Is there an easy way to switch between 2 or 3 open documents in Pages, as when trying to combine excerpts from several places into a new document?
Hi Floyd! Although this is an old thread, it is actual for me as I have just decided to search for the same question after years of suffering the same issue with word for mac. I see that although Peter´s comment is correct, the one´s that use different language keyboards (from English), such as myself that have an american keyboard set to spanish (and thus the key location of the tilde-"`" sign is not apparent) cannot utilize this shorcut. The way around this is pretty simple - you have to open System Preferences (under the apple logo on the top menu), then click on Keyboard and on the window that appears go to the Shortcuts tab, make sure that the "Move Focus to Next Window" option is enabled. You can see on the left side of the option, effectively which key combination will do the trick (mine is command + "`", but i´m guessing other languages might not have this specific combination as the tilde sign might not be present in languages such as finnish, german or chinese, guessing). Now the only question is being able to locate where in you keyboard that sign is hidden. In my case, spanish option on an american/english mbp keyboard, the tilde sign is under the right bracket key on the right side of the keyboard, i know this from using it to add accents to spanish vocals, but you could also look for it in the Keyboard Viewer under the Input Sources tab (also in keyboard preferences). Unfortunately for some strange reason, i find my Keyboard Viewer not working interactively (showing signs to keys relationship as i press the keys) under Mac El Capitan iOS. Hope this clears the issue and helps people with the same question. Cheers. Demian
ilffv, I had the same question. I started pressing key combinations, and I found the way for a Spanish keyboard:
cmd + `
` is located next to the p key
Thanks Catasa, but I must have a "Martian" keyboard because it doesn't work cmd + ` for me. No idea why.
The solution to establish a shortcut to switch between several open documents in Pages 5 on a (Western or International) Spanish Keyboard have been solved in the following discussion:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5811933?start=0&tstart=0
Hi, on a Danish keyboard you press "cmd + <" it used to be "cmd+`" but it has changed ;-)
Was looking for this. Thanks everyone.
To add to this: on a Dutch keyboard it's Cmd+` (like someone posted there's no need to use the Shift key to trigger the ~
Hello ilffv, for spanish keyboard is cmd ` , which is right to the P.
Saludos
Peter, I'm new to Mac platform, had to get it for school. Love it so much more than Windows which I've used for years and years. I'm often having to switch between open Word docs, and this is a nice time saver! Thanks much!
I tried for Spanish keyboard CMD+] and it worked." ] " is the next key to the left from " Enter " in the upper letter row. Btw, it works for most applications (Excel etc), not just Apple programs.
This might be worth a try.
Hold down control and press the arrow keys left, right, up, down for various options.
I am using a wireless apple key pad.
Hope that helps.
Control F3 does it on an English-Canadian keyboard set to French-Canadian settings.
I am using a Swedish keyboard and did this to solve the issue (will work with other keyboards, too!): just change the darn shortcut!!!! 😀
* Open System Preferences -> click "View all" -> Keyboard
* Open Shortcuts-tab once the Keyboard is open. You should be presented with a list of shortcuts.
* Click on the "Keyboard" again on the left side of the window (Mac tends to open "Mission Control" as a default)
* You should see another list of shortcuts. Choose "Move focus to another Window" from that list and click on the shortcut of that line in the end - it will allow you to type now
* Type in your preferred shortcut. My recommendation: just retype the one there is and do that by holding down your Apple (CMD) button and clicking ~ tilde (the key above tab key on your keyboard, has a paragraph symbol on it in the Swedish keyboard - it's left from the 1 key on your keyboard). You should now see ⌘ˇ there, just as before - but this time it'll actually work!). You can close the system preferences and try it out 😀
Now you have a situation where you can hold down the CMD/Apple key and click tab to switch between programs, and you can also switch between active windows within a program just by clicking CMD/Apple key and the "paragraph" key just above the tab-key).
Alternatively, you can choose a shortcut that works for you - I find it faster to work with if switching between programs and switching within programs are close together on my keyboard (tab and ~ are on top of each other), as I work a lot with file editing 🙂 and need to recheck information in different programs.
Thank you for a super description, eppkris. It works just perfect ! 🙂
That doesn't work on European keyboard layouts. Instead, cmd < is used for that but this combination is in use by Numbers etc to zoom out. This can of course be changed in the System Preferences
Note that (on U.S. English keyboards at least) cmd-` rotates through the windows in one direction, and cmd-shift-` rotates the other direction. In other words, if you have five windows open: A, B, C, D, and E. and you're on A, then cmd-` switches to B, cmd-` then switches to C, cmd-shift-` then switches back to B.
you can configure it yourself, it just depends on what key is located above the tab key. for instance, my keyboard is portuguese so I had to use the § key, instead of ~ or `. here's how: go to system preferences > keyboard > keyboard shortcuts > keyboard & text input. double-click the shortcut located in front of move focus to next window. now you can create the shortcut by typing the combination accordingly to your keyboard. hope it helps, that's a tricky one.
Is there a keyboard shortcut to switch between open documents?
