Where's alt on mac?

If you’re switching from Windows to Mac, the Alt Key is something you’ll miss a lot. Since you’ll probably use this key often, it’s important to know how it works if you want to get the most out of your Mac. So where is the Alt button on Mac, and what can you use it for?

Depending on what kind of Mac computer or Apple keyboard you have, the Alt key might not be easy to find at first.

Some keyboards have the ⌥ key instead of Alt. Others have a button called ‘Option.’ Or you can even see a combination of the ⌥ key and ‘Option’ on the same button.

The Alt Key is the third key from the left on a Mac keyboard. If you press the key by itself, it won’t do anything because it can’t run a system command. But when you use it with other keys, you can quickly get to special characters and functions that are normally hidden. We’ll get back to these functions later.

Interesting fact: your Mac has two Alt Keys. The second one is also on the last row of keys on a Mac keyboard, but it’s on the right side this time. Both Alt Keys do the same thing, and having them in two places makes it easier to use shortcuts.

Tip: Switching from Windows to macOS? Install a must-have app on your Mac to keep it in great shape. CleanMyMac X will help you maintain your Mac’s speed by removing junk and temporary files that could slow it down.

On a Mac, the Alt (Option) key is used for many important things. In fact, the Mac Alt key has a lot more responsibility than the Alt key on a PC.

You can use it to type symbols and accent marks like å, ß, ∂ and µ.

Option or Alt key on Mac is also used in many really handy keyboard shortcuts. Combining the Option key with the Command key will enhance the standard option, so, for instance, Command + Option + Shift + S will bring up the Save As option.

On some Macs, you can also enter Internet Recovery mode by pressing Option/Alt + Command + R.

And if your Mac has a second volume or you’re running macOS from an external drive, you’ll need to press Option/Alt at startup to get to this volume.

Tip: Using lots of keyboard commands when typing? Let Rocket Typist do some work for you, so you don’t have to remember all the shortcuts. The app allows you to save text snippets and then paste them into any document when needed.

You can select the saved phrases from a drop-down menu, or you can have them show automatically when you write an abbreviation. Or, for example, if you need to insert a date and time in your email, you can add a placeholder for the date and time. Then, when you expand that snippet, the current date and time are filled in just the way you want.

As we’ve already mentioned, when you press the Option key along with any other key, a set of functions will be executed. For example, if you press Option + L, the Downloads folder will open. Want to know more?

Here’s a list of some common Alt on Mac keyboard shortcuts:

Option + Volume Up opens Sound Preferences

Option + Command + N creates Smart Folder

Option + Command + D shows/hides Dock

Option + Command + P shows/hides Path Bar in Finder Window

Option + Command + S shows/hides the Sidebar in Finder Window

Option + Shift + Command + Delete is used to empty a Trash Bin

Command + Option + M minimizes everything

Control + Command + Q locks the screen

Option + Command + Esc quits an app.

Tip: Try QuitAll if you need to force quit all apps at once in a safe way. Often, some background processes slow down your Mac or mess with your settings. With QuitAll you can see these background processes along with other apps and stop them with a single click.

Tip: If apps frequently become unresponsive or begin hogging processor cycles, iStat Menus can help you determine what’s causing the issue. It’ll display which apps are consuming the most CPU cycles. In fact, iStat Menus is a more advanced version of Activity Monitor that provides extensive information on the CPU, GPU, disk activity, temperature, and other factors.

Now, let’s get back to the Alt key Mac shortcuts. If you don’t want to memorize all of them or haven’t found one that works for you, you can make your own!

If you use shortcuts a lot, you might like Keysmith. You can save time with this tool because it lets you record your mouse and keyboard movements and turn them into shortcuts for your Mac. After assigning a hotkey to the shortcut you made, you can press the hotkey and watch Keysmith do all the typing, clicking, and browsing. Just like you did, but much faster.

This article gave you an answer to the “Where is Alt on Mac?” question. Now, you can speed up your workflow. But if you want to become even more productive, Keysmith and RocketTypist are available on Setapp with a 7-day free trial – so you can master keyboard tricks right now.

Alt key on Mac is indeed exist. And it’s called Option key.

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Windows vs Mac—there are so many differences. A lot of our customers have used a PC before and then decide they want to switch to Mac for better performance, nicer design, or for better security. However, they were afraid they would have a hard time getting used to the macOS keyboard. We hear questions like, “How can I close a Window? The Mac keyboard doesn’t have the Alt + F4 shortcut.” We always give them two answers:

1. With Parallels Desktop virtual machine for Mac you have the choice to use the same keyboard shortcuts you had on your PC.

2. If you want to use the Mac keyboard you will experience that the alt key is very different, as we explain in this blog post.

Where is the Alt key on a Mac keyboard?

The PC-keyboard equivalent of Alt on a Mac is called the Option key, and you’ll find the Option Key on your Mac if you go two keys to the left of the spacebar. However, the option key on a Mac keyboard is used in a different way than the alt key on a Windows PC. In terms of functionality, the alt key in Windows is often more comparable with the Command key than with the Option key on a Mac. You might be also familiar with the Ctrl and Alt keys from your PC. On your Mac keyboard, you have Command (⌘ cmd), Control (ctrl), and Option (⌥  alt) keys.

How do Windows shortcuts change on a Mac?

Check out some equivalents of popular Windows alt shortcuts on a Mac, which might be especially helpful for those users who are new to Mac:

When running Windows on a Mac with Parallels Desktop, is it possible to use Windows shortcuts on a Mac?

If you run Windows on your Mac with Parallels Desktop for Mac, you can configure your keyboard shortcuts the way you want to work, with either macOS or Windows shortcuts. Click here for more information on how to set the different shortcuts.

You can find even more useful Mac shortcuts in the infographic here.

Missing your Start Menu and familiar Windows look and feel? You can use Parallels Desktop and have Windows 10 along with your favorite Windows apps on your new Mac.Â

The Alt key on the Mac is also called Option and sits next to the Command key. There are two of them, one on either side of the spacebar.

Using a Mac keyboard in a Windows environment, or looking for Mac equivalents of Windows shortcuts? Here’s a quick guide to using Apple’s version of the Alt key and the shortcuts that depend on it.

Generally speaking, the closest equivalent to the Windows Alt key is Option on a MacBook or Mac desktop. For the AltGr (Alt Graph) key found on the right side of the keyboard, you can press Option+Control instead.

If you plug an Apple keyboard into your Windows PC or you’ve installed Windows on your Intel Mac using Boot Camp, keyboard shortcuts like Alt+Tab become Option+Tab instead. The Windows key is replaced by Command and the Windows equivalent to Ctrl is relatively unchanged with the Control key on an Apple keyboard.

The same is true if you plug a Windows keyboard into a Mac. The Windows key becomes Command while Alt and Option are used interchangeably. If you want to rebind these key settings you can do so using an app like Karabiner-Elements.

Some virtualization environments simplify things by letting you use macOS shortcuts within a Windows environment. A good example of this is Parallels Desktop 18. Once you’ve installed Windows, you can use standard Mac shortcuts when running Windows under Parallels Desktop like Command+Z (undo) and Command+C (copy).

You can customize these under Parallels Desktop settings, toggle shortcuts on and off, or even create your own.

The instructions for initiating a “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” type command on a Mac or MacBook differ depending on whether you’re in a macOS or Windows desktop environment.

If you’re looking for the macOS equivalent of “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” then you have a few options available. Launching Activity Monitor under the Applications > Utilities folder performs many of the same tasks as Task Manager on Windows, including finding problem processes and allowing you to kill them.

You can also Hit “Command+Option+Esc” to bring up a shorter Force Quit Applications Window. Alternatively, kill the currently-focused application using “Command+Shift+Option+Esc” or right-clicking on the applications icon in the dock and holding “Option” then selecting “Force Quit” from the context menu.

If you’ve installed Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp, installing Apple’s Boot Camp drivers should make “Control+Option+Delete” work as expected. Apple’s “Delete” key is the equivalent of a Windows “Backspace” so if you haven’t got the drivers installed, try holding “Fn” as well (“Control+Option+Fn+Delete”).

You can also remap your Windows keys using the free Sharpkeys utility. For example, try remapping “Caps Lock” to the Windows “Del” key (without disabling the very useful “Backspace” key on your Mac keyboard) for use with this shortcut.

Using Windows 11 via Parallels Desktop on a Mac also requires that you hold the “Fn” button down by default to access the “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” menu.

Alt+F4 is a classic Windows shortcut for quitting the current app. Like Ctrl+Alt+Delete, sending this command differs depending on whether you’re in macOS or Windows.

The equivalent of Alt+F4 on a Mac is Command+Q. This will quit the currently-focused application and any open windows. Much of the time the app will be suspended, and depending on your settings the same windows and tabs may appear again next time (for example, a web browser).

If you’d rather close an individual window or a tab, use Command+W instead. This will keep the app running but kill the currently-focused document, web page, folder, and so on.

The row of function keys on a Mac keyboard will, by default, control hardware functions like screen brightness and speaker volume. You can use the Fn key as a modifier, so in Windows the Alt+F4 shortcut becomes Option+Fn+F4.

If you’ve installed Windows via Boot Camp you can launch the Boot Camp Control Panel from your Windows system tray then select “Keyboard” and toggle “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” instead. You can now use the Fn key as a modifier to access hardware functions.

If you’re making the switch from Windows to macOS, check out our guide to moving from a Windows PC to a Mac. You might also want to brush up on some basic Mac shortcuts too.

I love my Mac, but I have one big complaint: the keyboard shortcut command + tab.

On Windows and most Linux systems I've used, there's a similar shortcut, Alt + Tab, which allows you to switch between every open window. command + tab on the Mac doesn't quite do this: instead, it allows you to switch between applications.

Here's how it looks.

There's no way to tell, in this view, how many windows are open in each app. You also can't switch between windows in the same app here—for that, you need to use a different keyboard shortcut, command + ` (backtick, the key above tab on your keyboard).

This all works well enough, but Windows' version is nicer in a few key ways. First: you can switch between all windows in all apps using a single keyboard shortcut. Second, you can see previews of all open windows.

AltTab is a free app that solves this annoyance by giving you a Mac Alt + Tab equivalent. Here's how to use it.

To get started, you need to download AltTab. (It's an open source app, which means it's maintained by a community of volunteers and is generally trustworthy.)

After downloading the app and moving it to your Applications folder, you'll be asked for some permissions: the software needs access to Accessibility features in order to take control of window management, and access to Screen Recording in order to take screenshots.

Once that's all set, you're good to go. By default, you can now use the keyboard shortcut option + tab to switch between your open windows.

There will be a preview for each open window. You have a few options:

In short: you can manage all of your open windows in just a few keystrokes.

If this doesn't sound quite like what you want, you can customize how it works. To get started, click the AltTab icon in the menu bar, and select Preferences.

In the Controls tab, you'll find the ability to configure up to five different sets of keyboard shortcuts. You could, for example, change the initial shortcut to control + tab. Or you could make a keyboard shortcut that only switches between windows that are open in the current space. Or you could decide not to include hidden windows.

Under Appearance, there's also the ability to customize the look of the pop-up window: you can change how big it is, for example, and how many rows of thumbnails there should be.

This is also where you can hide apps that don't currently have an open window, which I recommend doing—the switcher can feel quite cluttered if you don't.