Keyboard Shortcut For Entering Screen Saver

Question

How can I enter Screen Saver without wating few minutes? Is there an application I could run, keyboard shortcut maybe? I'm using rMBP running ML.

EDIT: All I found was using Hot Corner as explained here: https://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#quickscreensaver

Basically it means I have to move my mouse cursor into a corner and maybe comine a key such as command to enter Screen Saver. I don't really like this solution.

Answer 1

If you open Keychain Access (I use Spotlight, but you can go to /Applications/Utilities), go to the main menu and hit Preferences... (or Command-,) you'll find a checkbox labeled "Show keychain status in menu bar..." If you check it, you'll get a little lock in your menubar.

If you click "Lock Screen", your screensaver will activate. I use this at work as an OSX Control-Alt-Delete alternative.

(Note: it will require your user password to unlock the screen. This may/may not be desirable.)

Answer 2

Well this is sort of a hack, but you can create a script/service to enable the screensaver and then assign it a shortcut. This AppleScript works for enabling the screensaver:

tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to activate

You have two options for assigning a keyboard shortcut to this script:

• Save it as a service and assign it a keyboard shortcut through System Preferences. Here's how you would do it:
  1. Open Automator and select Service
  2. On the left-side menu, select Utilities.
  3. In Utilities, drag and drop the "Run Applescript" action into your workflow
  4. Copy the applescript above into the "Run Applescript" action
  5. Save
  6. Open System Preferences and go to the "Keyboard Pane"
  7. Navigate to the "Services" menu from the "Keyboard Shortcuts" pane
  8. Select the service you just created and give it a shortcut
• Download FastScripts and give it a keyboard shortcut through there.

Answer 3

After adding Keychain Access to the menubar, you can use ^F8 to highlight it in the menu, then press ↓ twice if you don't like to use the mouse for it.

Answer 4

This looks to be similar to your last question, What Is the Keyboard Shortcut for Sleep Display?

If all you want to do is trigger the screensaver earlier than the designated timeout period, you can use Hot Corners.

Answer 5

I use a hot corner, and find it even easier than a keyboard shortcut. You don't need to press any keys with a hot corner.

Answer 6

From Apple's discussion forum

Another option would be to use Automator to create a service to start the screen saver and set a keyboard shortcut to turn it on.

To do this, open Automator and choose Service as the template for a new workflow. Type "screen" in the search field to locate the "Start Screen Saver" action and drag it to the workflow. Set the "Service receives selected" option to "no input". Save your workflow with the same name you want it to have in the Services menu.

Next, open System Preferences > Keyboard and go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. In the left column, click on Services and scroll the right column down to the bottom to find the Service you just created (it will be listed under the General category). Then assign whatever keyboard shortcut you'd like to use.

Answer 7

Hot corners suck if they activate when you don't want them, as they frequently do for me. A keyboard shortcut is much easier to control precisely.

OSX Daily explains how to do it right: How to Start the Mac Screen Saver with a Keyboard Shortcut in OS X