This post is inspired by my recent adoption of Raycast. It’s a productivity app. Think Mac Spotlight or Alfred but with more power and a community making every extension you can imagine. I've watched about a dozen videos on their YouTube channel and I’m convinced everyone should be using a computer this way.
You don’t need to be a power user. In fact the bese way to start using Raycast and other keyboard shortcuts is to just start small. I would suggest starting with some native shortucts to work with text. Try moving your cursor around without using the mouse by using combinations of Option, Command, and the arrow keys. Hold down Shift while you are doing it to select text as you move. Practice and you'll never go back. Try not to judge people too hard who still use their mouse to peck around for just the right spot.
I have listed below some of my favorite shortuts. I suggest giving them a try, but they are primarily here for me to practice.
⌨️
Move cursor one word to the left
→
Option + ◀
⌨️
Move cursor one word to the right
→
Option + ▶
⌨️
Move cursor to beginning of line
→
Command + ◀
⌨️
Move cursor to end of line
→
Command + ▶
⌨️
Open task manager
→
Option + Command + esc
⌨️
Now playing
→
Function + C
‘
Opening single quote
→
Option + [
’
Closing single quote
→
Shift + Option + [
“
Opening double quote
→
Option + ]
”
Closing double quote
→
Shift + Option + ]
—
Em dash
→
Option + -
…
Ellipsis
→
Option + ;
é
Enter character with accent marks
→
Option + e then e
♿
Open VoiceOver [^1]
→
Command + F5
♿
Read the page with VoiceOver
→
Control + Option + A
♿
Pause and resume the reading of the page
→
Control
♿
Move to the next focusable item (link, button, input, etc.)
→
Tab
♿
Use the rotor (jumps to specific page elements)
→
Control + Option + U
Figma Keyboard Shortcuts
→
Control + Shift + ?
Open new tab
→
Command + T
Open new tiny arc
→
Commmand + Option + N
Switch between tabs
→
Command + Option + ▲ or ▼
Add Split View
→
Control + Shift + +
Switch Split View focus
→
Control + Shift + 1 or 2
Maximize Window
→
Option + Command + M
Previous Window
→
esc
Main search page
→
Command + esc
Almost Maximize Window
→
Option + Command + A
Open Arc Browser [^2]
→
✦ + A
Open Slack
→
✦ + S
Open VSCode
→
✦ + .
Open Messages
→
✦ + E
Open Finder
→
✦ + I
Open Outlook
→
✦ + O
Open Apple Music
→
✦ + M
Open WhatsApp
→
✦ + W
Confetti Animation
→
Control + Option + Command + Space
- [^1] VoiceOver is a screen reader built into macOS. It reads aloud the contents of your screen and provides spoken guidance to help you navigate your Mac. I wrote more about it in this post called [Voiceover](/voiceover/).
- [^2] The
✦symbol used in Raycast is a shortcut within a shortcut for Command + Control + Option + Shift.
Resources #
- Raycast Command Aliases and Hotkeys
- Raycast Keyboard Shortcuts
- Raycast Quicklinks - Open frequently used paths, files, and URLs
- Arc Browser Keyboard Shortcuts
- Figma Keyboard Shortcuts
- Enter character with accent marks on a Mac
- Todo: Add VS Code shortcuts
🧐

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