delay Until Repeat: Short

 

Keyboard Shortcuts

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts

  • Turn off any that annoy you.
    • Launchpad & Dock > Turn Dock Hiding On/Off
    • Input Sources > Select the previous input source
  • Use App Shortcuts for apps without shortcut settings.
    • Safari.app > Enter Responsive Design Mode > ⇧⌘E
    • Safari.app > Exit Responsive Design Mode > ⇧⌘E
    • Sketch.app > Resize to Fit Content > ⇧⌘F
    • Preview.app > Adjust Size... > ⇧⌘I

 

⭐ Document Shortcuts

  • ⌘Arrow Move cursor to beginning/end of document/line.
  • ⌥Arrow Move cursor to beginning/end of previous/next word.
  • ⇧⌘Arrow Select text between cursor and beginning/end of document/line.
  • ⇧Arrow Extend selection to nearest character on previous/current/next line.
  • ⌥⇧Arrow Extend selection to beginning/end of previous/current/next word/paragraph.

For more global shortcuts, read Apple: Mac keyboard shortcuts.

P.S. ⌃⌘Space for emojis, or use an app like Rocket.

 

Aside: Screenshots & Screencasts

  • ⇧⌘3 to capture the whole screen.
  • ⇧⌘4 + click/drag to capture a portion of the screen.
  • ⇧⌘4 + Space to capture windows.
  • ⇧⌘5 to see options for screen recordings.

For more screenshot shortcuts, see Apple: How to take a screenshot on your Mac.

 

Aside: Keep Your Mac Awake

Keep your Mac awake with an app to save time logging back in when your Mac falls asleep (or to help keep your screen on during a presentation).

 

 

🤹‍ Traversing

Besides raw typing speed, your ability to jump between applications and traverse your project is make or break. It’s all about how quickly you can find things.

 

Window Management

🚫 Avoid ✅ Use
Dock Icons Spotlight (⌘Space) or Alfred
Mission Control ⌘Tab for Apps, ⌘` for Windows
Clicking Tabs ⌘] and ⌘[
Resizing Windows Moom, Magnet, or Spectacle
  • Instead of clicking on Dock icons, use ⌘Space Spotlight (or a tool like Alfred) to open apps.
  • Instead of Mission Control, use ⌘Tab to cycle through apps and ⌘` to cycle through windows.
  • Instead of clicking on tabs, use ⌘] and ⌘[ to cycle through tabs (works in browsers, editors, even Finder).
  • Instead of manually resizing windows, use a tool to scale and position them for you.

 

Searching Folders

Finder > Preferences > Advanced

  • When performing a search: Search the Current Folder

 

Changing Directories

Fuzzy match your frequent directories (instead of manually typing or tabbing out the whole path). https://github.com/rupa/z

brew install z

Then add it to your .bash_profile:

# z (Faster cd)
# https://github.com/rupa/z
. /usr/local/etc/profile.d/z.sh

P.S. Use VS Code workspaces!

 

Text Editor Shortcuts

🔥 Combine these with Document Shortcuts for ludicrous speed.

Note: These shortcuts are based on VS Code’s default settings, but can also be applied to other editors.

Preferences: Open Default Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)

Key Command Command ID
⌘P Quick Open workbench.action.quickOpen
⇧⌘P Show All Commands workbench.action.showCommands
⌘D Add Selection To Next Find Match editor.action.addSelectionToNextFindMatch
⇧⌘L Select all occurrences of current selection editor.action.selectHighlights
⇧⌥I Insert cursor at end of each line selected editor.action.insertCursorAtEndOfEachLineSelected
⌥↓ Move Line Down editor.action.moveLinesDownAction
⌥↑ Move Line Up editor.action.moveLinesUpAction
⌘Enter Insert Line Below editor.action.insertLineAfter
⇧⌥↓ Copy Line Down editor.action.copyLinesDownAction
⇧⌘\ Jump to matching bracket editor.action.jumpToBracket
⌘/ Toggle Line Comment editor.action.commentLine
⇧⌘] Next Editor workbench.action.nextEditor
⇧⌘[ Previous Editor workbench.action.previousEditor
⌘F Find actions.find
⇧⌘O Go to Symbol... workbench.action.gotoSymbol
⌘K M Change Language Mode workbench.action.editor.changeLanguageMode
⇧⌥F Format Document editor.action.formatDocument
⌘B Toggle Sidebar Visibility workbench.action.toggleSidebarVisibility
⌥z Toggle Word Wrap editor.action.toggleWordWrap

Other Useful Shortcuts

  • Basic Editing
    • Fold Region (⌥⌘[)
  • Editor/Window Management
    • Move Editor (⌘K ⇧⌘→)
    • Move Editor into Next Group (⌃⌘→)
    • Open Editor at Index (⌃1, ⌃2, etc.)
  • File Management
    • Close Others (⌥⌘T)
    • Reopen Closed Editor (⇧⌘T)
  • Display
    • Open Preview to the Side (⌘K V)
    • Toggle Integrated Terminal (⌃`)

Custom Shortcuts

~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/keybindings.json

  • Transpose
    • editor.action.transpose
  • Case Conversion
    • editor.action.transformToLowercase
    • editor.action.transformToTitlecase
    • editor.action.transformToUppercase
  • Reset Zoom
    • workbench.action.zoomReset

Example keybindings.json:

[
    // Open JSON Settings
    { "key": "cmd+,",        "command": "workbench.action.openSettingsJson" },
    { "key": "shift+cmd+,",  "command": "workbench.action.openSettings" },

    // Reset Zoom
    { "key": "cmd+0",        "command": "workbench.action.zoomReset" },

    // Focus Tabs
    { "key": "cmd+1",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex1" },
    { "key": "cmd+2",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex2" },
    { "key": "cmd+3",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex3" },
    { "key": "cmd+4",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex4" },
    { "key": "cmd+5",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex5" },
    { "key": "cmd+6",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex6" },
    { "key": "cmd+7",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex7" },
    { "key": "cmd+8",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex8" },
    { "key": "cmd+9",        "command": "workbench.action.openEditorAtIndex9" },

    // Emmet - Balance (aka "Match Pair")
    // https: //docs.emmet.io/actions/match-pair/
    { "key": "ctrl+d",       "command": "editor.emmet.action.balanceOut" },
    { "key": "ctrl+j",       "command": "editor.emmet.action.balanceIn" },

    // Select Inside Brackets
    { "key": "ctrl+shift+m", "command": "-editor.action.toggleTabFocusMode" },
    { "key": "ctrl+shift+m", "command": "editor.action.selectToBracket" }
]

For more details on VS Code shortcuts, see VS Code: Key Bindings.

 

 

👷 Tooling

From here on out, it’s all about automation. What tools can help you avoid repeating yourself?

 

Text Editor Snippets

Preferences > User Snippets > New Global Snippets file...

~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/snippets/global.code-snippets

{
    /**
     * Placeholder Images
     */
    "placehold.it": {
        "scope": "",
        "prefix": "placehold",
        "body": [
            "<img src=\"https://placehold.it/${1:300}x${2:300}\" alt=\"$3\">"
        ],
        "description": "Add placeholder image"
    }
}

Enable tab completion!

~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/keybindings.json

{
    "editor.tabCompletion": "on"
}

For more details on how to create custom snippets, see VS Code: Snippets.

P.S. If you purchase the Powerpack, Alfred Snippets enable you to reuse global snippets everywhere.

 

Text Editor Plugins

Linting and formatting tools:

For more details on RV’s standard formatting tools, see FE Standards: Linting and Formatting.

 

Bash/ZSH Aliases

Add aliases to your .bash_profile.

# ------------------------------
# Git
# ------------------------------

alias gs="git status"
alias ga="git add -p"
alias gaa="git add --all"
alias gc="git commit"
alias gca="git commit --amend"
alias gd="git diff"
alias gdc="git diff --cached"
alias gm="git merge"
alias gk="git checkout"
alias gp="git push"
alias gpf="git push --force-with-lease"
alias gl="git pull"
alias gb="git branch"
alias gr="git reset HEAD"

For more details on Bash, see Flavio Copes: The Bash shell and Devhints: Bash scripting cheatsheet

 

Clipboard History

🔥 But for real, once you get clipboard history you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

 

Offline Documentation

 

The list goes on…

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