Set a Keyboard Shortcut for “Save as PDF” in Mac OS X 8/19/14, 8:08 PM

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Aug 19, 2014 - 3 Comments
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Saving a file or document as a PDF is easily
done from almost anywhere in Mac OS X by Find us on Facebook

using the print to PDF feature, which is part

OS X Daily
of the Mac Printer service, but to trigger it you Like
have to go to the Print menu and then
specifically select to ‘print’ the file as a PDF 47,555 people like OS X Daily.

document. But what if you want a faster

method of quickly saving something as a PDF,
like a keyboard shortcut? That’s what we’re
going to show you how to do with a really
nifty keystroke trick. Facebook social plugin

OSXDaily
This walkthrough is going to demonstrate enabling a ‘Save as PDF’ keyboard function as a
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secondary feature of the traditional printing keyboard shortcut. It’s going to look and sound
+ 5,404
like a conflict with the normal OS X print shortcut of Command+P, but as the originator of this
old trick at MacSparky says, “trust me”, because it works.

Make a “Save as PDF” Keyboard Shortcut in OS X

1. Head to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”, then go to the
“Keyboard” control panel

2. Choose the “Shortcuts” tab

3. Select ‘App Shortcuts’ from the left side menu, then click the [+] plus button to add a
new shortcut

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Set a Keyboard Shortcut for “Save as PDF” in Mac OS X 8/19/14, 8:08 PM

4. In “Menu Title”, type in “Save as PDF…” exactly (yes, with three periods on the end)

5. Click into “Keyboard Shortcut” and now hit Command+P (yes, that’s the standard
printer shortcut, wait and see how this works)

6. Now choose “Add”

7. Close out of System Preferences, you’re ready to test the new PDF saving keystroke
which is going to be Command+P+P (yes, holding down command and hitting P twice)

Open just about any file or webpage to test out your new keyboard shortcut to save the file as
a PDF. Just open the document and hit Command+P+P to jump past the standard print dialog

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Set a Keyboard Shortcut for “Save as PDF” in Mac OS X 8/19/14, 8:08 PM

box and immediately to the “Save As PDF” portion of the Print dialog.

Here’s an example of using this keyboard shortcut from Safari to save everyones favorite
OSXDaily.com:

Now just save the PDF as usual, filling in the title, author, and subject if desired, or choosing
to password lock the PDF by going through the Security Options. The saved file is your
average PDF file, no different than any other generated from the Mac printer tool, you can
quickly check it within Preview or Quick Look:

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Set a Keyboard Shortcut for “Save as PDF” in Mac OS X 8/19/14, 8:08 PM

Once you have this keyboard shortcut setup, you can even activate by selecting a file on the
desktop and using the Print from Desktop trick, just remember to hit the P key twice.

This has been tested and confirmed to work in OS X Yosemite and Mavericks, and the post
on MacSparky demonstrates this trick working in Snow Leopard, which suggests this should
work in just about every version of Mac OS X out there.

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Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks

3 Comments
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Gabriel Sanchez says:

August 19, 2014 at 11:13 am

Great tip thanks, I use the printing PDF service frequently for generating reports this will definitely
speed things up.

On another note, does anyone else think OS X Yosemite with High Contrast enabled as shown in

these screenshots basically looks like Mac OS System 7? What a weird looking interface, Yosemite is
going to be a tough pitch for Apple. I bet Mavericks will be their Windows 7, and Yosemite will be their
Windows 8.

Reply

Grey says:
August 19, 2014 at 12:15 pm

Note that, for whatever reason, Chrome will usurp this keyboard shortcut and invoke its own print
dialog. Not that I give a hoot, as Chrome’s only value, to me, is Flash playback without having to install
the POS Flash plugin.

Reply

Ian M says:
August 19, 2014 at 3:19 pm

Brilliant! Now how can I perform this trick in iOS?

Reply

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