Total Commander shortcuts translate to a Mac with one rule: Ctrl becomes Command (⌘) and Alt becomes Option (⌥). Finder's shortcut list has no
The Total Commander keys below come from KEYBOARD.TXT, the key list inside the official 11.58.1 installer on the Total Commander download page. The Finder keys come from Apple's Mac keyboard shortcuts page and the macOS User Guide.
How Total Commander keyboard shortcuts translate on a Mac
Mac shortcuts use four modifier keys: Command ⌘, Option ⌥, Shift ⇧ and Control ⌃. Apple's advice for people using a Windows keyboard on a Mac is to press Alt instead of Option and Ctrl or the Windows logo key instead of Command. That gives you the translation rule:
- Ctrl+T becomes ⌘T, and Ctrl+W becomes ⌘W.
Alt+F7 becomes ⌥F7.- Shift stays Shift, so Shift+Down is ⇧↓.
F-keys stayF-keys , but on many Apple keyboards you add Fn.
A few Command shortcuts belong to macOS itself: ⌘Tab switches apps, ⌘Space opens Spotlight and ⌘Q quits the current app. Some letters also changed meaning in Leo Commander. ⌘B saves a folder to Favorites, while Ctrl+B in Total Commander is branch view. ⌘F finds files, while Ctrl+F in Total Commander connects to an FTP server.
F-keys and the Fn key on Mac laptops
By default, the top row of an Apple keyboard controls Mac features such as display brightness, Mission Control and volume. To send a real F5, hold Fn (or Globe) and press F5. That gets old fast if you copy files all day, so make the
- Open System Settings and click Keyboard.
- Click Keyboard Shortcuts, then select Function Keys.
- Turn on "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys".
On macOS 12, the same option is in System Preferences > Keyboard. On a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, hold Fn to show F1 to F12, or add an app under Function Keys so the
The full Total Commander hotkeys map for Mac
The table shows
| Task | Total Commander (Windows) | Finder (macOS) | Leo Commander |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open folder or file | Enter | ⌘↓ or ⌘O | Return |
| Up one folder | Backspace or Ctrl+PgUp | ⌘↑ | Backspace |
| Switch panels | Tab | No | Tab |
| Back, forward | Alt+Left, Alt+Right | ⌘[, ⌘] | ⌘[, ⌘] or ⌥←, ⌥→ |
| Go to a typed path | cd and a path in the command line | ⇧⌘G (Go to Folder) | ⌘L or ⇧⌘G, or cd in the command line |
| Change drive | ⇧⌘C (Computer window) | Drive buttons | |
| Mark a file | Insert | Command-click | Insert or ⇧↓ |
| Mark a folder and show its size | Space | ⌘I (Get Info) | Space |
| Select all | Ctrl+A | ⌘A | ⌘A |
| Copy to the other panel | F5 | ⌘C, then ⌘V in the destination | F5 |
| Move to the other panel | F6 | ⌘C, then ⌥⌘V in the destination | F6 |
| Cut and paste files | Ctrl+X, then Ctrl+V | ⌘C, then ⌥⌘V | ⌘X, then ⌘V |
| Copy in the same folder | Shift+F5 | ⌘D (Duplicate) | No |
| Rename one item | Shift+F6 | Return | Files > Rename |
| Rename many files | Ctrl+M | Control-click, then Rename | Multi-Rename (Pro) |
| New folder | F7 | ⇧⌘N | F7 |
| Delete | F8 or Del | ⌘Delete (to the Trash) | F8 (asks, then to the Trash) |
| View a file | F3 | Space or ⌘Y (Quick Look) | F3 (text or hex) |
| Preview panel | Ctrl+Q | ⇧⌘P (Preview pane) | ⌘Y (Quick Look) |
| Edit a file | F4 | ⌘O (open) | F4 (TextEdit by default) |
| File properties | Alt+Enter | ⌘I | No |
| List views | ⌘1 to ⌘4 | Brief and Full views | |
| Thumbnails | Ctrl+Shift+F1 | ⌘1 (icons) or ⌘4 (gallery) | Thumbnails view |
| Folder tree | ⌘3 (columns) | Directory tree view | |
| Find files | ⌘F | ⌥F7 or ⌘F | |
| Branch view | Ctrl+B | No | Branch View (Pro) |
| New tab | Ctrl+T | ⌘T | ⌘T |
| Close tab | Ctrl+W | The tab's Close button | ⌘W |
| Next, previous tab | Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl+Shift+Tab | ⌃Tab, ⌃⇧Tab | No |
| Favorite folders | Ctrl+D (Directory hotlist) | ⌃⌘T adds to the sidebar | ⌘D opens Favorites, ⌘B adds |
| Pack | Control-click, then Compress | Pack (ZIP) | |
| Unpack | Double-click the .zip file | Unpack (ZIP) | |
| Open an archive like a folder | Enter or Ctrl+PgDn | No | Return (ZIP, read-only) |
| Connect to a server | Ctrl+F (FTP) | ⌘K (Connect to Server) | Server panels (Pro) |
| Synchronize folders | Commands > Synchronize Dirs | No | Synchronize Directories (Pro) |
| Quit | ⌘Q |
Navigate folders and panels
Total Commander opens with Enter and climbs with Backspace. Finder trips up Windows users here: Return renames the selected item. To open it, press ⌘↓, and ⌘↑ opens the folder that contains the current one. Back and forward are ⌘[ and ⌘], the Finder versions of Alt+Left and Alt+Right.
To jump to a path, Finder has Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), plus ⇧⌘H for your home folder and ⌥⌘L for Downloads. Leo Commander takes the same ⇧⌘G, or ⌘L, to edit the panel path in place, and its command line accepts cd and a path just like Total Commander's. Instead of
Select and mark files
Total Commander marks with Insert or Space, and Space on a folder also counts its size. The number pad adds group commands: Num + expands the selection, Num - shrinks it, Num * inverts it and Num / restores it.
Finder selects with the mouse. Hold Command and click to pick items that are not next to each other, or click the first item and Shift-click the last to take everything in between. ⌘A selects the whole window, and ⌘I opens Get Info when you need a folder's size.
Leo Commander keeps the keyboard way: Space marks a folder and shows its size, and Insert or ⇧↓ marks a file and moves to the next one.
Copy, move, rename and delete
This is where the two-panel model earns its keep. F5 copies and F6 moves the selection to the folder in the other panel, so the destination is always on screen.
Finder does both through the Clipboard. To copy, press ⌘C, open the destination and press ⌘V. To move, press ⌘C, then ⌥⌘V in the destination. Apple's list notes that ⌘C and ⌘V also work for files in Finder and makes no such note for ⌘X. With the mouse, hold Option while dragging to copy, or hold Command while dragging to another volume to move instead of copy. In Leo Commander, ⌘X dims the selected files and ⌘V moves the files into the open folder. More in our post on cutting and pasting files on a Mac.
Renaming one item is Shift+F6 in Total Commander and Return in Finder. For a batch, Total Commander's Ctrl+M opens the Multi-Rename Tool. Finder's version, per Apple's rename guide:
- Select the files, then Control-click one of the files.
- Choose Rename.
- Pick Replace Text, Add Text or Format, fill in the fields, then click Rename.
Leo Commander Pro has Multi-Rename with a live preview, covered in our post on renaming multiple files on a Mac. New folders are F7 in Total Commander and Leo Commander and ⇧⌘N in Finder. Deleting is ⌘Delete in Finder, which moves the item to the Trash. In Leo Commander, F8 asks first, then moves the items to the Trash.
View and edit files
F3 opens Total Commander's viewer (Lister) and F4 the editor. Finder's closest viewer is Quick Look: select a file and press Space or ⌘Y. ⇧⌘P shows a Preview pane in the Finder window, a rough match for the Ctrl+Q Quick View panel. Apple's list has no edit key for Finder; ⌘O opens the selected item.
Leo Commander keeps F3 for its own text or hex viewer, F4 to edit (TextEdit by default) and ⌘Y for Quick Look. For view modes, Finder uses ⌘1 to ⌘4 (icons, list, columns, gallery), where Total Commander uses
Search for files
Total Commander's Ctrl+B branch view, every file from the subfolders in one list, is Branch View in Leo Commander Pro. Folder sync sits in Total Commander's Commands menu with no default key, and Leo Commander Pro has Synchronize Directories; see how to sync two folders on a Mac.
Tabs and favorite folders
Tab keys carry over almost unchanged. Ctrl+T and Ctrl+W become ⌘T and ⌘W in Leo Commander, on either panel, and tabs come back when you relaunch. Finder opens a tab with File > New Tab (⌘T) and steps through tabs with ⌃Tab and ⌃⇧Tab, the same pattern as Total Commander's Ctrl+Tab. To close a Finder tab, click its Close button.
The Directory hotlist (Ctrl+D) has two Mac versions. In Finder, the sidebar does the job, and ⌃⌘T adds the selected item to it. In Leo Commander, ⌘B saves the current folder to Favorites and ⌘D opens the list.
Archives and ZIP files
Total Commander packs with
- To zip, Control-click the selected items and choose Compress. Several items become Archive.zip.
- To unzip, double-click the .zip file. The contents land in the same folder.
Leo Commander opens a ZIP file like a folder when you press Return (read-only), F3 views files inside, and Pack and Unpack create and extract ZIP files. ZIP is the only format so far; RAR and 7z are not supported yet.
Look up or change shortcuts
In Total Commander, Help > Keyboard shows the default list, and Configuration > Options > Misc. > Redefine hotkeys assigns commands to keys. In Leo Commander, custom keyboard shortcuts are part of Pro. For the wider choice of apps, read our Total Commander alternative for Mac guide.
Sources
- Total Commander download page and official installer (Ghisler)
- Mac keyboard shortcuts (Apple Support)
- How to use the function keys on your Mac (Apple Support)
- Rename files, folders, and disks on Mac (Apple Support)
- Zip and unzip files and folders on Mac (Apple Support)
Checked November 8, 2026. Leo Commander is an independent app, not affiliated with Ghisler Software GmbH or Apple Inc.
