Five unexpected uses for the Control key

If you’re like me, you’ve nearly worn out your Mac’s Control key (often labeled CTRL), using it to open contextual menus. It’s true that Control-clicking on anything from a Finder icon to a window’s title is an amazingly handy way to access a pop-up menu of targeted options. But you can also add Control to common key combinations for variations on the original functions.

1. Open a folder in a new window

Set your Finder Preferences (Finder -> Preferences) to Always Open Folders In A New Window, and each double-click on a folder opens a new window, cluttering even a big screen in short order. With the option unchecked (as it is by default), a double-clicked folder shows its content in the current window (replacing whatever was displayed in the window before). This is the better default setup because it cuts down on clutter. You can always Command-double-click on a folder those times when you want to see its contents in a new window.

But what about us keyboard junkies? I select a folder by typing, and open it by pressing Command-O or Command-Down Arrow. I’d have to reach for the mouse to use the Command-double-click method. So when I want to open a folder in a new window, I add the Control key: Command-Control-O or Command-Control-Down Arrow opens a folder into a new window.

Note that the Control key effectively reverses your Preferences setting. If you use the Always Open Folders In A New Window option, a Command-double-click or Command-Control-O will display the folder’s contents in the current window instead.

2. Open a new window for the enclosing folder

When you’re looking at the contents of a folder in the Finder, pressing Command-Up Arrow opens the enclosing, or “parent,” folder. So, for instance, if you’re in a subfolder in your Documents folder, you can easily move up to the Documents folder and see its other subfolders. With the preferred Finder preference setting of Always Open Folders In A New Window checked off, however, moving up in the hierarchy means the contents of your window changes. What if you want that subfolder window to remain open? Add Control to the keyboard command: Command-Control-Up Arrow opens a new window for the enclosing folder.

As with the basic Command-O for opening a window, the Control key reverses the preference setting. So, if you have Always Open Folders In A New Window checked on, Command-Control-Up Arrow opens the parent folder in the same window.

3. Get a summary of info

Select an item in the Finder, press Command-I, and its Info window opens replete with both basic and “meta” information such as how many pages are in a PDF document. Start with two or three items selected, and you get two or three Info windows. Want the total size of all the files? Add up the numbers in the Info windows. Or, select multiple icons and press Command-Control-I for a single window, labeled Multiple Items Info; this Multiple Item Info window gives you the total of the files’ sizes. (Previous to Snow Leopard, doing a standard Get Info on more than ten selected files automatically opened Multiple Item Info, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.)

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