[fireattack]

I never used Mac but I recently heard from a friend that on Mac you can't press enter to open a file, instead, you need to use Ctrl+O. Like what the hell?

(I'm not saying it has to be Enter, but a two-key shortcut seems very bad for an operation that is used so often, especially considering you can't even press them with left hand!)

Same goes to Delete.

[doodpants]

The traditional interaction model of the Mac is that you select a file, and then choose a menu command to operate on it. Cmd-O is the keyboard shortcut for "Open".

Note that you can also use Cmd-down_arrow, because Cmd-up_arrow and Cmd-down_arrow can be used to navigate up and down the folder hierarchy, and the latter also works if you have a file selected rather than a folder.

Edit: Cmd-Delete will delete a file. I think the philosophy is that Cmd is used for commands, and Delete by itself is meant for text editing. One thing I like is that Cmd-Shift-Delete will empty the trash. I'm unaware of a keyboard shortcut for emptying the Recycle Bin on Windows, or any way to avoid the confirmation dialog when doing so.

[fireattack]

>the latter also works if you have a file selected rather than a folder

Wait, how do you "navigate down the folder hierarchy" if you don't select a folder? There is no deeper hierarchy.

[PascLeRasc]

If we Mac users want to go through a bunch of files in a directory quickly, we usually press spacebar in Finder on the first file and use up/down arrow keys to navigate. Spotlight will open up each file in a read-only view and will handle basically anything - STLs can be viewed and rotated, CSVs will show in a spreadsheet format even if you don't have Excel or Numbers installed, MP3s will open in a mini player, C header files will appear with colored formatting. It's so handy.

[fireattack]

Yeah I have seen the preview function, it definitely is pretty handy!

[doodpants]

You do select a folder. I'm saying that Cmd-down means "go down into this selected folder", but it also works if the selected item is a file.

BTW, I didn't even know about Cmd-Enter until aidos mentioned it; so that makes 3 different shortcuts to open a file. Convenient! :-)

[fireattack]

Ah, I understand now.

Windows is similar but with alt: Alt+up=up, Enter=down (or open). And there are also alt+left and alt+right as back and forward.

[aidos]

Cmd-enter is the standard way. Hitting enter edits the file name. It’s definitely a weird choice.

[copperx]

Enter to rename is the most logical choice for the Finder, an app that manages files.

[scpedicini]

Wow, hard disagree. From a discoverability perspective, enter has the dictionary definition of "to go in to something" as in to enter a building for example, or in this instance to "enter" a file. Furthermore, single key shortcuts should be reserved for more frequent actions, eg enter vs Cmd-O. Enter as rename is not only unintuitive, but it's also an action which is performed less often than opening files.

[gord288]

(It’s Cmd-O, or Cmd-down-arrow.)

Hitting “enter” to open a file makes it too easy to do it accidentally. What if I didn’t mean to start up a huge app like a pro video editor or something, which takes five-ten seconds to start up?

Cmd-down-arrow is pretty darn easy to invoke from the keyboard, but not so easy that you risk opening a file you didn’t mean to.

[ubermonkey]

>I never used Mac but I recently heard from a friend

If you have to start your post this way, maybe reconsider if you're going to add anything.

[fireattack]

From what I learned from other replies, there is indeed no way to open a file with one key so I guess the point stands, regardless.