Product · October 24, 2026
Quick Look Shortcut on Mac: Spacebar & Hidden Tricks
The Quick Look shortcut on Mac is the Spacebar: select a file and press Space to preview it. Command + Y does the same, and Option + Space opens it full screen. More tricks inside.
SearchOnMac Team
macOS Tips & Features · 5 min read
The Quick Look shortcut on Mac is the Spacebar: select any file in Finder and press Space to preview it without opening an app. Command + Y (⌘ Y) does the same thing. Quick Look handles images, PDFs, spreadsheets, videos, 3D models, and code.
1. The Universal Spacebar Trigger
In Finder, on your Desktop, or inside open/save dialogs, highlight any file and press the Spacebar. A high-resolution preview appears immediately.
Press Spacebar again (or tap Escape) to dismiss the window. You can use the arrow keys to seamlessly preview adjacent files in the folder.
2. Fullscreen Quick Look: Option + Spacebar
Holding Option while pressing Spacebar (⌥ Space) opens Quick Look directly into an edge-to-edge fullscreen slideshow mode. This is ideal for reviewing photography batches or presentation slides.
3. Live Text Extraction from Previews
When Quick Look displays an image or PDF, macOS automatically detects text. You can click and drag to select words, copy them to your clipboard, or click detected phone numbers and URLs to open them directly.
4. Integrating Quick Look with SearchOnMac
SearchOnMac brings Quick Look directly into the search experience. As you arrow through search results, pressing Spacebar or Command + Y previews file contents in an adjacent glass panel with zero latency.
Quick Look eliminates the clutter of opening dozens of Preview or Word windows. Make the Spacebar your primary file inspection tool.