Projects/Usability/HIG/Keyboard Shortcuts

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< Projects‎ | Usability‎ | HIG
Revision as of 14:32, 12 January 2009 by Seele (talk | contribs) (added an exception to Ctrl+W)

Keyboard shortcuts help users perform common actions quickly through the keyboard instead of accessing the functionality in the UI with a mouse.

Global Keyboard Shortcuts

Action Key Altern. Comment
File Menu
New Ctrl+N Create a new document
Open Ctrl+O Open a document
Save Ctrl+S Save the current document
Save As Ctrl+Shift+S Save the current document
Reload F5 Reload the current document/view
Print Ctrl+P Print the current document
Close Ctrl+W Close the current document. If there is only one document open, this shortcut may not Close the window or Quit the application.
Quit Ctrl+Q Quit the application
Edit menu
Undo Ctrl+Z Undo the last operation
Redo Ctrl+Y Shift+Ctrl+Z Redo the last undone operation
Cut Ctrl+X Shift+Delete Cut the selected area and store it in the clipboard
Copy Ctrl+C Ctrl+Insert Copy the selected area into the clipboard
Paste Ctrl+V Shift+Insert Paste contents of clipboard at mouse/cursor position
Select All Ctrl+A Select everything in the contents area
Deselect Ctrl+Shift+A Deselect everything in the contents area
Find Ctrl+F Find
Find Next F3 Find the next match
Find Previous Shift+F3 Find previous match
Replace Ctrl+R Find and replace matches
Delete word forward Ctrl+Delete Delete word from current cursor location to the end.
Delete word backward Ctrl+Backspace Delete word from beginning to current cursor location.
Go to line... Ctrl+G Move cursor to the corresponding line.
View Menu
Full Screen Mode Ctrl+Shift+F Toggle full screen mode
Zoom menu
Zoom In Ctrl++ Ctrl+= Zoom in to the document (magnify)
Zoom Out Ctrl+- Zoom out of the document
Zoom to 100% Ctrl+0
Bookmarks menu
Add Bookmark Ctrl+B Add a bookmark for the current location
Help menu
Help F1 Obtain help and documentation for the application
What's This Shift+F1 Obtain a short help for the currently visible interface elements.
Navigation
Focus to Menu F10 Focus the menu bar.
Show Context Menu Ctrl+F10 Menu Show the context menu.
Toggle Menu bar Ctrl+M Toggle the appearance of the menu bar.
Page Down Space PageDown Scroll down one Screen, displaying the next page if the application normally displays a page at a time.
Page Up Shift+space PageUp Scroll up one Screen, displaying the previous page if the application normally displays a page at a time.
Forward Alt+Right Go to next page.
Back Alt+Left Go to previous page.
Next Tab Ctrl+PageUp Activate the next Tab.
Previous Tab Ctrl+PageDown Activate the previous Tab.
Next Major Panel F6 Switches focus to the next major panel, e.g. sidebar or content panel in a file manager. Useful to get focus from dockers back to the main window when.
Resize Split Pane F8 Switches focus from one split pane to another to resize them via the arrow keys.
Text Navigation
Beginning of line Home Move cursor to the beginning of the line.
End of line End Move cursor to the beginning of the line.
End Ctrl+End
Forward Word Ctrl+Right Move cursor to the beginning of the next word.
Backward Word Ctrl+Left Move cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
Text Completion
Substring completion Ctrl+T Toggle substring completion.
Text Completion Ctrl+E Toggle text completion.
Next item in list Down Select the next item in the completion list.
Previous item in list Up Select the previous item in the completion list.
Next completion match Ctrl+Down Select the next completion match.
Previous completion match Ctrl+Up Select the previous completion match.

F8 and F6 may still be used differently, if the window has no split panes (F8) or the definition of main panels is not required, e.g. if there are no dockers (F6).

Standard System Shortcuts

Key Comment
Navigation
Alt+Tab Walk through windows
Alt+Shift+Tab Walk through windows (reverse)
Ctrl+Tab Focus to next widget (e.g. to get focus out of text fields).
Ctrl+Shift+Tab Focus to previous widget (e.g. to get focus out of text fields).
Ctrl+F1 – F4 Switch to desktop 1 to 4
Ctrl+Alt+Tab Switch focus between panel and desktop
Ctrl+Alt+Right Switch to next desktop
Ctrl+Alt+Left Switch to previous desktop
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Tab Switch focus between panel and desktop (reverse)
Windows
Alt+F3 Window operations menu
Alt+F4 Close Window
Miscellaneous
Alt+F12 Mouse Emulation
Ctrl+Alt+Escape Kill window
Alt+Print Window screenshot
Ctrl+Print Desktop screenshot
Panel
Alt+F1 Popup launch menu
Ctrl+Alt+D Toggle showing (empty) desktop
Desktop
Alt+F2 Run command
Ctrl+Escape Show taskmanager
Alt+F5 Show windowlist
Alt+Ctrl+L Lock session
Clipboard
Ctrl+Alt+V Show Klipper popup menu
Ctrl+Alt+R Manually invoke action on current clipboard
Ctrl+Alt+X Enable/disable clipboard actions
colspan="2" Keyboard
Ctrl+K Switch to next keyboard layout

Implementation Notes

Keyboard accelerators - classes helping to establish consistent key bindings throughout the desktop.

  • KAccel - collection of keyboard shortcuts.
  • KStdAccel - easy access to the common keyboard shortcut keys.
  • KGlobalAccel - collection of system-wide keyboard shortcuts