Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual

Appendix E. The Master Mac OS X Secret Keystroke List

Here it is, by popular, frustrated demand: The master list of every secret (or not-so-secret) keystroke in Mac OS X Leopard, including all of the keys you can press during startup. Clip and post to your monitor (unless, of course, you got this book from the library).

Note

You can find another huge list of keystrokes in the discussion of VoiceOver, Leopard’s screen-control feature, on The VoiceOver Master Keyboard List. For the most part, the following list doesn’t include the keystrokes that are already listed in your menus, either—like ⌘-P for Print, ⌘-S for Save, and so on.

Table E-1. Startup Keystrokes

Keys to Hold Down	Effect
C	Starts up from a CD
D	Starts up from the first partition
N	Starts up from network server
R	Resets the laptop screen
T	Puts the Mac into FireWire Target Disk mode
X	Starts up in Mac OS X (if 9 is on the same disk)
Option	Shows icons of all startup disks and partitions, so you can choose one for starting up.
Shift-Option-⌘-Delete	Starts up from external drive (or CD)
Option-⌘-P-R	Zaps the parameter RAM (PRAM). (Hold down until you hear the second chime.)
Option-⌘-O-F	Brings up Open Firmware screen (pre-Intel Macs).
⌘-V	Shows Unix console messages during startup, logout, and shutdown
⌘-S	Starts up in single-user (Unix command-line) mode
Mouse down	Ejects a stuck CD or DVD
Shift	Just after powering up: Turns off kernel extensions (Kernel Panic)
Shift	Just after logging in: Prevents ...