Tack Keyboard Guide
Think it. Type it. Surface it.
Tack is designed so the keyboard can become the fastest path between a half-remembered thought and the thing you were trying to find.
This guide covers the full keyboard flow: summoning Tack, searching without breaking rhythm, moving through results, previewing, opening, copying, capturing from the clipboard, selecting groups, deleting safely, and using Escape as a true “back out” key.
The core rhythm
The five-beat Tack flow.
For everyday retrieval, this is the muscle memory worth learning first.
⌃⌥T
Tack comes forward with Search ready.
Type a fragment
A name, phrase, project, place, filename, or whatever scrap survived in memory.
↑ ↓
Move through matching Tacks while Search keeps the insertion point.
Return
Commit the highlighted Tack and bring its detail forward.
⌘Return
Do the obvious next thing for that Tack.
Search without leaving Search
Keep typing. Navigate anyway.
Tack deliberately lets Search keep keyboard focus while the navigation keys work on the result set. You do not have to Tab away from the search field just to inspect what surfaced.
Move through search results
While Search is focused, Up and Down change the selected Tack without stealing the insertion point from Search.
Tip: you can type another character immediately after moving through the list.Commit the current result
If a result is selected, Return activates it. If nothing is selected yet, Return chooses the first visible result.
Perform the primary action
This works even while Search still owns the cursor. It skips the extra mouse step and acts on the selected Tack immediately.
Back out intelligently
Escape unwinds the current keyboard state instead of behaving like a blunt close button. The full Escape ladder is documented below.
Once a Tack is selected
Preview first. Act second.
The keyboard distinguishes between looking at a Tack and doing something with it.
Move through visible Tacks
Outside an editable text field, Left or Up moves backward; Right or Down moves forward. Navigation stops at the first and last visible Tack rather than wrapping around.
Preview
For file-backed memories, Space toggles a Finder-style Quick Look preview. Text, URL, and Secure Tacks already have a live Tack preview pane, so Space brings that Tack into focus without launching or exposing protected content.
Select and focus
Return says “yes, that’s the one.” Tack activates the selection and shifts attention from Search to the chosen memory.
Do the obvious thing
The action depends on what kind of Tack you selected. That context-sensitive behavior is the heart of the fast keyboard flow.
Command-Return
One shortcut. Different useful outcomes.
Tack interprets the selected memory before deciding what “primary action” means.
File-backed Tack
Opens the managed file in its normal Mac app.
URL Tack
Opens the saved web address using the Mac’s normal URL handling.
Text Tack
Copies the Tack’s text to the clipboard and confirms the capture in Tack.
Secure Tack
Activates the Secure Tack in its preview. There is intentionally no keyboard shortcut that reveals or copies protected values.
Escape is a ladder
Back out without losing your place.
Repeated presses of Escape progressively unwind what you are doing.
If Quick Look is open, Esc closes Quick Look first.
If Search contains a query, Esc clears the query and current selection, then puts the cursor back in Search.
If the search is already empty but Tacks are selected, Esc clears the selection.
If there is nothing left to clear, Esc returns keyboard focus to Search so you can immediately start another retrieval.
Capture without breaking stride
Copy somewhere else. Tack it from the keyboard.
The clipboard capture shortcut is built for moments when opening Tack would interrupt what you are doing.
Capture the current clipboard
Tack can ingest copied Finder files, images, rich text, HTML, plain text, and URLs. The capture happens without a composition dialog.
A clipboard whose visible content is exactly one web URL becomes a URL Tack. Text that merely contains a link remains text.Turn copied files into Tacks
Copy one or more Finder items, then use the clipboard capture shortcut. File URLs are treated as files rather than pasted text.
Preserve useful formatting
When rich text or HTML is available, Tack prefers the formatted content while still classifying the visible content sensibly.
Selection and cleanup
Bulk actions stay Mac-like.
Tack keeps the familiar selection keys where they make sense—and deliberately leaves them alone while you are typing in an editable field.
Select all visible Tacks
When you are not actively editing text, Command-A selects every Tack currently visible in the result set.
Because it operates on the visible set, filtering first can be a fast way to make a targeted bulk selection.Ask to delete the selection
If one or more Tacks are selected, Delete opens Tack’s confirmation step rather than immediately destroying them.
Text controls keep normal Mac behavior
Editable text fields retain ownership of keys such as Delete, Backspace, and Command-A. Tack does not hijack those commands while you are editing.
Tips & tricks
Make the flow disappear into muscle memory.
The fastest Tack workflow is less about memorizing a long shortcut list and more about learning a few rhythms.
Use fragments, not filenames.
Summon Tack and type whatever you actually remember: “blue logo,” “Ripple sound,” “tax receipt,” “bison Yosemite,” or a phrase from a note. Search is designed to be the first move, not folder navigation.
Let Return mean “this one.”
Use arrows to surface the right memory, then Return to commit it. Save Command-Return for the moment you actually want to open, copy, or launch.
Use Space when you are unsure.
For files, Space is the low-risk inspection move. Quick Look lets you verify the memory before opening its normal app.
Search, then Command-A.
Because Command-A selects the visible result set, a narrow search can become a quick bulk-selection tool.
Escape instead of reaching for the mouse.
If you went one level too far, Escape usually gets you back to a clean search-ready state in one or two presses.
Capture while you are elsewhere.
When something useful is already on the clipboard, Control-Option-V is faster than switching apps, opening New Tack, pasting, and saving.
Cheat sheet
The whole keyboard map.
Keep this section handy until the flow becomes automatic.
| Keys | What Tack does |
|---|---|
| ⌃⌥T | Summon Tack and focus Search. |
| ⌃⌥V | Capture the current clipboard into Tack. |
| ↑ ↓ in Search | Move through results while leaving Search active. |
| ← ↑ → ↓ outside text editing | Move backward or forward through visible Tacks. |
| Return / keypad Enter | Commit the selected Tack; chooses the first visible Tack if none is selected. |
| Space | Quick Look file-backed Tacks; activate the live preview for text, URL, and Secure Tacks. |
| ⌘Return | Primary action: open file, open URL, copy text, or safely focus a Secure Tack. |
| Esc | Close Quick Look → clear search → clear selection → return focus to Search. |
| ⌘A | Select all visible Tacks when you are not editing text. |
| Delete / Forward Delete | Open deletion confirmation for the current selection. |
Keyboard shortcuts yield to normal text-editing behavior inside editable controls and capture sheets.
Tack
The keyboard should feel like memory retrieval.
Summon. Type what you remember. Move. Preview. Act. The less you have to think about Tack itself, the better Tack is doing its job.