See every keyboard shortcut for the app you are using on a Mac
macOS has no single screen that lists every shortcut in the app you are using. The nearest thing is the app’s own menu bar: open each menu from left to right, and every command that has a shortcut shows it at the right edge. That covers most of them. For the rest, look in the app’s own shortcut list, or hold a modifier in Typebar and see what every key does, right on an on-screen keyboard.
Here is each way, what it shows, and what it misses.
Every menu is a shortcut list
Click the app’s name in the menu bar, then move the pointer right along the menus: File, Edit, View, Window and the rest. You do not need to click again; once one menu is open, sliding the pointer to the next one opens it. Each command with a shortcut shows the keys at the right edge of the menu, and submenus list their own.
The symbols stand for the modifier keys:
| Symbol | Key |
|---|---|
| ⌘ | Command |
| ⌥ | Option |
| ⌃ | Control |
| ⇧ | Shift |
| ⇪ | Caps Lock |
So ⇧⌘N reads as Shift-Command-N. Menus always list the modifiers in the same order, Control, Option, Shift, Command, followed by the key. Mac keyboard symbols explained covers the rest, including the arrows, Delete and the Globe key.
Three things are worth knowing while you read:
- Hold Option. With a menu open, hold Option and some commands switch to a second version with its own shortcut. In Finder’s File menu, Close Window (⌘W) becomes Close All (⌥⌘W).
- Dimmed commands still show their keys. A command you cannot use right now is gray, but its shortcut is printed all the same, so you can learn it before you need it.
- Your own shortcuts show up too. Any shortcut you have added in System Settings appears in the menu exactly like the app’s own.
Search the menus instead of scanning them
Scanning works when you want the full picture. When you know what you want to do but not where the command lives, search.
Press Command-Shift-/ (⇧⌘/), which is Command-? on a US keyboard. The Help menu opens with its search field ready. Type a word such as “export” or “zoom”, and the matching menu commands appear. Move the pointer over one and macOS opens its menu and points to it, so you see where it lives and its shortcut in one go.
This finds commands buried two submenus deep, which is exactly where scanning tends to miss them. Find a Mac app’s keyboard shortcuts without searching online goes further into tracking down one particular shortcut.
What the menus leave out
Menus only list shortcuts that belong to menu commands. Plenty do not:
- Single-key tools in design apps. In Figma, V picks the Move tool and T the Text tool. In Photoshop, V is also Move and B is the Brush. Keys like these show up in toolbars and tooltips, rarely in a menu with the key beside them.
- Keys you hold. In Photoshop and Figma, holding Space lets you drag the canvas around. A menu cannot show a key that only works while you hold it.
- Text navigation. Option-Left Arrow moves the cursor one word, and Command-Right Arrow jumps to the end of the line, in text fields everywhere, and no menu mentions them.
- System shortcuts. Command-Space for Spotlight and Command-Shift-5 for the screenshot toolbar belong to macOS, not the app. They are listed in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts, grouped by area.
Apps with a lot of these usually keep a full list of their own:
| App | Where the full list lives |
|---|---|
| VS Code | ⌘K then ⌘S opens Keyboard Shortcuts, which you can search |
| Xcode | Xcode > Settings > Key Bindings |
| Final Cut Pro | ⌥⌘K opens the Command Editor |
| Logic Pro | ⌥K opens the Key Commands window |
| Photoshop | ⌥⇧⌘K opens Keyboard Shortcuts |
| Pages, Numbers, Keynote | Help > Keyboard Shortcuts opens the list in the user guide |
| Slack | ⌘/ shows its shortcut list |
These lists are thorough, but they are lists: long, alphabetical or grouped by feature, and in a separate window from the work.
See every shortcut on the keys
A list tells you what each shortcut is called. A keyboard shows you which keys are taken and where they sit, which is how most people end up remembering them. Typebar puts a keyboard on screen, and when you hold a modifier (⌘, ⌥, ⌃ or ⇧) for a moment, the keys relabel with what they do in the app in front. Switch apps and the labels follow.
It reads each app’s own menus to do this, so it works in every app, including ones nobody has written a cheat sheet for. Hold Option to see the characters each key types instead.
For the shortcuts that menus leave out, Typebar has 20 hand-made packs: Affinity, Blender, Chrome, DaVinci Resolve, Excel, Figma, Final Cut Pro, Finder, Illustrator, Logic Pro, Notion, Photoshop, Pixelmator Pro, Premiere Pro, Safari, Sketch, Slack, Terminal, VS Code and Xcode. Hold fn to see their single-key tools.
If you have changed your keybindings, it shows yours rather than the defaults. It reads them from the settings files of 11 apps: VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Sublime Text, iTerm2, kitty, Ghostty and WezTerm.
Search the whole set, or see what is free
Sometimes you want a list after all, for instance to find one command among hundreds. Typebar’s Cheatsheet List is searchable: type part of a command, pick it, and its keys light up on the board, so you see the name and the position together.
The same list can show which keys an app leaves free. That is the thing to check before you add a shortcut of your own, so it does not collide with one the app already uses. Which keys does an app leave free? walks through picking one.
You can also edit a sheet: rename a shortcut whose menu name is vague, hide the ones you never use, and add ones the app does not list. You can pin a sheet with a double tap, and export a sheet as a PNG or PDF.
Typebar is $9 once, with a free 24-hour trial that has everything on.
Questions
Is there a built-in way to show all keyboard shortcuts on a Mac?
Not in one place. Each app’s menus show its menu shortcuts, Help search (Command-Shift-/) finds them by name, and System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts lists the system ones.
Why are some shortcuts missing from an app’s menus?
Because they do not belong to a menu command: single-key tools, keys you hold while dragging, and text navigation. The app’s own shortcut list covers those, and so do hand-made cheatsheets.
Does a cheatsheet that reads menus work in any app?
Typebar’s does. It reads the menus each app already has, so it works in every app, and its 20 hand-made packs add the shortcuts menus leave out.