TUAW Tip: shortcuts for Sleep, Restart and Shut Down

We here at TUAW are suckers for productive shortcuts, and since yesterday's System Preferences tip was such a hit, I thought I'd post a few shortcuts to speed up the Sleep, Restart and Shut Down commands. There's actually quite a few ways to accomplish these tasks, so I'll try to mention all the methods I've heard of.

The first: hold the option key while selecting Restart or Shut Down from the Apple Menu to bypass the 'Are You Sure?' dialog, and cut right to the chase. You even get visual feedback in the Apple Menu; click the menu, then press the option key to see the trailing dots disappear from those two commands (as far as I know, this is a typical UI feedback element used throughout the OS; any commands - at least in Cocoa apps - that have keyboard modifiers will change their appearance in the menu if you press the modifier before choosing the option).

The second method is my personal favorite: 100% keyboard shortcuts. Here's a list:

Sleep = opt + cmd + eject
Restart = ctrl + cmd + eject
Shut Down = ctrl + opt + cmd + eject

The third method, involving the power key, can still be counted as a keyboard shortcut, but since I almost never touch the power key (I Sleep my Macs about 99% of the time via my aforementioned favorite method), I don't really consider it part of my typical keystroke regimen. For you power key lovers out there, you can press your Mac's power key, and at the resulting 'Are you sure?' dialog that contains four buttons (Restart, Sleep, Cancel and Shut Down), you can press the first letters of a couple of these actions. Specifically, 'r' for Restart, 's' for Sleep and Enter for Shut Down. 'C' for Cancel doesn't seem to work, but Esc should get you out of the dialog if you need to keep computing.

Here's hoping you don't have a Homer Simpson-like brain, where each new shortcut you learn knocks out an old one. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on these shortcuts, and enjoy one more trick for working with your Mac just a little bit faster.

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We here at TUAW are suckers for productive shortcuts, and since yesterday's System Preferences tip was such a hit, I thought I'd post a few...

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sebastian

great tip, i'd prefer the one hitting on the power button then the initial letter over the opt + cmd ones

thanks!

August 09 2006 at 4:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tony

Those three power keystrokes are way old (I found out about them in Macworld years ago). Useless bit of information. One keystroke I've discovered that you rarely see ever documented is cmd-D at a Save prompt to Don't Save. I love stupid things like this cuz I like to use the keyboard as much as possible.

July 18 2006 at 1:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

elbertc

btw, my last comment seems to be applicable to laptops only. When I tried it on an iMac, the computer would simply go to sleep immediately (which is the normal behavior when depressing a desktop power button). iow, the power button on desktops doesn't allow modifiers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

July 16 2006 at 1:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

elbertc

Similar to ctrl + cmd + eject (RESTART):

FORCE RESTART = ctrl + cmd + power button

July 16 2006 at 1:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

M4cb0y

Command+period works for cancel.

July 14 2006 at 2:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

nelson

cmd + opt + shift + q = log out immediately. NOTE: THIS WILL NOT ASK YOU FOR CONFIRMATION! I find this one very useful.

July 14 2006 at 12:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jaysin

hey Josh, to quickly lock your screen:

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/01/lockscreen/

July 14 2006 at 11:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David Chartier

#4: Who says banging on a keyboard is the only way to find out these things? ;)

I just thought of a fourth method I could've included in the post: using shortcuts/plugins provided in some of the application launchers, like Quicksilver. I don't use the others like Butler or LaunchBar, but I know QS has actions for all three of these operations, which one could easily tie to a keyboard trigger - though I find that concept a tad dangerous. One reason the cmd + eject shortcut works is because it's such an obscure combination; I don't think there's any other keyboard shortcut out there that uses the eject key. In fact, I'm willing to bet that the use of the eject key for a shortcut might even be an Apple-only firmware-specific thing.

July 14 2006 at 10:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

spil

Wow you guys have WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much time on your hands... how long did it take you to figure out these from just pressing every single button combination?
[/sarcasm]

July 14 2006 at 9:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

xplora

in option 3, ctrl + eject will do the same as pressing the power button for keyboards without power buttons. (since laptops are only machines with keyboard power buttons, without going back in time a bit)

July 14 2006 at 8:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply