Find a Mac app's keyboard shortcuts without searching online

You rarely need a web search to find a Mac shortcut. Press Command-Shift-/ (⇧⌘/), which is Command-? on a US keyboard, type what you want to do, and the Help menu lists every matching menu command; move the pointer over one and macOS opens its menu and points at it, with the shortcut beside it. For keys that are not in any menu, the app’s own shortcut editor and System Settings have the rest.

Staying in the app has another advantage. Lists online are often for a different version, or for Windows, where Control does the job Command does on a Mac. What the app shows you is right for the copy you have, including any shortcut you changed yourself.

Where to look depends on what you already know:

You know	Look here
What you want to do	Help menu search, ⇧⌘/
Roughly which menu it is in	The menu itself, with ⌥ held
The keys, not what they do	The app’s shortcut editor, searched by keys
It works in every app	System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts
It is in the shell	bindkey and man in Terminal

Search the Help menu by what you want to do

This works in almost every Mac app, because it searches the app’s real menus.

1. Press Command-Shift-/, or click Help in the menu bar. The search field is ready to type in.
2. Type a word for the job: “export”, “duplicate”, “split”, “zoom”. Use the app’s own word if you know it.
3. Under Menu Items, move the pointer over a result. The menu opens and an arrow points at the command, with its shortcut at the right.
4. Click the result to run it now. Next time, use the keys.

If nothing matches, try another word. Apps name the same job differently: one says Export, another Share, a third Save As. If the command turns up but has no shortcut beside it, the app has none for it, and you can add your own. Add or change a keyboard shortcut for any menu item shows how.

If Command-Shift-/ does nothing on your keyboard layout, click Help in the menu bar instead; the search field is at the top of that menu.

Read the menus, including the hidden items

When you would rather browse, click the first menu and slide the pointer along the menu bar; each menu opens as you pass over it. Shortcuts sit at the right edge of each command, and submenus have their own.

Hold Option while a menu is open and some commands swap for a second version, often with a shortcut of its own. In Finder, File > Close Window (⌘W) becomes Close All (⌥⌘W), and the Go menu gains Library. It is worth a quick press of Option in any menu you use a lot.

You can read menus without the mouse, too. Control-F2 moves focus to the menu bar; it is on by default. On a MacBook or Magic Keyboard, where the top row controls brightness and volume, press fn-Control-F2. Then the arrow keys move between menus and commands, and typing the first letters of a command jumps to it.

Open the app’s own shortcut editor

Help search starts from a command’s name. It cannot answer the other question, “what does this key do here?” Apps with many shortcuts usually have a screen for that, and the better ones let you search by keys.

• VS Code. Command-K then Command-S opens Keyboard Shortcuts. Type a command name to search, or click Record Keys (the keyboard icon in the search field) and press a combination to see what it runs.
• JetBrains IDEs such as PyCharm. Open Settings with Command-, and choose Keymap. The Find Actions by Shortcut button, next to the search field, does the same search by keys.
• Xcode. Xcode > Settings > Key Bindings, with a filter field at the top.
• Final Cut Pro. Final Cut Pro > Command Sets > Customize (Option-Command-K) opens the Command Editor, a keyboard map you can search.
• Logic Pro. Logic Pro > Key Commands > Edit Assignments (Option-K).
• Photoshop. Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Option-Shift-Command-K).
• Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Help > Keyboard Shortcuts opens the list in the app’s user guide.
• Slack. Command-/ shows its list of shortcuts.

Many web apps have one too. In Google Docs, Command-/ opens the shortcut list, and on GitHub, pressing ? (Shift-/) outside a text field shows the keys for the page you are on.

For code editors in particular, the editor is the only reliable source, because few people keep the defaults. Learn your editor’s keybindings, including the ones you changed goes into that.

Check System Settings for shortcuts that work everywhere

Some shortcuts belong to macOS rather than the app: Spotlight, screenshots, Mission Control, switching input sources. Open System Settings, choose Keyboard, and click Keyboard Shortcuts. The list on the left groups them by area; select one to see its shortcuts, turn them on or off, or change them.

App Shortcuts, in the same list, holds the shortcuts you have added to apps yourself. If a shortcut in an app seems to do the wrong thing, look here and through the other groups: a shortcut set for the whole Mac can catch the keys before the app does.

In Terminal

The command line keeps its help on your Mac:

• In zsh, the Mac’s default shell, run bindkey with nothing after it to list every line-editing key. Control-A jumps to the start of the line and Control-E to the end, and the list shows the rest. man zshzle explains each one.
• man followed by a command name opens its manual. Inside it, type / and a word to search, and press q to quit.
• In less, press h for its keys. In Vim, type :help.

Terminal’s own window and tab shortcuts are in its menus, like any other app’s.

Find it on the keyboard with Typebar

Everything above starts from words. Typebar starts from the keys. Hold a modifier such as Command for a moment and its on-screen keyboard relabels with what each key does in the app in front, read from the app’s own menus. For 20 apps, among them Figma, Blender, Final Cut Pro and Photoshop, hand-made packs add the shortcuts menus leave out; hold fn to see their single-key tools.

Its Cheatsheet List is searchable: type part of a command, pick it, and the keys light up on the board. It can also show which keys the app leaves free. For 11 apps, among them VS Code, Xcode, JetBrains IDEs, Sublime Text and iTerm2, it reads your own keybindings from their settings files, so a key you changed shows its new job.

Typebar is $9 once, with a free 24-hour trial. See every keyboard shortcut for the app you are using covers the cheatsheets in more detail.

Questions

What is the shortcut for Help search on a Mac?

Command-Shift-/ (⇧⌘/), which is Command-? on a US keyboard. It opens the Help menu with the search field ready, in almost every app.

How do I find out what a key combination does in an app?

Help search works from a command’s name, not its keys. To go from keys to command, search by keys in the app’s shortcut editor (VS Code and JetBrains IDEs both can), or hold the modifier in Typebar and read the board.

Where are the macOS system shortcuts listed?

In System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts, grouped by area, such as Mission Control, Screenshots and Spotlight.