

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.

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
