Making Sense of Mac Keyboard Symbols
Ever wondered what those Mac keyboard symbols mean and what they translate to? You see them on a lot of Mac keyboards and on plenty of keyboard shortcut lists, looking like strange glyphs (⌥), shapes (⇪), and bugs splattered on windshields (⌘). They can be fairly confusing, which is why we at OSXDaily.com always try to manually write out the key itself. Using the name of the key is becoming the norm on newer Apple keyboards, but many pre-2011 Macs have keyboard symbols on keys, and with really old Macs you get all symbols with no labels. Additionally, you’ll find the symbols in drop-down menus throughout OS X, so what the heck are they in plain english?
⌘ is the Command () key
⌃ is the Control key
⌥ is the Option (alt) key
⇧ is the Shift key
⇪ is the Caps Lock key
fn is the Function key
Now you know, but if the symbols confuse you, don’t feel too bad about it. I’ve been using Macs since I was a little kid and the Option and Control key symbols have always perplexed me to the point where I’ll forget which each is, and that is precisely why Apple is gradually moving to the labeled keys rather than symbol keys. Simple is better.
The above list is the standard keyboard symbols for most keyboard shortcuts, below is a more complete list of some of the symbols that appear elsewhere in menus and the keys they map to. Thanks to Lri for posting these secondary symbols in the comments.
Full Keyboard Symbol List:
⌘ is command
⌥ is option
⌃ is control
⇧ is shift
⇪ is caps lock
← is left arrow
→ is right arrow
↑ is up arrow
↓ is down arrow
⇥ is tab
⇤ is backtab
↩ is return
⌤ is enter
⌫ is delete
⌦ is forward delete
⇞ is page up
⇟ is page down
↖ is home
↘ is end
⌧ is clear
␣ is space
⎋ is escape
⏏ is eject
Maybe I am old school but I don’t mind most of the symbols. My beef is with the Control key ⌃ which looks identical to the carrot key ^, trying to tell those two apart is damn near impossible. It does make a nice mountain terrain though…
^⌃^⌃^⌃^⌃^⌃^⌃^⌃^⌃^⌃^^⌃^⌃^⌃
It gets worse if you are ever working with Cisco gear in terminal. The standard CTRL-C sequence doesn’t work. Instead it’s CTRL-^ which means “Control-SHIFT-6.
LOL at the graphic, too bad that’s not a real keystroke
you forgot the circle with thw arrow going up to the left. I think it is escape or eject
It’s escape.
I always remember the ‘Option’ key now that I realized it looks similar to a switch in a schematic. A switch would be “this” or “that” so it gives you the “option” of one of those two things…. Anyway, it works in my head.
I use the keyboard with a numpad and it has two different keys doing the same thing – “Enter” and “Return”. Ones are called differently as well as marked. However, what is the difference in real life function of these keys?
Here’s an example: in Filemaker “Return” takes you to the next line in a field. “Enter” posts the data in the field. Back in the day there was a similar difference in Excel. There may be similar differences in graphics applications.
when I first got my mac, (about two years ago) it took me forever to figure out wth the symbol for the option key was.. At least the command key on my wireless keyboard has the clover leaf(thats what i call it) for the command.
but the option symbol baffled me. any idea where that came from? and why dont they show you what key it really is since that isnt labeled like that on my mac keyboard? some programmer just having his day i guess.
I’ve always though of it, starting from the top left of the symbol and traveling horizontally, the line is a route or a path and it could keep moving from left to right, but shows the path changing directions and taking the “optional” or “alternative” route
I miss the original Apple symbols and don’t understand why they felt the need to go to the command symbol.
The “Command” key will always be the “Apple” key for me
(mac user for quite a long long time)!
I’m with you there!!!
Me too !
Still remember the time of Open-Apple and Solid-Apple keys! Abbreviated OA and SA ! You’ll need an Apple ][ + to see them again !
Note: the command-key to be specific is not a closed Apple symbol it was an Open Apple (just the outline). I still accidentally say the old OLD commands as Open-Apple+P or Open-Apple+S. The oldest of Apple keyboards had both Closed-Apple and Open-Apple. Thus the distinction.
Thanks for this!
A more complete list:
- ⌘: command
- ⌥: option
- ⌃: control
- ⇧: shift
- ⇪: caps lock
- ←: left arrow
- →: right arrow
- ↑: up arrow
- ↓: down arrow
- ⇥: tab
- ⇤: backtab
- ↩: return
- ⌤: enter
- ⌫: delete
- ⌦: forward delete
- ⇞: page up
- ⇟: page down
- ↖: home
- ↘: end
- ⌧: clear
- ␣: space
- ⎋: escape
- ⏏: eject
Excellent, thanks for the list I updated the article to include these.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Lri and the article author! I’m a software engineer, a 15+ year Windows user, 10+ year casual Linux user, and just bought my first Mac (2012 MBP). The cryptic symbols have been the most perplexing thing about these first few days of ownership. Now if I could just get my Matrox TripleHead2Go working…
Wow glad I’m not the only one, I always wondered what these were!
I notice some of these symbols don’t show up on the iPad at all. Looks to me that Apple is phasing them out then.
I am a fairly new Mac user (Made the jump from Windows) and I have always wonder how can do do this “- ⌦: forward delete” because sometimes It comes in handy, but I have no clue how to use it.
Can anybody help me with that?
THanks!
If you’re on a MacBook or using a wireless keyboard, Fn-⌫ will work as ⌦.
Option is the SAUCEPAN!!! Yes… the saucepan!! Mwahahaha… ahem, sorry
In days of yore, when dinosaurs weren’t just in zoos and computers only had text-based applications, and screen space was at a premium, the caret was used to indicate control: ^C was control C for example. Back then, ^^ was control-caret. Run the terminal and type “nano” to see this convention in action. The light, caret-like symbol is perfect for Control. It goes all the way back to the days when Alan Turing said, “Let there be computers.” And there were.
The option symbol, as someone noted, looks like a railroad switch. Imagine a teensy train coming from the left; it has two possible ways to go. Options, if you will.
Apple needed a symbol for Command, so a woman at Apple came up with the “cloverleaf” symbol. It’s used on road maps in Scandinavia to indicate camp sites, and it was easily adapted to “command.”
I guess the original idea was that pictographs were easier to recognize at a glance, but as people switched to the Mac, it was easier just to spell out the words. I’m used to the symbols and I like them, but I understand the problems tyros face. I was one myself long ago.
Harvey says it all…
But to nitpick, the “cloverleaf” symbol of the command key is actually not a campsite, it is used for “a place of interest”, museum, church, natl. parks etc. (campsite is a “teepee” tent).
As for remembering, it’s not that hard, command is by far the most common and is used all the time so it should be in the muscle memory quite fast.
I find all the other symbols are kind of descriptive when thinking about them, except control, so I came up with mnemonic way that works for me:
The control symbol looks like the v-stripes military officers carry, the more stripes you have, the more “control” you have over things!
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It confused the hack of me too. For example the Option symbol looks more like a shift because it looks like a ladder step up, and the shift key symbol is ^, how do the users supposed to know that that is shift key? the escape symbol looks like the TimeMachine icon. Why do Apple just print all these symbols along with the labels on the keyboard?
The funny thing I’ve always noticed about Mac vs. Win is that when detailing shortcuts, Apple opts to use a series of lines, slashes, and circles, and hieroglyphics whereas on Windows, if you need to press Shift, it will say “Shift”.
One of the most frustrating things when teaching someone new to OSX, is the shortcuts. “Here’s a shortcuts cheat sheet!” “Great! ….but what do these symbols mean?”
“Here’s a cheat sheet for the symbols so you can use the cheat sheet for the shortcuts”
Hi I don’t understand what the § means can anyone explain ;-/