Archived Post

Here are some basic keyboard shortcuts for iOS 12

iOS 12 has some very useful keyboard shortcuts yet. They’re especially useful for iPad users who have a keyboard attached. Here are the basic you should familiarize yourself with:

⌘ (Command) + H: Navigate to the home screen from anywhere.

⌘ + Tab: The quick app switching behavior you’ve come to know and love on macOS.

⌘ + Space: Open up Spotlight search. I frequently use this as an app launcher if I don’t want to move my hands from the keyboard.

⌘ + Up/Down: Jump to the top or bottom of a website or other such supported scroll view, respectively.

⇧ + ⌘ + 3: Take a screenshot.

⇧ + ⌘ + 4: Take a screenshot and enter the editing UI.

⌘ + Option + D: Show and hide the dock.

⌘ + period: In certain supported applications, this kind of functions as an escape/cancel key.



When you are in any application you can hold down ⌘ (Command) to get a cheat sheet about what shortcut keys that app supports. You’ll quickly find that most shortcuts are similar or identical to their macOS equivalent. Things like ⌘ + C for copy, ⌘ + V for paste and so on. Not all apps do a great job at supporting every expected shortcut key combination though.

(This how-to is based on my experiences and info on Apple’s support pages — where the images sometimes come from.)

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.