How to Select All on Mac: Shortcuts, Finder, and OCR

To select all on Mac, press Command + A (⌘A) on your keyboard. This universal shortcut instantly highlights all text in a document or web page, and selects all files in the current Finder window. For selective grouping in Finder, hold Shift (⇧) to select a contiguous range or hold Command (⌘) to pick multiple individual files.

Selecting content is the foundation of copying, moving, and organizing data on macOS. While Command + A is the universal standard, mastering file grouping and unselectable text handling saves hours of manual clicking.

Method 1: Universal Select All Shortcut (Command + A)

The primary shortcut across all of macOS is Command + A (⌘A). It replaces Ctrl + A from Windows:

• Text Documents: Highlights every paragraph in Pages, Word, TextEdit, and Notes.
• Web Browsers: Highlights entire web pages in Safari, Chrome, and Arc.
• Finder Folders: Selects every file and folder in the active Finder window.
• Spreadsheets: Selects all cells in Numbers and Excel sheets.

Method 2: Selecting Contiguous Ranges with Shift (⇧)

When organizing large directories in Finder list or column view, you often need to select a sequence of items without including the entire folder:

1. Click the first file in the sequence to highlight it.
2. Press and hold down the Shift (⇧) key.
3. Click the final file in the sequence. Finder highlights the start item, end item, and every file between them.

Method 3: Selecting Disjointed Files with Command (⌘)

If you need to batch-move or delete specific files scattered across a folder:

• Hold down the Command (⌘) key.
• Click each file you want to include in your selection individually.
• To deselect a misclicked item, click it again while still holding Command (⌘).

Method 4: Using the Application Edit Menu Fallback

If an application captures custom hotkeys or you are using a keyboard without standard modifier mapping:

• Click the Edit menu in the macOS top menu bar.
• Select Select All. The hotkey glyph ⌘A is displayed alongside it as a reminder.

Extracting Unselectable Text with Tegaro OCR

Many modern web apps disable text selection via CSS rules (such as user-select: none), and text contained inside images, scanned PDFs, or video streams cannot be highlighted by ⌘A.

With Tegaro Clipboard and screenshot tools, you bypass selection blocks completely:

• Press Control + Option + T (⌃⌥T) to draw a quick marquee around any unselectable text on your screen.
• On-device Apple Vision OCR recognizes words instantly and copies the plaintext to your clipboard.
• Use Quick Clipboard 1–9 to store your bulk text selections and recall them with single-digit keypresses.

Frequently Asked Questions