The Little Mac Book, Tiger Edition [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Keys on your keyboard

Your keyboard has a number of special keys that you will use all the time. Some of them are called "modifier keys" because they don't do anything when you press them down all by themselvesthey only make something happen when used in combination with other keys or with the mouse.Chapter 5 you'll start using keyboard shortcuts to do things on your Mac, and in that chapter I'll show you the symbols for each key that you see in the menus.

These first four keys are the primary modifier keys that you'll use in shortcuts.

Shift key:
This is the key, of course, that makes capital letters. It's labeled "shift."

Command key:
This is the key on both sides of the Spacebar. It has an apple symbol on it and the freeway cloverleaf symbol. Some people call this the "Apple key."

Option key:
This is next to each Command key and is labeled "option."

Control key:
This is the key on the outer bottom corners of the keyboard. It's labeled "control." Be conscious of whether a direction tells you to use the Command key or the Control key!

You'll also use these other keys in shortcuts.

Spacebar:
If you have ever done any typing, you know that the long bar across the bottom of the keyboard is the Spacebar and it makes the space between words. Occasionally it is also used in some keyboard shortcuts.

Caps Lock key:
Push this down to type in all caps. You can still type the numbers when Caps Lock is down.

Escape key:
This is in the upper-left of your keyboard, labeled "esc."

Tilde key:
This is directly below the Escape key, with the Spanish tilde character on it.

Arrow keys:
To the right of the main keys you might have a little set of four arrow keys. In certain programs the arrow keys will move selected items around the page.

Fkeys:
These are the keys across the top of the keyboard. Many programs will let you customize what these keys do.