Hidden menu options on the Mac

Apple tends to hide away unusual functionality in order to keep the user interface easy to use.

Here are a few hidden menu options that magically appear when you press the Shift, Alt or Ctrl modifier keys.

Standard menus

Apple menu

• Alt > System Profiler… (Leopard only)
• Alt > Shut Down (with no confirmation)
• Alt > Restart (with no confirmation)
• Alt > Log Off (with no confirmation)
• Shift > Force Quit ? (current application)

File menu

• Alt > Close All (in some applications)

Edit menu

• Alt > Deselect All (in some applications)

Window menu

• Alt > Minimize All
• Alt > Zoom All
• Alt > Arrange in Front

Finder

Finder menu

• Alt > Empty Trash (no confirmation)
• Alt > Secure Empty Trash (no confirmation)

File menu

• Alt > Always Open With
• Alt > Show Inspector (like Get Info but changes to reflect whatever you select)
• Shift > Slideshow (Leopard only)
• Shift > Add to Favorites
• Shift > Find by Name… (Leopard only)
• Ctrl > Open in this Window (Leopard only)
• Ctrl > Get Summary Info

View menu

• Alt > Clean Up
• Alt > Keep Arranged By (Leopard only)

Go menu

• Ctrl > Enclosing Folder in this Window (Leopard only)

Dock

Application running menu

• Alt > Hide Others
• Alt > Force Quit

Safari

Application menu

• Alt > Private Browsing (no confirmation)

File menu

• Alt > Close All Windows
• Alt > Close Other Tabs

Bookmarks menu

• Shift > Add Bookmark to Menu

Pages

Edit menu

• Alt > Delete Page (no confirmation)

Insert menu

• Alt > Custom Footmark…

QuickTime Player

Window menu

• Alt > Show Movie Info

iPhoto

Photos menu

• Ctrl > Hide Flagged Photos
• Ctrl > Move Flagged to Trash
• Alt > Clear All Flags

Events menu

• Alt > Merge With Next

iChat

Buddies menu

• Alt > Send Direct Message

Window menu

• Ctrl > Logout Jabber List

Xcode

File menu

• Ctrl > New Empty File
• Ctrl > Close Project
• Alt > Open in Separate Editor
• Alt > Reveal in Finder
• Alt > Show Inspector
• Alt > Save All…
• Alt > Save a Copy As…

View menu

• Alt > Zoom Editor In Fully
• Alt > Split View Horizontally

Project menu

• Shift > Ungroup

Run menu

• Alt > Step Into Instruction
• Alt > Step Over Instruction

Find menu

• Shift > Find Previous
• Shift > Replace and Find Previous
• Alt > Find Select Regex in Project (Damn useful!)
• Alt > Replace All

OmniWeb

File menu

• Alt > Save As…

Bookmarks menu

• Alt > Open Bookmarks Window
• Ctrl > Open All Changed Bookmarks

OmniGraffle Pro

Edit menu

• Alt > Select None

Arrange menu

• Alt > Bring Forward
• Alt > Send Backward

Note: OmniGraffle Pro also toggles various toolbar buttons on Alt including lock/unlock and which side the utilities drawer slides out.

OmniOutliner & OmniFocus

View menu

• Alt > Expand Line Completely
• Alt > Collapse Line Completely

VMware Fusion

Virtual Machine menu

• Alt > Start Up Guest
• Alt > Shut Down Guest
• Alt > Suspend Guest
• Alt > Restart Guest

Colloquy

View menu

• Alt > Show Inspector
• Alt > Mark All

Window menu

• Alt > Select Previous Active Panel
• Alt > Select Next Active Panel

Camino

View menu

• Alt > Reload All Tabs
• Shift > Force Reload Page

Bookmark menu

• Shift > Bookmark Current Page
• Shift > Bookmark Current Tabs as Tab Group

If you like keyboard short cuts you might also want to check out KeyCue which can display all of an applications short cuts on in a single list when you hold down the Apple key including these key-modified options.

Heavy keyboard users may also want to head to the Keyboard & Mouse preferences pane where you can switch on full keyboard navigation allowing you to tab through all controls in a window. It also shows a number of useful key-navigation options you may not be aware of such as pressing CtrlF3 to select an item from the dock.

[)amien