I have an external HP keyboard hooked up to my mac and was wondering how to lock the screen like you would with Windows (windows + L) or Linux (Crtl + Alt + L) so I can get up and leave my computer running. Is there a way to do it without 3rd party software?
OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)
System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Require password ______ minutes after sleep or screen saver begins
Once you set that, you can put the computer to sleep, thus initiating the lock screen when you "wake" it up by pressing Option + Command + Eject. If you click the padlock at the lower left of the pane, you can check off the second box and set a message for your lock screen. That is optional.
If you open Keychain Access, Preferences, General, you can show the keychain status in the menu bar.
There is a Lock Screen option in that menu.
If it doesn't already have a shortcut, you can create one in the Keyboard System Preferences, Shortcuts.
Thanks but I don't have any of those keys on my keyboard. I know that the windows/meta key is for command and ally is for option but there is no eject or power key on my keyboard.
Thanks I'll try that later today and report back.
I got up to creating the shortcut but I couldn't find anything to do with keychain or lock screen or anyway to add that as an option for a shortcut. I have however found another post which solved my problem which uses automator to assign start screen saver to a shortcut . Thanks for your help.
Here's the instructions for making a shortcut, in case you ever need them again:
Select App Shortcuts.
Click on the +
Set it for the specific app or All Applications if it is global.
Type the name of the command exactly as it appears in the menu. If it has an ellipsis, then you can usually use either three periods or the ellipsis (opt-; )
Add the shortcut by clicking in the field and then typing the desired combination.
lock screen shortcut with 3rd party keyboard
