Why this isn’t more standardized, we can’t say, but it would be nice if Apple put symbols used by the operating system on their physical keyboards everywhere. Other countries use these symbols to varying extents. For example, here’s the keyboard of my coworker Harry Guinness, who lives in Ireland:Īs you can see, the “⌥” and “⇧” symbols are on the keyboard, replacing the words “Option” and “Shift” entirely. You may be wondering: why does Apple use these symbols in the operating system, and not on the physical keyboard? The answer: they used to put these symbols on keyboards everywhere, and still do in many parts of the world. What Aren’t These Stupid Symbols on my Keyboard? If you learn these symbols, you should be able to figure out basically any keyboard shortcut pointed out in the menu bar, or anywhere else online.
The first four, simple arrows, are intuitive enough:īut there are four more such symbols, also arrows but used to mean different things entirely: There are also a few symbols commonly used to refer to the navigation keys.
While Alt codes don't exist on Mac computers, there are a variety of Option.
It is often used in its direct meaning of to rise, to go up, the upper floor, above, and so. MacOS and Office for Mac inserting characters. ⌫ means Delete (called Backspace on Windows keyboards) Meaning of Up Arrow Symbol/emoji Up Arrow symbol/emoji is the icon of the arrow, pointing up.There are a few more symbols that macOS uses to represent keys, which are also worth learning. At least, those are the two that trip me up most often.
It’s particularly important that you remember that “Shift” is the fleshed-out arrow, and “Control” is the simpler shape. Memorizing these four symbols should be enough for you to learn the vast majority of keyboard shortcuts. To start, here are the main modifier keys, which you’re likely to see most often: If you’re trying to learn Mac keyboard shortcuts, this is a problem, so here’s a quick reference. But what’s the difference between “⌃” and “⇧,” both basically up arrows? And what the heck is “⌥” supposed to be? You might know that “⌘” corresponds to the Command key, since it actually appears on the keyboard key. What the Arrow, Squiggly, and Other Symbols Mean