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Keyboard shortcuts can make using your Mac a much more productive, streamlined, and even fun process. But trying to remember shortcuts for every app you use can quickly burn out your brain cells. And some of us (well, me, at least) have precious few brain cells to spare.

In the past, back at the dawn of computers, software developers usually included a keyboard shortcut cheat sheet with the software package.

You could keep the cheat sheet on your desk, and whenever you used the associated app, just glance at it to learn which shortcut performed which function.

This was very important back in the dark ages of computing, because some functions were only available from a keyboard shortcut.

Pros

• Pop-up window shows all shortcuts for front-most application.
• Simple one-key access.
• Can print keyboard shortcuts list.
• It’s free.

Cons

• Only shows shortcuts for current app, and not all system-wide shortcuts.
• Requires you to allow CheatSheet to control your Mac through the Accessibility panel.

There isn't a long list of pros and cons because CheetSheet has a singular focus on providing keyboard shortcut lists. And although it performs this task rather well, you may wonder what sets it apart from other apps that provide this function.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the pop-up window that displays the keyboard shortcuts is an active window, allowing you to click on one of the listed shortcuts to execute the function.

The other nice feature is that you can print any of the windows, should you want a hard copy of the keyboard shortcuts.

Installing CheatSheet

The installation is a fairly quick and straightforward process, although there's one extra step that isn't apparent until you go to use the app. The first time you launch CheatSheet and press the keyboard activation key (the Apple cloverleaf key or command key) for an extended bit of time, a window will pop up asking you to allow CheatSheet to take control of your Mac.

Unfortunately, since CheatSheet needs to intercept keystrokes in order to perform its job, it needs special permission from the user. This is accomplished by accessing the Security & Privacy preference pane, selecting the Privacy tab, clicking the Accessibility entry in the list on the left, and placing a tick mark next to the CheatSheet item.

While this process isn't difficult, it’s a shame the app doesn’t open the preference pane for you, or supply more detailed instructions on how to allow CheatSheet to take control, and what that actually means. I’m nervously waiting for my Mac to suddenly say, “I’m sorry, Tom. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Using CheatSheet

Once you get past the worry about giving control of your Mac to the app, it sits silently in the background, waiting for you to press and hold down the Apple cloverleaf or keyboard command key. After a slight delay, CheatSheet will open a pop-up window that lists the shortcuts for the currently active app.

Continue to hold down the cloverleaf/command key until you've located the desired keyboard shortcut; otherwise, the pop-up window will disappear.

Besides the list of shortcuts, you'll also find the few preferences you can set, available under a sprocket menu in the bottom right corner of the window. From the pop-up menu, you can print the current shortcut list, check for updates, contact support, set the delay time between holding down the command key and having the shortcut window open (I suggest leaving it at the default time, to ensure you can use the command key for other keyboard functions), and quitting the app.

CheatSheet is a one-trick pony, but it's very good at what it does, takes up little in the way of system resources, and is very easy to use. Best of all, you may be surprised at some of the things you can do with your keyboard via shortcut menus that you never realized were available to you.

CheatSheet is free.

See other software choices from Tom's Mac Software Picks.

Published: 3/21/2015