Most Mac users know that hitting Command+W will close an open window, and we’ve covered a handful of other window management keystrokes before, but what about closing the seemingly inactionable dialog windows found with Open, Save, Save As, Export, iCloud, and Print actions? For closing those type of dialog windows, you’ll want to use the “Close” button keyboard shortcuts instead, and there are actually two of them for Mac OS X.
For the most part, these Cancel keystrokes will work interchangeably to close out of the dialog windows in almost every Mac app, though there are a few exceptions to that which we’ll address momentarily.
Escape key – tied to “Cancel”, cancels and closes dialog windows in every Mac OS X app
The Mac keyboards Escape key will function as the “Cancel” button in almost every dialog window that you’ll come across in Mac OS X. Whether it’s from a Print window, Open & Save dialog box, or even a warning dialog, Escape is the widely accepted universal keystroke for Cancel.
Command+. (that’s Command+Period) – Cancels and closes dialog windows in Apple apps and most others
Command+Period also functions as a broader “cancel” feature throughout OS X beyond just closing out of Open/Save/Print and alert dialogs. Command+Period can also put an end to ongoing tasks like loading webpages, cancel processing tasks like file copies in the Finder, stop a photoshop action, and sometimes even escape out of the spinning beach ball.
A notable exception is that Command+Period doesn’t work to Cancel in every dialog window throughout some of the Google apps, like Google Earth and the Chrome web browser. For example, if you want to cancel and close the Print window in Chrome, you’ll need to hit the “Escape” key rather than Command+Period. Thus, if you choose to remember only of these keystrokes you’ll probably want to go with “Escape” for it’s broader usage across many apps.
In some cases, these keyboard shortcuts function beyond OS X as well, and the cancel trick brought about by Command+Period has extended over to the iOS world as a keystroke for Safari on the iPad if the device is used with an external keyboard.
Now that you know the two keystrokes for Cancel, take the time to learn these window 7 other window management keyboard shortcuts for Mac OS X.
These handy keyboard shortcut tricks work to “Cancel” out of almost all dialog windows encountered on the Mac and Mac OS, try them out and memorize them, they’re very useful!
And if you know of any other handy tricks to cancel out of menus and buttons on the Mac, share them in the comments below.
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