If you are like me and use an external monitor and also use Macbook, chances are that when ever you wanted to get into mirrored display mode or switch it off, you would go to System Preferences and do it. Now that’s a lot of steps (approx 5 clicks)!! Being a typical geek from the past, I was thinking there should be a shortcut for this, and boom there it all hidden and unknown to everyone!
Shortcut to mirror display for MacOS
The shortcut for switching display mirroring on and off is Command(⌘) + F1
Normal way to switch mirroring on and off
The normal way to switch display mirroring ON would be
System Preferences >> Displays >> Display Settings >> Mirror for built in display
and to turn OFF mirroring
System Preferences >> Displays >> Display Settings >> Stop Mirroring
What is display mirroring and why am I doing it?
Display Mirroring is the state where your laptop screen and the external monitor show the same content. This is useful when you want to use only the external monitor and not the laptop screen. If you are wondering why I would not just close the lid, well I do not use an external keyboard and to avoid having to bend to see the laptop screen, I just mirror it and use external monitor with the laptop screen brightness dimmed as much as possible.
There is so much happiness and joy associated with finding such small tips which do not seem to matter a lot, but the pain of having to go through 5 clicks to change this setting was just too much. Enjoy!