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On many operating systems if you want to undo something you can press Ctrl+Z. I tried this on Mac OS X and it does not work. What is the suitable equivalent?

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Command + Z check Edit menu if you are unsure if the shortcut is available for a program or a scenario.

On a side note, Command works as the default shortcut key on Mac OS X where Windows' default modifier key is Ctrl

This holds for Copy, Paste, Open, etc...

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On a Mac, many Windows CTRL + xxx shortcuts are changed to CMD + xxx.

If you are a new switcher from Windows to Mac, check out the following switcher guide. Full of useful tips!

http://lifehacker.com/224674/hack-attack-a-guide-for-switching-to-a-mac

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    RE: ".. On a Mac, many Windows CTRL-xxx shortcuts are changed to CMD-xxx." - interesting history about this, when the 1984 Mac came out (with the world's first mass consumer distributed GUI OS), it was Apple that came up with all the "CMD Z, CMD C, CMD X, etc" short cut keys. When Microsoft followed with Windows a few years later, it was Microsoft that copied all those shortcut keys and used CTRL key instead (since they didn't have a dedicated CMD Apple key on their DOS PC style keyboards). Aug 16, 2011 at 10:00
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    I didn't know that! Interesting piece of history! :-)
    – dan8394
    Aug 16, 2011 at 11:11
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    In addition, the Mac OS was the first OS to establish the same command keys system-wide, to be adopted by all applications. Before Mac OS (in MS-DOS, etc.) every application had its own different command or function keys for Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Print, etc. So you had to learn different key commands for each and every application. When Microsoft developed Windows, they deliberatly copied the Mac system-wide approach.
    – user9290
    Aug 19, 2011 at 15:42

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