Keyboard shortcuts
You get every key that does something, by where you are. On a Mac, read Ctrl as Cmd. A text field that has focus keeps its keys, so click the shape you want on the canvas first if a key does nothing.
Anywhere in an organisation
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tab (first press on a page) | Shows Skip to content. Press Enter to jump past the top bar. |
The project tree
The tree is one Tab stop: Tab into it, then use the arrow keys.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↑ / ↓ | Move to the row above or below |
| Home / End | First or last row |
| → / ← | Open or close a section |
| Enter | Open the page |
| F2 | Rename the row (documents, themes, insights, boards) |
| Enter on a Deleted row | Restore it |
Naming something
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enter or F2, on a name you have tabbed to | Start renaming it |
| Enter | Save the name |
| Esc | Cancel |
Clicking away saves. A blank name changes nothing.
A transcript
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tab | Reach the transcript |
| Shift+arrow keys | Extend a selection, once one has started. Without a mouse that needs your browser's caret browsing (F7 in most browsers) |
| Enter | Highlight the selection |
| Esc | Hide the button |
| ← / → on an end dot | Move that end by a word |
| Enter / Esc on an end dot | Save / put it back |
A prototype
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| V, F, L, R, T, I | Select, Frame, Line, Box, Text, Icon tool |
| Esc | Back to Select, or abandon the shape you are drawing |
| Enter, with a shape selected | Go one level in and select everything there |
| Tab / Shift+Tab, with a shape selected | Select the next / previous shape at that level |
| Shift+Enter, with a shape selected | Go one level up |
| Esc, with a shape selected | Clear the selection. Press Esc, then Tab, to move on from the canvas |
| Shift+click | Add a shape to the selection, or take it out |
| Double-click | Go one level in, or edit a selected box or text |
| Drag on empty canvas | Select every shape the band touches |
| Shift+drag on empty canvas | Add what the band touches to the selection (prototype boards) |
| Two-finger scroll, or the mouse wheel | Move the view. Shift+wheel moves it sideways on Windows |
| Pinch, or Ctrl/Cmd+wheel | Zoom around the pointer |
| Space+drag, or middle-button drag | Move the view, in any tool and over shapes too |
| PageUp | Open the previous page of the board |
| PageDown | Open the next page of the board |
| Alt+drag | Drag out a copy, leaving the original |
| Right-click, or Ctrl+click on a Mac | Open the right-click menu: Copy, Cut, Paste here, Replace with clipboard, Duplicate, Delete, Bring forward, Send backward and Zoom to selection; on empty canvas, Paste here and Fit to view. See Use the right-click menu |
| Esc, with that menu open | Close it. The board's keys, such as Backspace and Ctrl/Cmd+Z, do nothing while it is open |
| Ctrl/Cmd+D | Duplicate |
| Ctrl/Cmd+C, Ctrl/Cmd+X, Ctrl/Cmd+V | Copy, cut, paste. Paste lands at the pointer, or the middle of the view if the pointer is off the canvas |
| Backspace / Delete | Delete the selection, or the selected guide |
| Ctrl/Cmd+Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+Y or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z | Redo |
| ← / →, or ↑ / ↓, on a selected shape in a frame with Flex layout on | Move it earlier or later in the frame: ← / → for a Row, ↑ / ↓ for a Column |
| Shift+A, with a shape or shapes selected | Add flex layout to a plain frame, or wrap the selection in a new flex frame |
| Alt+Shift+A (Option+Shift+A on a Mac), with a flex frame selected | Remove its flex layout. Every shape stays where it is drawn |
| Enter / Shift+Enter, in a box's label | Save / start a new line |
| Esc, in a box's label | Cancel |
| Enter, in a text | Start a new line |
| Esc or Ctrl/Cmd+Enter, in a text | Save. Ctrl/Cmd+Enter saves a box's label too |
| ↑ / ↓ / Home / End, in the layers list | Move between rows |
| → / ← on a frame in the layers list | Open or close it |
| Enter or Space on a layers row | Select that shape |
Paste, duplicate and Alt+drag make at most 500 shapes at once.
Process diagrams, service blueprints, journey maps and affinity boards
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| S / D / T | Process diagrams and service blueprints: add a step / decision / start or end. On a journey map, S adds a step and E an emotion |
| Q / C / N | Affinity boards: add quotes from the project / a cluster / a note |
| Enter, with a step selected | Rename it. Affinity cards don't rename with Enter |
| Backspace / Delete | Delete the selected steps, cards and arrows. A cluster refuses it |
| Drag on empty canvas | Select the steps and cards the band touches, not only those that fall wholly inside it, the same as on a prototype board |
| Shift+drag on empty canvas | Same as drag: the band replaces the selection, unlike on a prototype board |
| Two-finger scroll, or the mouse wheel | Move the view. Shift+wheel moves it sideways on Windows |
| Pinch, or Ctrl/Cmd+wheel | Zoom around the pointer |
| Space+drag, or middle-button drag | Move the view |
| Ctrl/Cmd+click | Add a step or card to the selection, or take it out |
| Tab | Move focus between steps and arrows |
| Enter or Space | Select the one with focus |
| Esc | Deselect it |
| ← / → / ↑ / ↓ | Move the selected step a few pixels. The move is saved. Hold Shift for four times as far |
| Enter / Esc, in a step's name | Save / cancel |
These boards have no undo: see Save, name and restore versions.
Zoom on a board
These work on every kind of board, outside a text field. The zoom % at the bottom of the board has the same choices in its menu.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Shift+1 | Fit the whole board |
| Shift+2 | Zoom to the selection |
| Shift+0 | Zoom to 100% |
| + / - | Zoom in / out |
| ? (Shift+/) | Open the shortcuts sheet for the board you are on: the main keys for that kind of board. This page has them all |
The AI assistant
On every kind of board.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Cmd+J | Open or close the Ask AI panel. It does nothing while you type in a field outside the panel, such as a step's name |
| Enter, in Message | Send |
| Shift+Enter, in Message | New line |
| Esc, with focus in the panel | Close it and return to Ask AI |
Present
Present has its own list: see Present your prototype, or press ? while presenting.