Shortcut Master

How to use

1. Choose the OS you want to learn and a category. Your current OS is preselected — switch it if you use one system and need to learn the other.
2. Pick a mode. Press to learn → Produce it → Multiple choice is the useful order.
3. Each question tells you whether you can press it for real or must click it on the keyboard below.
4. Three misses, or the "Show me" button, lights the answer up on the keyboard.
5. Finish, then redo just the misses — that is where the gain is.

Why some are pressed and some are clicked

A web page cannot see every key combination. Shortcuts the OS handles first never reach the browser. Press ⌘⇧3 and macOS really does take a screenshot; WinL really does lock the screen; CtrlW really does close this tab.

So every shortcut here is tagged as pressable or not. What you are learning is the combination, not the act of firing it, so clicking the keys teaches it just as well. When clicking, you do not hold the modifiers — click ⌘, then ⇧, then 3, and it judges as soon as you pick the non-modifier key.

Three things that trip up Windows users on a Mac

1. The modifiers swap roles. Copy is ⌘C, but word-wise cursor movement is option+← (not Ctrl), and start/end of line is ⌘←/→ rather than Home/End.

2. The chords get longer. Paste-without-formatting is ⌘⌥⇧V — four keys. A screenshot to the clipboard is ⌃⌘⇧3 — also four. On macOS, adding ⌃ to a screenshot shortcut sends it to the clipboard instead of a file; knowing that one rule changes your whole workflow.

3. The same key means something else. The Delete key alone does not delete a file on macOS (you need ⌘Delete), and in Finder Return renames rather than opens.

Accessibility

• Always answer by clicking — holding three or four modifiers at once is a physical barrier in itself. This route completes every question with clicks alone.
• High contrast and larger text.
• Reduce motion, following your device setting.
• Sound is off by default; right and wrong are always shown by colour and text.

Outside this page, both systems offer Sticky Keys, which lets you press modifiers one after another instead of together. Worth turning on if chords are hard for you.

FAQ