Columns in the tables:
How do you get the Apple Magic keyboard to work on Windows 10 with the fn key and the correct layout? I'm using a Magic Keyboard with British English layout but none of the fn functions work such as media keys, volume, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End, Del, etc. The keyboards are otherwise pretty similar, but new Mac users will need to understand these different keys. Apple's Mac keyboards actually do have a Control (Ctrl) key, but the Control key doesn't function like the Control key on Windows. Keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+C to copy text won't work.
- Sym: The symbol representing the key
- Key: The common name of the key
- CrossPlat?: Whether the symbol is cross-platform. If 'No', then the symbol is unlikely to render properly outside the Apple ecosystem.
- Alt: An alternate symbol used in some contexts (e.g., legacy)
- Alt CrossPlat?: Whether the alternate symbol is cross-platform
Modifiers
When a key combination is displayed, the modifiers are written in the order presented here. For example, Control + Option + Shift + Command + Q would be written as ⌃⌥⇧⌘Q.
Sym | Key | CrossPlat? | Alt | Alt CrossPlat? |
---|---|---|---|---|
⌃ | Control | Yes | ||
⌥ | Option | Yes | ||
⇧ | Shift | Yes | ||
⌘ | Command | Yes | | No |
The Command key was formerly represented by an Apple logo. The Apple logo is one fo the few symbols here that can be easily typed with a typical keyboard layout: ⌥⇧K
There is also an Fn modifier on modern Mac keyboards. Typically, this isn't seen in keyboard shortcuts because it's primarily used to access keys F1 through F20. However, it can technically be combined with Control plus one other key to get a unique legacy combination. Each of these Fn + Control combinations maps to a character in Unicode's U+F700 to U+F7FF private use range. Some programs will erroneously print these characters upon receiving such a combination. With system Mac fonts, these characters lack visible glyphs and are for internal use only. Quote from ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/CORPCHAR.TXT:
NeXT's OpenStep reserved corporate characters in the range 0xF700 to0xF8FF for transient use as keyboard function keys. The ones actuallyassigned in NextStep are 0xF700-0xF747, as follows. These are stillused in the Mac OS X AppKit frameworks. Note that there is no glyphassociated with these, and they are not mapped or used by the Mac OSText Encoding Converter.
Normal
Sym | Key | CrossPlat? | Alt | Alt CrossPlat? |
---|---|---|---|---|
⎋ | Escape | Yes | ||
⏏ | Eject | Yes | | No |
⌦ | Delete fwd | Yes | ||
⌫ | Delete | Yes | ||
⇪ | Caps lock | Yes | ||
← | Left | Yes | ||
→ | Right | Yes | ||
↑ | Up | Yes | ||
↓ | Down | Yes | ||
↩ | Return | Yes | ||
❘⃝ | Power | No | ||
⇞ | Page up | Yes | ||
⇟ | Page down | Yes | ||
⇤ | Back tab | Yes | ||
⇥ | Tab | Yes | ||
↘ | End | Yes | ||
↖ | Home | Yes | ||
⌤ | Enter | Yes | ⌅ | Yes |
| Context menu | No | ||
⌧ | Clear | Yes | ||
␣ | Space | Yes | ␢ | No |
⇭ | Num lock | Yes |
The alternate eject symbol, (U+F804), is from a Unicode private use region. Apple designates it for use with mapping to/from the Mac OS Keyboard encoding. Ideally, the official Unicode variant should be used instead, as it will be compatible with fonts on other platforms. Quote from ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/CORPCHAR.TXT:
The following (11) are for mapping the Mac OS Keyboard and Mac OS Koreanencodings (for Mac OS Korean also see 0xF83D, 0xF840-0xF84F).
Reference: ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/KEYBOARD.TXT
These are the official Unicode symbol mappings published by Apple.
Sym | Unicode | Mac | Key name | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
⇧ | U+21E7 | 0x05 | Shift | |
⌃ | U+2303 | 0x06 | Control | |
⎈ | U+2388 | 0x8A | Control | ISO |
⌥ | U+2325 | 0x07 | Option | |
⎇ | U+2387 | 0x8B | Alt | |
⌘ | U+2318 | 0x11 | Command | |
| U+F8FF | 0x14 | Command | Old; solid Apple logo |
| U+F8FF U+F87F | 0x6C | Command | Old; outlined Apple logo |
⇥ | U+21E5 | 0x02 | Tab right (LTR) | |
⇤ | U+21E4 | 0x03 | Tab left (RTL) | |
⌤ | U+2324 | 0x04 | Enter | |
␣ | U+2423 | 0x09 | Space | |
↩ | U+21A9 | 0x0B | Return (LTR) | |
↪ | U+21AA | 0x0C | Return (RTL) | |
⌫ | U+232B | 0x17 | Delete left (LTR) | |
⌦ | U+2326 | 0x0A | Delete right (RTL) | |
⎋ | U+238B | 0x1B | Escape | |
⌧ | U+2327 | 0x1C | Clear | |
␣ | U+2423 | 0x61 | Blank | |
⇪ | U+21EA | 0x63 | Caps lock | |
?⃝ | U+003F U+20DD | 0x67 | Help | |
→ | U+2192 | 0x65 | Right | |
← | U+2190 | 0x64 | Left | |
↑ | U+2191 | 0x68 | Up | |
↓ | U+2193 | 0x6A | Down | |
↖ | U+2196 | 0x66 | Home | |
↘ | U+2198 | 0x69 | End | |
⇞ | U+21DE | 0x62 | Page up | |
⇟ | U+21DF | 0x6B | Page down | |
| U+F803 | 0x6D | Context menu | |
❘⃝ | U+2758 U+20DD | 0x6E | Power | |
⏏ | U+23CF | 0x8C | Eject | |
英数 | U+82F1 U+6570 | 0x8D | Eisu | Japanese |
かな | U+304B U+306A | 0x8E | Kana | Japanese |
F1 | U+F860 F 1 | 0x6F | F1 | |
F2 | U+F860 F 2 | 0x70 | F2 | |
F3 | U+F860 F 3 | 0x71 | F3 | |
F4 | U+F860 F 4 | 0x72 | F4 | |
F5 | U+F860 F 5 | 0x73 | F5 | |
F6 | U+F860 F 6 | 0x74 | F6 | |
F7 | U+F860 F 7 | 0x75 | F7 | |
F8 | U+F860 F 8 | 0x76 | F8 | |
F9 | U+F860 F 9 | 0x77 | F9 | |
F10 | U+F861 F 1 0 | 0x78 | F10 | |
F11 | U+F861 F 1 1 | 0x79 | F11 | |
F12 | U+F861 F 1 2 | 0x7A | F12 | |
F13 | U+F861 F 1 3 | 0x87 | F13 | |
F14 | U+F861 F 1 4 | 0x88 | F14 | |
F15 | U+F861 F 1 5 | 0x89 | F15 | |
F16 | U+F861 F 1 6 | F16 | ||
F17 | U+F861 F 1 7 | F17 | ||
F18 | U+F861 F 1 8 | F18 | ||
F19 | U+F861 F 1 9 | F19 | ||
F20 | U+F861 F 2 0 | F20 | ||
| U+F802 | 0x0F | ||
✓ | U+2713 | 0x12 | ||
◆ | U+25C6 | 0x13 | ||
⇣ | U+21E3 | 0x10 | ||
⇠ | U+21E0 | 0x18 | ||
⇡ | U+21E1 | 0x19 | ||
⇢ | U+21E2 | 0x1A |
Some entries are missing key names; these don't map to physical keys.
LTR indicates usage with left-to-right languages: that means text flows from left to right, such as in most Western languages. RTL indicates the opposite. Many keyboards have both Delete Left and Delete Right, regardless of text direction.
ISO indicates a symbol designated by an ISO standard. ISO standard symbols aren't necessarily used by Mac.
Symbols composed of multiple Unicode characters are special in that they are treated as a single character on Mac, despite appearing as multiple symbols. For most of the characters, this grouping is controlled by the first character, which is a Unicode private use character that is invisible on Mac. The others use standard Unicode combining techniques. Quote from ftp://ftp.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS/VENDORS/APPLE/KEYBOARD.TXT:
The block of 32 characters 0xF860-0xF87F is for transcoding hints.These are used in combination with standard Unicode characters to forcethem to be treated in a special way for mapping to other encodings;they have no other effect.
This is the ultimate guide for working with MacBook keyboards, including accessing special functions, characters, accents, and using keyboard shortcuts in Mac OS system. Click on the list below to jump to an appropriate section.
MacBook Keyboard Diagram / Map
MacBook keyboard has few distinctive sections: Function keys (in light blue), which provides access to various functions in MacBook itself or Mac OS system. By combining them with the FN key, you'll get access to F1 - F12 keys, which can be associated with particular application features (useful in Photoshop for example).
The second section is the modifier keys (in light yellow). Shift allows to type uppercase letters and other additional characters. Command and Alt/Option are used in keyboard shortcuts, as well as the Control key, which is used almost exclusively by Mac OS X and Apple programs.
Return and left Shift has two variants, one used in the US and Eastern Asia (horizontal Return and long Shift), and second, used in Europe, Middle East and Africa (vertical Return and short left Shift). On the diagram, this is shown by dashed lines. Of course, MacBook keyboards have lots of localizations, the most common - US English - is shown above. If you're unsure about the localization you have, go and check it with this guide.
MacBook Air 11' has slightly different keyboard, with smaller top and bottom row keys to accommodate smaller laptop size. Newest MacBooks Pro with TouchBar don't have upper F keys row, instead, they have a touchscreen which changes displayed options based on context.
MacBook Keyboard Symbols Chart
Symbol | Meaning | Notes |
Screen brightness down | ||
Screen brightness up | ||
Launches Mission Control | Icon available on MacBooks Unibody | |
Launches Mission Control | Icon available on MacBooks pre-unibody | |
Launches Dashboard | Icon available on MacBooks Unibody | |
Launches Dashboard | Icon available on MacBooks pre-unibody | |
Keyboard backlight down | ||
Keyboard backlight up | ||
Rewind | ||
Play / Pause | ||
Fast Forward | ||
Sound: mute | ||
Sound: volume down | ||
Sound: volume up | ||
Eject | Available on MacBooks with CD/DVD drive | |
Power | Available on MacBooks without CD/DVD drive | |
Command | On MacBooks 1st generation this is replaced by Apple logo | |
Alt / Option | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Tab | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Backspace | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Shift | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Caps Lock | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Return | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts | |
Enter | Available on European/ISO keyboard layouts, accessed with FN key | |
Delete | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Clear | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Home | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing. Can be substituted by CMD + up arrow shortcut. | |
End | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing. Can be substituted by CMD + down arrow shortcut. | |
Page Up | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Page Down | Not on MacBooks, but worth knowing | |
Arrows | Used to move things or pointer |
MacBook Keyboard Special Characters and Accents Map
If you want to type special characters or accents, change your keyboard language to US International PC (thanks, Steve!) and use the map below to get them. You can also check out our solution to the two languages on one keyboard problem.
Where is the Print Screen Button?
Unlike PC keyboard, there is no Print Screen key on MacBook keyboard. This functionality is accessed by keyboard shortcuts and - on Mac - you have greater flexibility:
- Command + Shift + 3 - captures entire screen;
- Command + Shift + 4 - captures selected region. Your cursor turns to crosshair and by clicking and dragging you can specify which area you want to capture;
- Command + Shift + 4 + Space - captures selected window. First press the shortcut from above, then - when you have crosshair - hit Space. The cursor will turn to the camera and the active window will have a blue overlay. Click on it to get it captured.
In some apps, like Photoshop, you need to add Control into the mix, to paste the screenshot into the app.
MacBook Keyboard Tricks
There's a lot you can do in Mac OS by using the keyboard only. Here's a list of highly useful and not-so-useful keyboard shortcuts:
Shortcut | Action |
Command + W | Quickly closes the active window in Safari or any other browser. Works also with many applications, like Pages, Numbers, Photoshop. Great way to quickly close something when your boss is coming around :) |
Command + H | Hides the active application. Useful for hiding something quickly ;) |
Option + Shift + F11/F12 | Makes tiny changes in volume level instead of standard jumps. |
Control + Option + Command + 8 | Reverses colors on the screen. |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 | When watching YouTube video, this will advance you to 10%, 20%, 30%... of movie completion. |
Option + Delete | Deletes whole word in text editors |
Control + Command + V | Pastes copied text without formatting. Useful when copying something from Pages and pasting into eg. Wordpress :) |
Control + Command + Option + Eject/Shutdown | Shuts down the MacBook without the need to provide username and password. |
Command + Shift + A | Opens the Applications folder in Finder. |
Command + Shift + U | Opens the Utilities folder in Finder. |
Command + Shift + D | Opens the Desktop folder in Finder. |
Command + Shift + I | When in Safari, this shortcut copies the URL, opens Mail app and creates a new email with the copied URL pasted as a link in a message. |
Command + Option + M | Minimizes all open windows, showing Desktop. |
Command + Option + Shift + Esc | Hold for 3 seconds to force quit any app. |
Command + Tab | Cycle through opened apps from left to right. |
Command + Shift + Tab | Cycle through opened apps from right to left. |
Command + ` | Cycles through active app windows. |
Command + Q | Quit active app. |
Command + T | Opens a new tab in Finder. Opens a new tab in a web browser. |
Command + N | Creates new Finder window. |
Command + Shift + N | Creates new folder in Finder. |
Command + Space | Launches Spotlight. |
Command + Option + Space | Switches to next keyboard language (if you have more than one). |
Command + Control + Space | In some websites and apps this will give you the emoji keyboard. |
Command + Delete | Sends selected files/folders to trash. |
Fn + Delete | Deletes text from left to right. |
F10 + Shutdown | Hold while launching MacBook to get a silent start. |
Command + up arrow/down arrow | Jump to the beginning or end of a page. This is equivalent to PC's Home and End keys. |
Command + up arrow + L | Highlights the address bar in a web browser. |
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