Macro Recorder for Mac in Downloads Folder as visible in Finder Watch a Video Tutorial displaying this Macro Recorder for Mac being used as Keyboard Recorder on Mac 10.9 actually record and playback Keystrokes to fully understand how you can record and playback recorded Keystrokes and other Actions. Move to the Tell me or Search field on the Ribbon and type a search term for assistance or Help content. Alt+Q, then enter the search term. Open the File page and use Backstage view. Open the Home tab and format text and numbers and use the Find tool. Open the Insert tab and insert PivotTables, charts, add-ins, Sparklines, pictures, shapes, headers, or text. Mac users interested in Programs that record keystrokes generally download: KeystrokeRecorder X 3.4 KeystrokeRecorder X is an application that records both screen shots and keystrokes into a file or sent via email for later retrieval.
Keyboard shortcuts can save you a LOT of time. More importantly, they make you more productive. Using the keyboard efficiently can also help cut down on repetitive stress injuries that result from too much mouse use.
Next, we’ll use the search box on the How-To Geek website to perform a search. IMacros saves our macro after we click Stop. We can click the Play button to play back the macro and iMacros will visit How-To Geek, select the form field, enter our search query, and submit the form.
Printing out a list of ALL spreadsheet shortcuts would be overwhelming. Instead, download and print a copy of my keyboard shortcut bingo sheet. While not a random or complete list, if you master all of these shortcuts, you will be using about 95% of the shortcuts that I use on a regular basis. Most of these shortcuts will also work in Google Sheets.
Keyboard Shortcut Bingo
To help motivate you to learn more shortcuts, print this bingo-style list of shortcut keys and put it next to your computer. Cross out or color in the shortcuts when you have mastered them.
Windows Shortcut Keys
Many of the shortcuts that you can use in Excel and Google Sheets work as general Windows hotkeys for other programs as well. I've marked these with a ⊞ symbol and bold text (most of them are in the first 3 rows of the bingo sheet).
If you are using a Mac, you are welcome to use the spreadsheet to modify the list and create your own hotkey bingo sheet with shortcuts for Mac.
Combinations of Shortcuts
Some of these keyboard shortcuts work best in combinations. For example, when you are editing text, use a combination of the shortcuts listed on the 3rd row of the bingo sheet. Shortcuts like CTRL+Arrow let you quickly move through text and CTRL+SHIFT+Arrow lets you quickly select text.
Another combination that I use all the time to insert new rows is to first select the row with SHIFT+SpaceBar, then insert a row with CTRL+SHIFT+= (or think of it as Ctrl Plus), then copy the row above with CTRL+D (to copy formulas down).
ALT Key Shortcuts (Access Keys)
In the newer versions of Excel, you can do pretty much anything with the keyboard if you use ALT key shortcuts to access the menu and ribbon options. Press ALT+H to access the Home ribbon. Then, press the sequence of keys that show up. This allows you to use commands like align center (ALT+H,A,C) which may not have other keyboard shortcuts defined.
I haven't used very many of these types of shortcuts, but if I'm doing anything really repetitive it often helps to see if there is an access key sequence that can speed things up. Here is a list of my most-used ALT access keys so far:
- ALT+H,V,V : Paste Values Only
- ALT+H,V,F : Paste Formula Only
- ALT+H,A,L : Align Left
- ALT+H,A,C : Align Center
- ALT+H,A,R : Align Right
Tricks for Learning Keyboard Shortcuts
Program That Repeats Keystrokes For Mac Os
The best way to learn keyboard shortcuts is to use them. Repeat the use of a shortcut 10-30 times to get some muscle memory, then do it again (maybe fewer repetitions) an hour later, then again once or twice a day for the next few days. That will help cement it into your long-term memory.
To force yourself to get proficient with shortcuts, try one of these ideas:
Mac Keystroke Commands
- Temporarily hide your mouse
- Put your mouse far out of reach so that it's a pain to use it
- Switch the mouse to the other side of your keyboard
Any one of these techniques will help you quickly realize how often you switch between the keyboard and the mouse.
Customizing the List of Keyboard Shortcuts
The Keyboard Shortcut Bingo download above can also be used to create your own custom sheet of keyboard shortcuts. Maybe you already know most of them and want a fun way to learn others.
All you need to do is go to the Shortcuts worksheet and add your own set of shortcut keys. Best pdf writer software for mac. You can mark your own favorites, filter, sort, or even randomize the list. The first 36 shortcuts will be displayed automatically in the Bingo sheet.
Mac Keystroke Shortcuts
Useful Resources
- Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel - support.office.com - This article provides the official long list of shortcuts for Excel.
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Sheets: Open up a file in Google Sheets and go to Help > Keyboard Shortcuts. If you turn on 'Enable compatible spreadsheet shortcuts' then you can use a lot of the same shortcuts you may be used to from Excel.
What Are YOUR Most Used Hotkeys?
If your most-used shortcut keys for spreadsheets or windows are different than what I've already listed, please comment below and share. I'm still learning new ones all the time, and getting recommendations is awesome.
AppleScript is a natural language paradigm scripting language developed by Apple. It’s been around since 1993, when it first appeared in System 7. Although the future of AppleScript might be uncertain, it’s here now and it’s pretty darn useful.
In this guide we go over keyboard event scripting. This is a very rudimentary form of GUI scripting, which is itself a rather rudimentary technique. Although getting started is exceptionally easy, there are a few quirks that tend to show up when interacting with the Mac’s graphical interface in this manner. GUIs are typically designed for humans and aren’t great at handling a series of commands in rapid succession. It’s easy enough for a human to click a button again when the desired action didn’t happen for whatever reason. Not so easy to do that same thing with a script.
You may need to enable access for assistive devices before continuing. How exactly this is done varies a little bit between different versions of OS X. In 10.9 Mavericks, go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Privacy --> Accessibility, then enable access for assistive devices.
Getting started with keystroke and key code
The following script will start TextEdit and type out the standard “Hello world!” Pretty simple. Try it out in AppleScript Editor.
Everything between tell application 'System Events' and end tell is run with System Events. tell application 'System Events' is what allows us to script things like the keyboard.
delay 0.5 causes the script to pause for half a second. It’s generally a good idea to have a delay before any keyboard events. There’s a one second pause before keystroke 'Hello world!' to give TextEdit enough time to start. If something isn’t working right the first thing I would check would be the delays.
keystroke space using command down presses the spacebar while holding down the command key. This activates Spotlight. keystroke return hits the return key, starting TextEdit. Finally, keystroke 'Hello world! types “Hello world!` into the new TextEdit window.
This script is interesting because it demonstrates just how tricky it can be deciding where to put delays. Notice that in order to type “TextEdit” into Spotlight we’ve used two keystroke commands. There’s one for “Text” and another for “Edit”. We do this because Spotlight gets weird if we don’t. On my system, running Mavericks on a 2014 MacBook Air, if I use keystroke 'TextEdit' Spotlight will open, “TextEdit” will be typed out and results listed, but then nothing else happens. Sometimes things don’t work in odd and subtle ways, making it difficult to figure out what’s going wrong. Delays usually fix these kinds of strange behavior. If it’s not working, try adding more delays. I think that’s a good rule of them when it comes to AppleScript keyboard scripting.
Slowing down keystroke entry with a loop
Here we use a loop, some variables, and a delay to slow down text entry to a more reasonable speed (although still very fast).
This is a little more work than just using keystroke commands by themselves. But it’s worth it. So much more reliable.
When to use key codes
Sometimes we need to automate a key that doesn’t like to exist between quotation marks with a keystroke command. A good example of this are the arrow keys. To press the up arrow key, you’d write key code 126. Church bell program for mac os. Here’s a list of some good to know key codes.
- delete
51 - escape
53 - left arow
123 - right arrow
124 - down arrow
125 - up arrow
126
There are also keys that can be used with keystroke without quotes. These are probably easier for most people to remember than their key code equivalent. Remember, don’t use quotes with these.