The Marvellous Option Key (Mac)

So what's the purpose of the Option key (actually, Option keys, there are two on your Mac keyboard, but they both serve the same function)? The Option key adds adds optional functionality to menus and other keys.

Lets start at the beginning. With your Mac powered down, hold the Option key, then power on your computer. Within a few seconds, you will be presented with the Startup Manager screen, which allows you to choose which startup drive to use (for example, if you have a backup drive made with Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper, or a Bootcamp partition).

The Pram (parameter random access memory) stores a whole host of system parameters, like which startup disk to use, video setting, audio setting, peripheral settings like mice, trackpads, and keyboards.  Resetting the Pram can cure a host of problems, and is one of the first steps when troubleshooting odd computer behaviour. Recently, the battery on my Magic Mouse was getting low. After I replaced the battery, the mouse wouldn't connect to the bluetooth on my computer. After trying to reset and reconnect with no luck, I reset the Pram, and voila, the mouse connected on the next try. To reset the Pram down the Option, Command, P, and R keys on startup. Wait for the startup chime, continue holding the key, and after the second chime, release all four keys.

As you probably know, the function keys on your Mac have some specific functions defined to them. For example, F1 and F2 change your screen brightness, and F11 and F12 adjust your speaker volume. But, if you hold down the option key before tapping the function key, you open the preference pane associated with the function. For example, Option/F1 opens the displays preference pane.

Option/F8, the key with the play/pause symbol, will open iTunes.

When you are editing a document, Option/Delete will delete the whole word to the left of the cursor, including any trailing spaces or punctuation.

Hold the Option key while a menu is open and in many cases (but not always), some alternate menu options will appear. Some of these are very useful. For example, open a Finder window, click File to drop down the File Menu, the hold down Option, and several menu options will change. For example, Quick Look changes to Slide Show. Here's one that I like. Since OS X Lion, the Library folder in your home Folder has annoyingly, been hidden. The Option key offers a quick shortcut. Drop down the Go menu, then hold Option, and "Library" becomes an option. Click "Library", and the hidden folder opens up.

In Safari, I find this one particularly useful. In the Window menu, hit Option, and "Bring All to Front" changes to "Arrange in Front". If you have several Safari windows open, scattered across the screen, this will neatly stack all of the windows in an neat fashion, bringing order to your desktop.

Here's another good one that works in Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and probably several others. When you close any of these applications, the next time you open them, all of the windows and/or tabs that were open when you last closed, will open again. You might not always want this. From the program's main menu, hold Option, and Quit will change to Quit and Close All Windows. The next time you open the program it opens with a clean slate.

Many applications offer additional menu options in this way. Scroll through the menus of your favourite programs and hit Option to see if you find anything useful or interesting.

We started this post by powering your computer on. Here are some options to shut down. Option/Command/Eject puts your computer to sleep. Option/Command/Control/Eject shuts the computer down immediately (but first gives you the option to save any unsaved documents). Finally, click the Apple menu, and hit Option. You will see that the "..." following "Restart" or "Shut Down" will go away. The three periods "..." mean that a dialogue box with additional options will appear before the menu option executes. For example, select "Shut Down..." and a dialogue box asking "Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now?"  will pop up. But hit option, and the "..." goes away. Choose Shutdown, and your computer shuts down with no additional warning. This may be a nice option if you are rushing to catch an airplane.

If you have some other interesting uses for the Option key, share by leaving a comment.