Bonus pro-tip: Option-Command-Eject also puts your computer to sleep; it’s one of many advanced keyboard shortcuts Apple details .

Whenever you can use Tab to advance between fields, you can also hold down Shift when you press Tab to advance focus in the opposite direction. Beyond using Tab to navigate dialog boxes, you can also hit Escape to close them. In a Open/Save dialog, you can press Space with a specific filename highlighted to preview it with Quick Look.

Keyboard shortcuts can also replace the mouse when you’re editing text. Command-Shift-Arrow selects all text, starting from your cursor, in the selected direction; Command-Shift-Left Arrow selects everything to the left of the cursor, for example. Option-Shift-Left Arrow or -Right Arrow selects a word at a time.

You can use the keyboard to select files in the Finder too—including on the Desktop. Just start typing the filename you’re after and OS X will highlight it; press Tab to jump to the next file in alphabetical order. Then, a quick Command-O will open it right up.