Unlocking Power on Mac with the Option Key
The Option key is the secret handshake of the macOS world. Here are 12 hidden features that will speed up your workflow.
If you look down at your keyboard, nestled between the Command and Control keys, sits a button labeled 'Option'. Or sometimes 'Alt'. It is a button most people ignore. It sits there, gathering dust, while you hammer away at the Command key like a woodpecker.
This is a mistake. A massive one.
Using a Mac without the Option key is like driving a Bugatti Veyron in first gear. It works, but you are missing the point. This key is the secret handshake. It is the 'Turbo' button. And here is why you need to glue your finger to it.
1. The Text Teleporter (The Big One)
Moving the cursor through text one character at a time is slow. It is painful. It is the digital equivalent of crawling through broken glass. Stop it.
Hold Option and hit the Left or Right arrow keys. Suddenly, you are jumping entire words. Hold Option + Up/Down, and you are jumping paragraphs.
But wait, there is more! Hold Option + Shift while using arrows to highlight whole words. Or—and this is my favorite—hold Option and hit Backspace. You don't delete a letter; you obliterate the entire word. It is not editing; it is violence. And it is magnificent.
2. The Green Button of Lies
Apple thinks that when you click the green button on a window, you want to enter 'Full Screen Mode'. You don't. Full Screen Mode hides the menu bar. It hides the clock. It makes you feel like you are trapped in a kiosk.
Hold Option and hover over the green button. 'Enter Full Screen' changes to 'Zoom'. Click it, and the window simply maximizes to fill the available space without hiding the OS. It behaves like a civilized computer window.
3. The Executioner (Force Quit)
Apps crash. It is a fact of life. Usually, you have to click the Apple menu, find Force Quit, select the app... it is a bureaucracy.
Instead, press Command + Option + Esc. This brings up the Force Quit menu instantly. It is the nuclear option. It allows you to put a bullet in the head of a frozen application immediately.
4. The Terminal Time Machine
The Terminal. A black screen of text where the mouse has no power. If you type a command and realize you made a typo at the start, you usually have to hold the left arrow key for a fortnight.
Not if you hold Option. Hold it down, and you can click anywhere on that command line to move the cursor instantly. It drags the 1970s interface kicking and screaming into the present day.
5. The "Save As" Resurrection
Some years ago, Apple tried to kill "Save As". They replaced it with "Duplicate", which is a stupid idea that nobody wanted. But "Save As" is still there, hiding in the shadows.
Open the File menu. You see "Duplicate"? Good. Now hold the Option key. Watch closely. "Duplicate" transforms into "Save As". It is magic.
6. Instant Download
You see a link to a file. You could right-click it, navigate the context menu, and find 'Download Linked File'. But that takes ages.
Just hold Option and click the link. Bang. It downloads. No questions asked.
7. The URL Grab
You are looking at a webpage in Safari. You want to save the source. Click inside the address bar (the URL). Hold Option. Hit Enter. The browser immediately downloads the content of that URL to your downloads folder. Why? Because you are a power user, that's why.
8. The Real Print Dialog
Printers are hateful machines. But the simplified Mac print dialog makes them worse. It hides all the useful settings.
If you press Cmd+P, you get the fisher-price version. If you press Option + Command + P, you get the System Print Dialog. The real one. The one that lets you actually tell the printer what to do.
9. Precision Volume
You are listening to music. One notch up is too loud. One notch down is too quiet. It is the Goldilocks dilemma.
Hold Option + Shift and tap the volume keys. The volume changes in quarter-steps. This works for screen brightness too. It allows for a level of precision that is frankly unnecessary, but deeply satisfying.
10. Wi-Fi Intelligence
Click the Wi-Fi icon. It lists networks. Boring. Hold Option and click it. Suddenly you have IP addresses, Router IDs, Signal-to-Noise ratios (RSSI), and transmission rates. It makes you look like you know how the internet works.
11. Close All Windows
You have twenty Finder windows open. Closing them one by one is manual labor, and we are better than that. Hold Option and click the red 'X' on one window. They all vanish. It is incredibly satisfying.
12. Copy as Pathname
You need to know where a file actually lives. Right-click it. No luck. Hold Option and right-click. "Copy" becomes "Copy as Pathname". Now you can paste the location into Terminal and look like a hacker.
Conclusion
There are dozens more. The Option key is the Swiss Army Knife of the Mac keyboard. Stop ignoring it. Start using it. And for heaven's sake, stop moving the cursor with the arrow keys like a peasant.