Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts work on desktop and on a tablet with a keyboard. The canvas list is also inside the app: click Shortcuts in the editor's footer to open the panel, which switches between Mac and Windows keys and defaults to your system. Shortcuts pause while you are typing in a text field, are off in the phone editor, and the panel is hidden when you open a project you can only view. Below, ⌘ is the Mac key and Ctrl the Windows key unless a line says otherwise.

Canvas: general

• Undo: ⌘ Z (Ctrl Z). Redo: ⌘ Shift Z on Mac, Ctrl Y on Windows. The same keys work in the script editor and the table view.
• Copy, Paste: ⌘ C and ⌘ V (Ctrl C, Ctrl V). Pasting plain text with nothing selected drops it onto the canvas as a new text box. There is no Cut shortcut.
• Duplicate: ⌘ D (Ctrl D), or hold Option (Alt on Windows) while dragging an item.
• Select several items: drag a box around them, or Shift click each one (⌘ click on Mac and Ctrl click on Windows also work).
• Select all: ⌘ A (Ctrl A).
• Edit the selected item: Enter, or double-click it.
• Esc: deselect, leave editing, close the open side menu, or leave the pen.
• Delete the selected items: Backspace or Delete.

Canvas: add

• N adds a character, B a speech bubble, T a text box, R a rectangle.
• P switches to the pen, V back to the selection tool.

Text formatting

• Bold, Italic, Underline: ⌘ B, ⌘ I, ⌘ U (Ctrl B, Ctrl I, Ctrl U). They work while editing a text box on the canvas and in the script editor and shot fields.
• Strikethrough: ⌘ Shift X (Ctrl Shift X), in the script editor and shot fields.

Canvas: navigation and zoom

• Move the selected items: the arrow keys. Hold Shift for a bigger step.
• Zoom in: = (the + key without Shift), or ⌘ = (Ctrl =). Zoom out: -, or ⌘ - (Ctrl -). ⌘ or Ctrl with the scroll wheel, and a trackpad pinch, zoom at the pointer.
• Zoom to 100%: Shift 0 or ⌘ 0 (Ctrl 0). Zoom to fit: Shift 1 or ⌘ 1 (Ctrl 1).
• Move the canvas: hold Space and drag. H switches the hand tool on and off.
• Pen stroke width, while the pen is active: [ or ↓ thinner, ] or ↑ thicker.
• Hold Shift while dragging a corner handle to keep the item's proportions.

Canvas: arrange and transform

• Crop an image: Option double-click on Mac, Alt double-click on Windows.
• Flip a character or image horizontally: ⌘ H (Ctrl H). Turn around has no shortcut.
• Bring to front, send to back: ] and [ with an item selected. Bring forward, send backward one step: ⌘ ] and ⌘ [ (Ctrl ], Ctrl [), or Shift ] and Shift [.
• Lock or unlock: Option Shift L or Ctrl Shift L on Mac, Ctrl Shift L on Windows.
• Group or ungroup: ⌘ G (Ctrl G).

Layers panel and shot list

• Layers: Shift click selects a range of rows, ⌘ click (Ctrl click) adds or removes one row. Backspace or Delete deletes the selected layers. While renaming, Enter confirms and Esc cancels.
• Shot list: ↑ and ↓ move to the previous or next shot when nothing on the canvas is selected. Shift click selects a range of shots, ⌘ click (Ctrl click) adds or removes one. Backspace or Delete deletes the selected shots while the list has focus, and Esc clears the selection.

Script editor

These apply in the Script tab of the canvas side panel and in the Writer view.

• Enter starts a new paragraph; in the middle of a line it splits the paragraph at the cursor. A line that is only a speaker name, or NAME: speech, becomes a dialogue row on Enter. Enter never leaves the editor.
• Tab on an action or caption line starts a dialogue row and opens the speaker picker. Tab in a dialogue row continues with the same speaker (in a dual dialogue pair it jumps to the second speaker). Shift Tab is never captured, so it moves focus out of the editor.
• / opens the block menu (Dialogue, Caption, Note, Lyric): type to filter, Enter picks, Space or Esc closes it. @ mentions an element and # references a scene or shot.
• ⌘ Enter (Ctrl Enter) splits the shot at the cursor: everything after it becomes the next shot's script. One undo reverts the whole split.
• Backspace at the start of a line removes one layer per press: the extension, then the speaker, then the block type, then it merges the line into the previous paragraph. Backspace on an empty line removes it.
• ⌘ Shift ↑ or ⌘ Shift ↓ (Ctrl Shift ↑, Ctrl Shift ↓) moves the current block. ⌘ ↑ or ⌘ ↓ jumps to the start or end of the script.
• Esc selects the current row. With rows selected: ↑ and ↓ move the selection, Shift ↑ or Shift ↓ extends it, ⌘ Shift ↑ or ⌘ Shift ↓ moves the rows, ⌘ C copies and ⌘ X cuts them (pasting into any shot's script keeps the row types and speakers), Backspace deletes them, Enter goes back to typing, and Tab leaves the editor.
• ⌘ A (Ctrl A) selects the current line first; press it again to select the whole script.
• ⌘ Z undoes typing in the current line first; once the line is clean it undoes script changes, including a shot split.

Table view

• The arrow keys move the active cell, Shift with an arrow extends the selection, Tab and Shift Tab move to the next or previous cell.
• Enter or F2 edits the cell (on a Frame cell it opens the canvas). Esc deselects. Backspace or Delete clears the selected cells.
• ⌘ A (Ctrl A) selects every cell. ⌘ C and ⌘ V copy and paste cells. ⌘ Z and ⌘ Shift Z (Ctrl Z, Ctrl Y) undo and redo.

Present, comments and Magic Edit

• Presenting, and a shared project in fullscreen: ← or ↑ goes to the previous shot, → or ↓ to the next. Esc leaves fullscreen.
• Comments: Enter posts, Shift Enter adds a line, Esc cancels or stops placing a pin. @ mentions a collaborator.
• Magic Edit and Erase: [ and ] make the brush smaller or bigger; Esc closes the tool.