Projects/Usability/HIG/Keyboard Shortcuts
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 | |
| Ctrl+P | Print the current document | ||
| Close | Ctrl+W | Close the current document | |
| 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