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 air ableton live 10. 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 updated 13-inch MacBook Pro now features the new Magic Keyboard, first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and added to MacBook Air in March. Magic Keyboard features a redesigned scissor mechanism with 1mm of key travel for a comfortable and stable key feel, while the new inverted-“T” arrangement for the arrow keys makes them easier.
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. 3ds cfw emulators.
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.
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 |
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.
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:
In some apps, like Photoshop, you need to add Control into the mix, to paste the screenshot into the app.
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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Coming to 2020, the evolution of the MacBook Air 2020 is finally complete because this time Apple did indeed make up for a more capable magic keyboard. It is also at this opportunity to let us review the differences between the MacBook Air before, during and after the major changes revision.
The editor especially retrieved his first MacBook Air 2013, which is not easy to go out of the warehouse, and more importantly, the charger does not know where to throw it. So, I think that the 13-inch MacBook Air in 2013 withstood a 1,440 x 900 screen, and it has not been beaten by the strong rivals of FHD screen notebooks.
After all, about the main features in MacBook Air, it still has a battery that is 12 hours long enough to use, and it also has a pretty good scissor-keyboard. However, because of the emergence of the 12-inch MacBook, it caused a shock of extinction.
Fortunately, the MacBook Air is still strong enough to replace the MacBook in 2018 and return to the rivers and lakes, and replace the much-anticipated Retina screen, but it inherits the butterfly foot keyboard, which greatly affects the sense of hit.
In 2019, the emergence of the 16-inch MacBook Pro will bring back the scissor-style keyboard, so that everyone can regain its beauty. At the same time, it also leads to speculation. When will Apple replace the MacBook Air with scissor’s feet?
As a result, in early 2020, the “Ultimate” MacBook Air with a scissor foot, a Retina screen, and a long-lasting battery was officially launched, but the body was also lightweight.
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So what is the difference between Apple’s MacBook Air and scissor keyboard MacBook Air that we can use only after we have walked in the wrong direction? After this lengthy presentation, it is finally beginning.
The borrowed MacBook Air 2020 is the standard version, only equipped with Intel’s 10th generation dual-core i3 processor, 8GB LDDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD. You can also compare the Core i5 processor in 2018 to see how much the performance has improved.
Simply use the free version of Geekbench 5 to run a CPU benchmark. It can be seen that even the Intel Core i3-1000NG4 CPU @ 1.10GHz used in the 2020 version of MacBook Air is named “inferior to” the 2018 MacBook Air.
The used Intel Core i5-8210Y @ 1.60GHz (below), but in fact, the single-core and multi-core scores have improved significantly in the new version.
If you only want to buy the standard version, do not need to worry Has the processing performance deteriorated due to the drop in level and clock frequency? On the contrary, the power consumption will be reduced as a result, and the machine will not become so hot easily.
But in fact, the highlight of this article is to look at the new scissor keyboard of MacBook Air. The official name is “Exquisite Keyboard”. Let the experts do the internal dismantling and we will take measurements.
The MacBook Air’s main feature is a thin and light design, so after replacing the scissors keyboards with higher key travel and keycaps, does it mean that the thickness of the fuselage is also increased? The result is nothing changed significantly.
The thickness of the new MacBook Air is 1.46cm in the center, which is not significantly different from the 1.43cm of the 2018 version, but it is still much thinner than the 1.58cm of the 2013 version.
Next is the width of the keycap. Although the butterfly-foot keyboard feels bad due to scaling. It does improve the user’s typing accuracy because of the larger keycap area. In 2018, the width of the MacBook Air keycap has a spectrum of 1.9mm.
You can also touch the button you want to press by touching it blindly. In comparison, the width of the scissor-keyboard keycap in 2013 was the only 1.36mm, and the gap was close to 30%.
The width of the keycap is 1.49mm, which is just stuck between the two. When you hit the keyboard for a long time, you feel that my fingers touch the gap between the keycaps more than the old version and degrees are similar.
Finally, there is a gap in the keystroke distance, which is also the biggest factor that greatly affects the “feel” of typing. Although we do not disassemble the machine-like iFixit.
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We are indeed seeing and measuring the height of the entire button to trigger the machine, but we can still glimpse the difference by measuring the height of the highest point of the keycap and the height of the keyboard panel.
The reason is that when the keyboard keys of the MacBook are pressed to the end, they are probably aligned with the keyboard panel, so it can also be understood as the line spacing of the keys.
The disassembly report of iFixit earlier has answered our question, and today the editor is verifying it again. Under the measurement, there is a gap of 0.5mm (1mm v. 0.5mm) between the keycap height of the 2020 version.
The 2018 version of the MacBook Air, that is, the keystroke of the new version of the scissor foot is twice that of the butterfly foot, that is This difference brings a distinctly different experience-when you hit the scissor-foot keyboard of the 2018 version of the MacBook Air.
The sounds and feels are like knocking on a plastic sheet; only when you hit the butterfly foot of the 2020 version of the MacBook Air and the feeling of really pressing down.
However, if you have a direct comparison between the old-fashioned scissor keyboards and the new-style scissor-foot keyboard, you will find that the feel is still a little subtle. The reason is that the keycap of the old version, that is, the 2013 version of the MacBook Air, turned out to be 1.4mm tall.
In comparison, the 2020 version of the Scissor Magic Keyboard is still relatively short, and the feel is a little thin, but considering that the keycap and stability width has increased, it can be said that the new “Exquisite Keyboard” is a combination of the original scissors A new form of feet and butterfly feet.
The 2020 version of the MacBook Air 2020 How to find files on macbook air. is the final product that balances the needs of everyone. It not only responds to the resentment of users in the past five years but also maintains the new generation of MacBook Air’s lightweight design.
Friends who are still stuck in the old MacBook Air because of the keyboard feel, this time is the time to upgrade. That is to say, the product design will not have a perfect endpoint, just to achieve the balance of the various needs.
It took Apple five years to finally find this balance, and the design team and the legal team might be able to relax a little.