Compact Contacts

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Keyboard Shortcuts for Managing Contacts on Mac

Press Command-K for the Command Palette, Command-F to search, Up and Down to move between contacts, and Command-E to edit the selected card.

Published September 28, 2026 · Keyboard workflow

Compact Contacts table on Mac ready for keyboard navigation
Compact Contacts with fictional Sample Contacts.

Reviewing a large address book is mostly moving, reading, and making small corrections. Reaching for the pointer between each step adds up.

Compact Contacts is a native Mac app, so standard shortcuts work, and each main action has its own key combination listed in the menus.

Shortcut reference

Compact Contacts for Mac keyboard shortcuts
ActionShortcut
Command PaletteCommand-K
Search contactsCommand-F
Previous / next contactUp Arrow / Down Arrow
New contactCommand-N
Edit contactCommand-E
Save / cancel editCommand-S / Escape
Bulk Edit…Option-Command-E
Find Potential Duplicates…Shift-Command-D
New Smart View…Option-Command-V
New Group…Shift-Command-G
Export Center…Shift-Command-E
Import vCard…Shift-Command-I
Open in Apple ContactsOption-Command-O
Reload ContactsShift-Command-R
Show/Hide SidebarControl-Command-S
Show/Hide InspectorOption-Command-I

Editing without the pointer

In the table, supported cells can be edited in place: Return saves, Escape cancels, and Tab saves and moves to the next cell.

In the full editor, Command-S saves and Escape cancels. If the contact changed elsewhere while you were typing, Compact Contacts asks which value to keep instead of overwriting silently.

A keyboard-only review loop

  1. Filter. Command-K, type the name of a Smart View such as Missing Company, press Return.
  2. Move. Use the arrow keys to step through results while the Inspector shows each card.
  3. Fix. Command-E to edit, correct the field, Command-S to save.
  4. Batch. Shift-click or Command-A to select rows, then Option-Command-E for Bulk Edit.

Questions people ask

Are there shortcuts on iPad?

With a hardware keyboard: Command-K for the Command Palette, Command-N for a new contact, Command-E to edit, and Command-S to save.

Can I change these shortcuts?

macOS lets you assign custom shortcuts to menu items in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › App Shortcuts.

Does Command-A select every contact in the address book?

It selects the rows in the current list, which follows the active search and filters.