Open file with the keyboard in OS X

Jun 14, 2011 · Follow on Twitter and Mastodon

Although I love OS X, I am still new to it and a Windows user by habit. As such, the unintuitive and secret clubesque keyboard shortcuts are not one of my most favorite parts with using OS X.

For instance, it took me a year to discover that I could press space to preview files in Finder, with the preview software being one of the best I’ve ever used. Why so obscure, Apple?

My latest finding is how to open files. Being a Windows user, I have been pressing the return key SO many times, which means OPEN in Windows, but RENAME in OS X.

So, I have been double-clicking files every time I have wanted to open them. Today, though, I finally found that instead of hitting return, I can use cmd + down instead.

This changes everything.