Home page? Shortcut

So i know the shortcut in safari to go to the home page is up arrow, apple command key, H.

But when i do this it hides safari??

Am i pressing something wrong?


Not a big problem, but i was curious

No no, the "up arrow" is the Shift key! ;p

Here are all the symbols for the keys that are used in the menus:



Personally, I wished Apple would put both the name and the symbol for each key.

I mean, some of the symbols are fairly obvious, but some are really cryptic.
For instance, look at the symbol for Enter (not Return). Would you be able to guess that that's Enter?!

It's good that on the new Apple Keyboards,
the Command key, one of the most important keys, is identified both by its name and its symbol (the "cloverleaf"),
whereas before, the key was only identified by an apple and the "cloverleaf."
Obviously, apple + cloverleaf = command, right?

If only they did this with all the keys on the new Keyboard.

remain said:

No no, the "up arrow" is the Shift key! ;p

Personally, I wished Apple would put both the name and the symbol for each key.

Click to expand...

The big problem with that is space...there's only so much room in the menus and on the keyboard.

Apple could always solve this the way Microsoft did...use meaningless abbreviations like ESC, ALT and CTRL instead.

Obviously, apple + cloverleaf = command, right?

Click to expand...

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campground.txt

Most of the other symbols are also very carefully conceived. The ^ for "control" goes back to the teletype days, and is well established on Unix. The Option symbol is a circuit symbol for a microswitch. The open-arrow for Shift is actually common on PC keyboards, but absent on most Mac keyboards. The return-key symbol is a carryover from the typewriters.

im not kean on the new apple keyboard. its not like apple to put words on keys. besides i have a macbook pro so i have no need to it anyway.
mebbys when i get my little brother an imac or a mac mini or something.

Here's something interesting to note.

This is the French Canadian keyboard:



Notice how most keys are marked with symbols instead of names?
The following keys are only identified by their symbol:
Escape, Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, Option (although "alt" is still written above), Delete, Return, Enter

I'm assuming that the French Canadian Apple Keyboard isn't the exception but rather, it's the U.S. one that is,
which would mean all Apple Keyboards other than the U.S. one mostly use symbols instead of words.

technologist said:

The big problem with that is space...there's only so much room in the menus and on the keyboard.

Click to expand...

No no, the menus are fine IMO. It's actually better than "Ctrl, Shift, etc." because the symbols take much less space.
I'm saying that instead, the symbols should be on the keys.

Actually, if you look at the new Apple Keyboard, there's tons of empty space on most of the keys, especially Caps Lock, Shift, Control, Option, Delete, Return, and Enter. Might be harder for Escape, Home, End, Page Up/Down. But if they can fit both the name and the symbol on that tiny Forward Delete key, then they can certainly do it for the others.

technologist said:

Apple could always solve this the way Microsoft did...use meaningless abbreviations like ESC, ALT and CTRL instead.

Click to expand...

That... is not that bad of an idea, actually.

I mean, in terms of comprehension and usability, you can't get any clearer than that, in that what you see in menus is exactly what you see on the keys. I don't think any PC user, even the novices, would ever be puzzled when they see "Ctrl" or "Shift" in the menus. Compare that to a Mac user seeing the Control symbol for the first time.

But of course, Apple would never do that because it's not aesthetically pleasing. (And yes, I do find "Ctrl, Alt, Esc, ..." rather inelegant.)

technologist said:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campground.txt
Most of the other symbols are also very carefully conceived. The ^ for "control" goes back to the teletype days, and is well established on Unix. The Option symbol is a circuit symbol for a microswitch.

Click to expand...

I actually read that anecdote before. Interesting.

But an interesting history doesn't make the symbol any more obvious to the average user.

I mean, for me, the symbols for Escape and Option make sense for me, but they'll most likely mean nothing to most people out there.

technologist said:

The open-arrow for Shift is actually common on PC keyboards, but absent on most Mac keyboards.

Click to expand...

Kinda ironic, considering in Windows, the arrow is never used to represent Shift (for instance, in menus), while Mac OS X pretty much always uses the arrow for Shift.

Macwillis said:

im not kean on the new apple keyboard. its not like apple to put words on keys.

Click to expand...

Actually, the old Apple Keyboards (the U.S. one anyway) also mostly uses words.



Only the Command key completely lacks words.