Mac 101: Put your display to sleep fast

Quick! The boss is coming! Hide your screen! What, you don't have Spaces set up so you can switch to that handy Excel worksheet you've got open? That's okay -- just put your display to sleep.

Of course, there are other reasons to want to quickly turn off your display, but they all have one simple key combination: Control + Shift + Eject.

It works with both desktop and laptop Macs. Moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard wakes it right back up when you're ready.

Of course, if you want to put your whole computer to sleep, you can use Option + Command + Eject. There are other helpful shortcuts, too, in this article deep in the TUAW archives.

Thanks to our own Michael Rose for this one. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

View Tags

Source: http://www.tuaw.com/category/mac-101

Categories

Mac 101

Quick! The boss is coming! Hide your screen! What, you don't have Spaces set up so you can switch to that handy Excel worksheet you've got...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

45 Comments

Filter by:

rembrantoes

I am cautiously guarded about going back to time capsule due to internet connection issues. Would it be possible that it's the time capsule, or is it the high speed cable? Not sure I wish to keep paying 49.00 a month to keep getting kicked off line when the neighborhood clogs the internet. help?

March 01 2009 at 1:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

rembrantoes

Switched from airport extreme to timecapsule, then back to airport because of internet connection issues. Still had trouble w/ internet connection even tho I found out it wasn't my provider. So I got the bright idea to reload my Leopard & now iphoto is gone? Can anyone assist?

February 27 2009 at 4:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ammon

Very useful tip! I like to put my display to sleep whenever I'm downloading a big file and need to step away for a moment. So, I can put this to use right away.

February 03 2009 at 3:03 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nigel

Why nt just use Ctrl-Tab? In a second you are able to to go to another application - which if you set yourself up properly, will be the Excell spreadsheet you re suposed to be working on.

January 20 2009 at 4:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MacBookAlum1536

cool

January 19 2009 at 1:11 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mark

Finally! I wanted this for so long!
I usually use a hot corner but doing it from the keyboard will make it much easier for other people to use my imac without accidentally having the screen go off...
YAY!

January 18 2009 at 8:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

.Trashes

Thanks, I didn't know this one. I had to disable the hot corner after I kept hitting it accidentally.

January 18 2009 at 7:00 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Allister

Hmm. Found this recently updated support article which does not mention the screen-sleep shortcut at all. But it does mention one other. Ctrl-Eject brings up the Restart/Sleep/Shutdown dialog. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

January 17 2009 at 5:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Allister

But wait! There's more! The Eject key can also shut down or restart your computer. I do find it interesting that Keyboard Shortcuts does not list any of the Eject combos, but I did find the list somewhere:

Ctrl+Shift = sleep screen
Option+Cmd = sleep computer
Ctrl+Cmd = restart
Ctrl=Option+Cmd = shut down

January 17 2009 at 5:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

William Crabtree

Well..just tried this on my everyday computer (iBook G4) and it did not work to black out the screen. Actually nothing happened for me.

January 17 2009 at 2:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply