Mac keyboard symbols and what they mean

Menus write shortcuts with symbols to save space, so Edit › Redo shows ⇧⌘Z where Apple's help says Shift-Command-Z. Once you know a dozen symbols, every menu and shortcut list reads the same way.

Modifier keys

Modifier keys do nothing on their own. You hold one or more of them, press the last key, then let go of all of them. Apple's list of Mac keyboard shortcuts gives the symbol menus use for each:

On a keyboard made for Windows, Apple says to press Alt for Option, and Ctrl or the Windows logo key for Command. How the rest of a Windows keyboard maps to a Mac, from Alt+Tab to the Windows key, is in Mac shortcuts for Windows users, with Apple's own table in Windows keys on a Mac keyboard.

Other key symbols

Apple's guide to the symbols shown in menus lists these as well. Its shortcuts article draws two of them differently, Return as ⏎ and the arrows as ▲ ▼ ◀ ▶, so you'll meet both forms.

Letters in menus are shown as capitals, but ⌘C doesn't mean Shift: it's Command and the C key. When ⇧ is needed it's written in, as in ⇧⌘N. The exception is a key's upper character: Apple's Human Interface Guidelines tell apps to write Help as Command-Question mark, ⌘?, not ⇧⌘/, because you already know you need Shift to type a question mark.

The Fn and Globe key

On recent Mac keyboards the fn key also shows a globe, and Apple's guides treat them as one key, “Fn (Function) or Globe”. It does three jobs:

• Function keys. The top row controls brightness, Mission Control and more. Hold Fn to use those keys as F1, F2 and so on. If a shortcut uses a function key and does nothing, try it with Fn.
• A key of its own. In System Settings › Keyboard, choose what pressing it alone does with Press fn key to (or the globe version): Change Input Source, Show Emoji & Symbols, Start Dictation or Do Nothing.
• Shortcuts. Apple's shortcuts article lists a set that start with Fn:

When Fn is part of a shortcut, Apple writes it first: Fn-Shift-A, or Fn-Control-F, which maximizes a window in macOS 15 Sequoia and later. That one and the other window tiling shortcuts, which pair Fn and ⌃ with the arrow keys, are in the Mac window shortcuts cheat sheet.

The order Apple writes them in

Apple's Human Interface Guidelines tell apps to list modifier keys in one order: Control, Option, Shift, Command. So a menu shows ⇧⌘Z, never ⌘⇧Z, and a shortcut using all four reads ⌃⌥⇧⌘. Apple's help writes the same order in words, joined by hyphens.

The order is only how it's written. You can press the modifiers in any order, as long as they're all held when you press the last key. The key that ends a shortcut can also differ by keyboard: the second key of ⌘`, for one, isn't in the same place on every layout, as the backtick key on a Mac shows.

Type the symbols yourself

To put ⌘ or ⌥ in a note or a message, use the Character Viewer, as Apple's guide to emoji and symbols explains:

1. Open the Character Viewer

   Press Fn-E, or ⌃⌘Space, or choose Edit › Emoji & Symbols. Click the button in its top-right corner to expand it.

2. Open Technical Symbols

   This category holds ⌘, ⌥, ⇧, ⌃, ⎋, ↩, ⇥, ⌫, ⌦ and the rest. If it isn't in the sidebar, click the Action pop-up menu, choose Customize List, select Technical Symbols, then click Done.

3. Click to insert, or save a favorite

   Click a symbol to add it to your text (double-click in the expanded viewer). Select one and click Add to Favorites to keep it at hand.

The viewer's search field also takes a symbol's name or code. The names are Unicode's, which aren't always the key's name:

If you type a symbol often, add a text replacement in System Settings › Keyboard › Text Input › Text Replacements, such as a short code that turns into ⌘ as you type. Or copy them from this page.