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Comment by zarify | Hacker News Reader

I tend to just thumb it (the left side one, I only tend to use the right one for the command-delete trash shortcut), same as I do with alt- shortcuts on Windows layout keyboards. I find the mental shift from using command on OS X to Ctrl on Windows pretty easy to do, but then I spend a lot of time on both platforms.

One of the things I find quite difficult to mentally adapt to when switching is the behaviour of the Enter key, since in Windows it is open, and in OS X it is rename (which I find much more useful, since you can command-down arrow to open which is used for folder navigation with command-up for opening the parent folder).

There are a bunch of little-advertised command key shortcuts for Home, PgUp, etc too, so you figure out a way to make it work pretty quickly (some work inconsistently though, I tend to mainly use the word/line based stuff rather than page/document). See http://ss64.com/osx/syntax-keyboard.html .

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>One of the things I find quite difficult to mentally adapt to when switching is the behaviour of the Enter key, since in Windows it is open, and in OS X it is rename (which I find much more useful, since you can command-down arrow to open which is used for folder navigation with command-up for opening the parent folder).

For future reference, you can rename in Windows/Linux using F2. Works in Windows Explorer, and in most Linux file browsers that I have tried, though who could ever claim to have used them all? ;)

As for [Modifier]+Down to enter a folder, that makes a lot of sense and I like it. The last time I used a Windows machine (Win7 I think), I noticed that they had finally adopted Alt+Arrow navigation in Explorer. Alt+Up goes to the parent folder, same as Linux (and OS X it seems!), and Alt+Left/Right goes backward/forward in folder history. I'll probably try and add Alt+Down to one of my Linux file managers sometime, because it makes much more sense than having to switch to Enter for going into something, and Alt+Up to go back out.

Thanks for that, I didn't know about Alt-Up (and had always been annoyed at the removing of the parent directory button in Win7). F2 is one I'll have to remember too. Context menus and click-pause-clicks are annoying.

I was just perusing that link, and my god you have just saved me so much frustration. The shortcut:

⌘+` Switch between document Windows in current application

Solves the single most confusing thing I have dealt with on OS X! By happenstance of populations, almost none of the Mac-owners I interact with are power users of any sort (programmer, accountant, etc.). When using their keyboards and fumbling around like an idiot, I always ask "How do I go to the other window of Chrome?" or similar, and they don't know what I mean. I have Googled for this before, but could never figure out how to phrase the action to get an answer.

If I could reduce my karma just to be able to increase yours more than one for this comment, I would. Thank you very much.

This doesn't work for me in Chrome (28.0.1500.71). Other apps work fine. Is there something that needs to be done to get it to work?

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