This one often overlooked keyboard button unlocks options and speeds up your work all over macOS — AppleInsider shares a few of our favorites.

Apple makes things simple by working hard to figure out what you are likely to need most of the time. As you use your Mac more and more, there are times when the most likely thing isn't quite what you want — and with multiple ways to get from point A to B, Apple's got you covered there too.

All across macOS Sierra and in many other apps, the Option key unlocks handy features.

The Option key is regularly also labelled Alt and with most keyboards you've actually got two of them on the bottom row near the space bar. As you'll see, the way that you use this key isn't consistent, but in every case you're about to learn, pressing it gets you extra options.

For instance you can use this to skip the "Are you sure?" message when you want to empty the trash. You can close every window on your screen instead of schlepping around clicking on the red button on each individual one.

You can also troubleshoot wifi and Bluetooth problems or get finer audio controls.

This is all built-in to the Mac but then on top of that Apple's applications do the same. Microsoft and Adobe don't follow Apple's lead on this but once you've seen what Option does, check it out in any application you're using.

Option in the Finder

Any time you're using a menu in the Finder, then you have a choice. Click on a menu as normal or do that plus hold down the option key.

You can press Option first and then click. However, if you click on the menu and only then while it's open press Option, you can see the change in front of your eyes.

On the left, the regular File menu from the Finder. On the right, exactly the same menu but as it appears when you press Option.

Look how Close Window has changed to Close All. Look how you get a new menu item called Open and Close Window. That last one sounds a bit redundant, like it's going to flash open a folder and then shut it again on you. If you have clicked once to select a folder in a list of files, though, what this does is open that folder into a new window - and close the old one.

There are several changes in just this first File menu and some are available all of the time, some are greyed-out. Those ones are only available when you've done something that can use them, such as select a folder before you opened the menu.

The reason all of this happens is that by pressing the Option key you've made what's called a positive choice. You're not likely to accidentally press Option and click a menu item, you have chosen to do this. It's your choice and you know what you want to do, so the Mac does it.

This is why under the Finder menu the Empty Trash that usually asks if you're sure no longer does. By making this positive choice, you've told the Mac you know what you're doing and you know what you want.

Since we are all prone to clicking in the wrong place, incidentally, there is a handy extra menu item available to Option users in the Finder's Edit menu. Where you usually see Select All, if you press Option you get Deselect All. So when you've got a long list of files and you've accidentally selected the lot, you can just choose this instead of trying to find the right place to click to undo the selection.

Option and the positive choice are meant to help you. So one thing that Apple does to protect new users from potential problems is hide a special folder called the Library. This is where a lot of settings and crucial files for keeping your Mac running are kept and there will be people who use Macs all day and never once need to go into it.

Sometimes an application developer who's talking you through fixing a problem will need you to go into this Library for them. Choose the Finder's Go menu and then press Option.

Suddenly, the previously hidden Library folder is right there in the list of places you can leap off to. Very helpful for troubleshooting, and purging the last remnants of a recalcitrant app.

Option in the menubar

Just as you may never need to go into your Library and may actually never even need to know it exists, there are also menubar functions you'll rarely need. Yet, they are ones that when you do need them, you really need them.

These are handled slightly differently to the Finder menus. You have to press and hold Option before you click on them.

Holding the Option key, though, click on the wi-fi icon in your menu bar. Instead of the regular list of nearby wi-fi networks, you get much more detail about your current connection.

Your screen will differ in the detail of the wi-fi connection but also in how many options you get. You may have to wait for a moment with the Option key pressed down before the wi-fi menu fills out to contain all of these extra choices.

When it does, though, notice that you also get options for getting diagnostic reports to help you figure out what's going wrong with your connection.

It's the same with the Bluetooth menu. In both cases, the logic is that usually these two just work but occasionally things go wrong - and when they do, it's frustrating enough that the last thing you want is difficulty finding menu choices that help.

It's about quickly getting more control when you know what you want to do next. So next time you're using your keyboard's volume controls, tap Up or Down while holding the Option key. Rather than just adjusting how loud the audio is, this opens the entire sound System Preferences to let you make finer choices. It's a short cut to switching between different speakers or microphones too.

Personal Favorites

You're going to find which of these works best for you, but our three favorites are are at opposite ends of the menubar. Over on the File menu in the Finder and apps like Pages there is that change from Close Window to Close All. When we're done for the day, that just tidies up everything.

Full disclosure: we use this every day - and we never use it. Rather than choosing Option plus the File menu, we use the keystroke that does this without our taking our hands off the keyboard. You can see the keystroke in the menu: as well as changing what the menus say when you press Option, Apple also shows you a different keystroke to get the same effect.

So in the regular File menu there is Close and next to it Apple's written the keystroke Command-W. Hold down the Command key, tap the letter W and the current window closes. Press Option and the File menu shows that Close All is Option-Command-W.

Much as we like that, our other favorite Option trick can't be done from the keyboard and it takes place at the furthest end of the menubar. Hold down the Option key and click on the Notification Center icon to the right of Siri. That immediately switches on Do Not Disturb for the day.

To switch Do Not Disturb off again, just hold Option and click on that icon again.

That's perhaps the smallest speed improvement. If you don't use the Option key trick then you have to click on Notification Center, wait for it to slide open, then scroll to the top and click the Do Not Disturb on/off switch.