Use a Keyboard Shortcut for Instant Help Menu Access in Mac OS X

The Help menu in Mac OS X is an often underutilized feature that can quickly resolve a lot of questions about apps and the OS itself, making it an excellent resource to query any time you’re trying to find out about a particular feature, troubleshooting an issue, or you just want to learn more about the app in use.

To get the most out of an apps Help menu in OS X, memorize the keyboard shortcut to instantly access the Help Search function in every Mac app:

• Hit Command+Shift+/ to immediately open the Help menu, with the focus on the search box

With the Help Search menu open, you can start typing keywords and get instantaneous results. Overall, Help’s Search feature behaves a lot like the general Spotlight search function built into the core of OS X. The only potential limitation to the Help index is what a particular developer has decided to include in their documentation, and some third party apps are a bit more skimpy on details than others.

Put this handy keyboard shortcut into memory and give it a try the next time you’re looking for a feature or figuring things out, it’s a great resource for learning about virtually any application that’s installed in OS X. Because the Help menu’s returned items can be used to highlight features in apps too, it can also function as a full-fledged help action launcher, which you can learn more about here.

Thanks to James for the tip idea