Keyboard shortcuts

The rule

A shortcut never fires while you are typing. If the focus is in the code editor, the serial input, the project title or any other field, the key belongs to that field. None of the canvas keys needs the Alt key, and any key press holding Alt is ignored there.

The single-key shortcuts (the letters, digits, + and - below) can be switched off, or set to need Alt+Shift with each one, from the canvas menu's Keys tile. Each press steps it on, then Alt+Shift, then off. It is kept in this browser with the grid and the theme. Ctrl/Cmd keys, Delete, Escape and the keys in Working without a mouse are not affected, because those only act while the canvas itself has focus. The code editor has keys of its own, in the last table.

On a Mac the modifier is ⌘; everywhere else it is Ctrl. The editor works out which and says so in its own menus.

The document

Key	What it does
Ctrl/Cmd+S	Save
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+H	History: this project's earlier saves
Ctrl/Cmd+Z	Undo
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z or Ctrl/Cmd+Y	Redo
Ctrl/Cmd+A	Select all
Ctrl/Cmd+C	Copy the selection
Ctrl/Cmd+X	Cut the selection
Ctrl/Cmd+V	Paste
Ctrl/Cmd+D	Duplicate the selection
Ctrl/Cmd+\	Hide or show the code pane, when the canvas and the code sit side by side

Ctrl/Cmd+S is caught before anything else, wherever the focus is, so the browser never offers to save the page instead.

Ctrl/Cmd+C and Ctrl/Cmd+X stand aside when there is text selected on the page outside a control: that is the browser's own copy, which is how you get a line out of the serial log.

The canvas

Key	What it does
A	Open the part panel
R	Rotate the selected parts 90 degrees
Delete or Backspace	Delete the selection
D	Open or close the drawing tools
T	Tidy wires: lay the selection, or every wire, out again
L	Open or close the layers panel
Shift+L	Show levels: the live level and voltage on every net
Shift+O	Take the DC operating point; press it again to put it away
C	Add a comment where the pointer is
Enter or F2	Rename the selected frame, or edit the selected note
F	Fit the whole circuit to the screen
+ or =	Zoom in
- or _	Zoom out
Space (held)	Pan while dragging
Alt (Option) while dragging a breadboard	Move the board alone, leaving the parts plugged into it where they are
Escape	Abandon the wire being drawn, or clear the selection

Escape does the nearest thing first: it puts the drawing tool down, closes a note or frame you are typing in, closes an open comment thread, drops a wire that is half drawn, and only then clears the selection. It also closes the part panel, the canvas menu, the color swatches and the share sheet.

With one sticky note selected and nothing else, typing a letter opens the note and types that letter into it. C, R and the other letters are then text, not shortcuts.

While the circuit runs

Key or click	What it does
A key you bound to a button	Holds that button down while the key is held. Several keys at once all work
Shift and a click on a button	Keeps the button pressed until you Shift-click it again

Bind keys to a pushbutton or any other part you press with the pointer: select it, and in its properties under Keyboard keys press Set key, then the key, or choose one from Quick pick. The keys are saved with the part, so they travel with the project. A key typed into the code editor or a field never presses a part.

Working without a mouse

The canvas is one stop in the Tab order. Tab to it and these keys work while it has focus. Each action is read out by a screen reader.

Key	What it does
Tab / Shift+Tab	Select the next or previous part. Past the last part, Tab leaves the canvas
Arrow keys	Move the selected part one grid step; with Shift, five steps. A breadboard takes the parts plugged into it along. With nothing selected, select the first part
R	Rotate the selected part
Enter or W	Connect a wire: pick one of the part's pins, then type to find the pin to connect to, and press Enter
P	Go to the selected part's properties. Shift+Tab from there comes back to the canvas
Delete or Backspace	Delete the selected part
V	Open the circuit as text
Space or Enter (running)	Press a button, or flip a switch, on the selected part
Arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down, Home, End (running)	Turn the selected knob or slider

A wire made this way is routed like one drawn by hand and is one step of Undo. The wire dialog also lists the wires already on the part, each with a Delete button.

Circuit as text (the canvas menu, V, or the hidden link at the top of the canvas that appears when you Tab to it) lists every part in a table, with its type, its settings and, while the circuit runs, what it is doing: an LED on or off and how bright, a servo's angle, a seven-segment digit, a meter's reading. Below it, every connection is listed as "part.pin to part.pin". Each part selects itself on the canvas, and each wire can be deleted from the list. While the circuit runs, changes are announced at most once every two seconds; a checkbox turns that off.

The part panel

The arrows move through the tiles, Enter places the highlighted part, and Escape closes the panel. The panel swallows its own keys, so A typed inside the search field is a letter, not a second attempt to open it.

The code editor

With the cursor in the code, these are the keys. They follow Sublime Text, and where CodeMirror, the editor underneath, has a spelling of its own, both work. Where the Arduino IDE has a key of its own, the Arduino IDE's wins. Where a Mac key differs it is in brackets.

The Arduino IDE's keys

Key	What it does
Ctrl/Cmd+Enter	Run, or Stop while it runs: the same as pressing the Run button
Ctrl/Cmd+T or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F	Auto Format: indent the open file again, two spaces a level

Auto Format indents every line by how deep it sits in braces and brackets, lines each closing brace up with the line that opened it, indents a lone statement under an if or an else, indents case labels inside a switch, and puts a space after if, for, while and switch. It keeps blank lines and never moves a brace to another line. Strings, comments and # lines keep their text exactly. It is one edit, so one Ctrl/Cmd+Z takes it back.

In an ordinary browser window, Ctrl/Cmd+T opens a new tab and the page never sees the key: Chrome, Edge and Firefox keep it for themselves. Use Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F, which works everywhere. Ctrl/Cmd+T does reach the editor when Mokxi is installed as an app and runs in its own window.

Ctrl+R, Verify in the Arduino IDE, is left alone: in a browser it reloads the page. Run builds the code first anyway.

Completion

Key	What it does
Ctrl+Space	Show the completions for the word at the cursor
Enter or Tab	Take the highlighted completion
Up, Down, Page Up, Page Down	Move through the list
Escape	Close the list
Tab, Shift+Tab	In a snippet, the next or previous blank to fill in

Cursors and selection

Key	What it does
Ctrl/Cmd+D	Select the word, then add its next match; keep pressing for more
Alt+F3 (Ctrl+Cmd+G) or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+L	Select every match of the selection
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+L on a selection over several lines	A cursor at the end of each line
Alt and a click	Add a cursor there
Alt and a drag	Select a column, a rectangle across the lines
Ctrl/Cmd and a click	Add a cursor there
Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+Up or Down	Add a cursor on the line above or below
Escape	Back to one cursor
Ctrl/Cmd+L	Select the line; again for the next one
Ctrl/Cmd+I	Grow the selection to the enclosing block
Ctrl/Cmd+U	Undo the last change of selection

Find

Key	What it does
Ctrl/Cmd+F	Find, with match case, regular expression and whole word
Ctrl+H (Cmd+Alt+F)	Find and replace
F3, Shift+F3	Next match, previous match (Cmd+G, Shift+Cmd+G on a Mac too)
Ctrl+G or Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+G	Go to a line
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+\	Jump to the matching bracket

Lines

Key	What it does
Ctrl/Cmd+/	Comment or uncomment the lines
Shift+Alt+A (Shift+Ctrl+A)	Comment or uncomment the selection as a block
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+D	Duplicate the line
Shift+Alt+Up or Down	Copy the line up or down
Alt+Up or Down, or Ctrl+Shift+Up or Down (Ctrl+Cmd+Up or Down)	Move the line up or down
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+K	Delete the line
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Enter	A new line above
Tab, Shift+Tab	Indent, outdent
Ctrl/Cmd+], Ctrl/Cmd+[	Indent, outdent
Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+\	Indent the selection again, the way the code asks
Enter	A new line, indented, with no trailing spaces left behind

Folding, errors and the view

Key	What it does
Ctrl+Shift+[, Ctrl+Shift+] (Cmd+Alt+[, Cmd+Alt+])	Fold, unfold the block
Ctrl+Alt+[, Ctrl+Alt+]	Fold all, unfold all
F8	Go to the next build error or warning
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+M	The list of build errors and warnings
Alt+Z	Wrap long lines, or keep them whole; remembered
Ctrl/Cmd+Z, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y	Undo, redo
Ctrl/Cmd+S	Save the project, the same as anywhere else in the editor

Tab indents, so it does not move you out of the code. Press Escape and then Tab to leave it with the keyboard, or Ctrl+M (Shift+Alt+M) to make Tab move the focus until you press it again.

In diagram.json, Ctrl/Cmd+Enter applies the edited diagram instead.

Where else to look

Every button on the canvas toolbar names its shortcut in its tooltip, because the buttons and the keyboard read the same table. The more menu's tiles carry only a word, so for everything in there, this page is the list.

Run, Stop and Save have buttons rather than bare keys, because they are the three things you press most and a button is easier to find than a memory. With the cursor in the code, Ctrl/Cmd+Enter presses Run (or Stop) for you, as it does in the Arduino IDE, and the Run button's tooltip says so.