Series: Awesome Tips about Mac
TL;DR
- This article contains some tips for people who want to use less trackpad and more keyboard.
Why Not Trackpad
- My fingers hurt/burn after use Trackpad of the MacBook Pro: maybe it’s because it gets too hot, or due to the heat issue of the butterfly keyboard
Update
- Now I keyboard shortcuts as much as possible, use Chrome Vimium
- Use The Great Suspender and AdBlock Plus in Chrome, and Mac tips at here to prevent overheating.
- Now my fingers feel much better.
How to Not Use Trackpad to Scroll
Search first before scrolling
- Use shortcut like
spacebar or shift+spacebarorFn+up(down)to scroll up(down). - Check here for more shortcuts in chrome vimium.
How to Not Use Trackpad to Select
- Double click to select a word
- Triple click to select a paragraph.
- Don’t press and hold on the Trackpad to select a section! Use shift key!
- Double click to choose the first word
- Hold shift key when choose the next location.
- Or hold shift while moving the left/right up/down arrow.
- Double click to choose the first word
Frequently Used Shortcuts for Moving and Selecting
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Fn+Up(Down) | page up(down) |
| Cmd+Up(Down) | Move cursor to top(end) of the text field |
| Home(Cmd+Left) | Move cursor to beginning of the current line |
| End(Cmd+Right) | Move cursor to the end of the current line |
| Option+Shift+Left/Right | Select text by whole words, can type multiple times |
| Shift+Left/Right Arrow | Select characters one at a time. |
| Shift+Alt+Up/Down | Select paragraphs. |
| Shift+Up/Down arrow | Select text by entire lines |
| Shift+Page Up/Page Down | Select one screen’s height of text |
| Cmd+Shift+Left/Right | Select all text from the current caret position to the beginning(end) of the current line. |
| Cmd+Shift+Up/Down | Select all text from the current caret position to the beginning(end) of the document. |
| Command+A | Select the entire document. |
How to Not Use Right Click (when without a Mouse and Not Want to Use Trackpad)
- Two fingers to get right click when use Trackpad
- e.g. use
Cmd+shift+:to fix spelling and grammar in Chrome.
Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Developers
- Check here for more keyboard shortcuts for developers
- Check here for how to use shortcuts in Chrome Vimium
Cmd+Shift+?: Open Help Menu
- Use
Cmd+Shift+?to search command from menu and execute it. - It also remember the last search, so we can easily re-execute last command.
When have to use Trackpad, use both hands
- Use other hands as much as possible.
How to leave focus from address bar without mouse or trackpad
- We can press the trackpad to leave the address bar (when the mouse is at browser area, usually it’s)
- I avoid to use trackpad as possible as I can as my fingers hurt when use trackpad.
- Luckily, we can add a custom search engine like below at chrome://settings/searchEngines.
- Then we can type l then enter to go back to the browser area.
