Most keyboard shortcuts require the user to press a single key or a sequence of keys one after the other. Other keyboard shortcuts require pressing and holding several keys simultaneously (indicated in the tables below by the + sign). Keyboard shortcuts may depend on the keyboard layout.
Keyboard shortcuts are a common aspect of most modern operating systems and associated software applications. Their use is pervasive enough that some users consider them an important element of their routine interactions with a computer. Whether used as a matter of personal preference or for adaptive technology, the pervasiveness of common conventions means that a meaningful comparison of keyboard shortcuts can be made across various widely used operating systems.
General shortcuts
Many shortcuts (such as Ctrl+Z, Alt+E, etc.) are just common conventions and are not handled by the operating system. Whether such commands are implemented (or not) depends on how an actual application program (such as an editor) is written and the frameworks used. Not all applications/frameworks follow (all of) these conventions, so if it doesn't work, it isn't compatible.
Some of the combinations are not true for localized versions of operating systems. For example, in a non-English version of Windows, the Edit menu is not always bound to the E shortcut.
Some software (such as KDE) allow their shortcuts to be changed, and the below list contains the defaults.
or"apto paste the content of the "a" registeror"+pto paste the content of the system clipboard
Ctrl+V
Paste special
⊞ Win+V
Shift+Opt+Cmd+V
Ctrl+⇧ Shift+V
Meta+y
Ctrl+⇧ Shift+V
Search+V
Select all in focused control or window
Ctrl+A
⌘ Cmd+A
Ctrl+A
Ctrl+x, thenh
ggVG, unlikely ever needed as most commands take an optional range parameter.% means "all in focused windows" here so e.g. to copy all the text, use:%y
Ctrl+A
Cycle through installed keyboard languages / input methods
Alt+⇧ Shift changes between languages while Ctrl+⇧ Shift changes between keyboard layouts of the same language. The latter two display a menu with the currently selected input method highlighted, and debuted in Windows 8. ⊞ Win+⇧ Shift+Space goes through the list backwards. For the first two shortcuts going backwards is done by using the right ⇧ Shift key instead of the left.
⌘ Cmd+Space
(not MBR)
Configure desired keypress in Keyboard and Mouse Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts, Select the next source in Input menu.[1]
Many of these commands may be combined with ⇧ Shift to select a region of text.[13][14][notes 6]
In macOS, holding ⌘ Command while dragging mouse can be used to invert selection, and holding ⌥ Option can be used to select by rectangular area in some apps. (These two functionalities may be combined).
In macOS, the default text editing keyboard shortcuts in Cocoa text views can be overridden and new custom shortcuts can be created, by creating and editing related configuration files.[15][notes 7]
Scroll selected view by one page up/left/down/right
PageUp / PageDown
( Fn+↑ / Fn+↓ )
PageUp / Ctrl+PageUp / PageDown / Ctrl+PageDown
Scroll selected view to top/bottom
Home / End
( Fn+← / Fn+→ )
Switch focus to the next/previous tab/view within a window
Ctrl+Tab ↹
Ctrl+Tab ↹
Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Tab ↹
Ctrl+Tab ↹ ->
Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Tab ↹ <-
Switch focus to the next/previous panel on the desktop
Ctrl+Alt+Tab ↹ / Ctrl+Alt+⇧ Shift+Tab ↹
Switch focus to the next/previous panel (without dialog)
Ctrl+Alt+Esc /
Ctrl+Alt+⇧ Shift+Esc
Command line shortcuts
Below is a list of common keyboard shortcuts that are used in a command line environment. Bash and Z shell keybindings are derived from Emacs text editing bindings.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Requires full keyboard access active: (The Apple menu) >System Preferences >Keyboard >Keyboard Shortcuts >Full Keyboard Access >All Controls Alternatively use Ctrl+F7 to toggle this setting.
↑ Takes you to the "Switch User" screen when Fast User Switching has been enabled (enabled by default in XP).
↑ Shows task manager in Windows XP if the welcome screen is enabled. Otherwise displays an NT-style menu, with the option of launching the task manager; likewise for Vista.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 On Mac OS, OS X, and macOS, the key commonly called ↵ Enter is properly called ↩ Return, while ⌅ Enter is a separate key normally located on the numeric keypad or invoked as ⌥ Opt+↩ Return (mainly on keyboards without a numeric keypad).
↑ A full list of all default Cocoa textview key bindings can be dumped by executing this command in Terminal.app: plutil -p /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict
↑ In whole document (%), substitute (s) fosh by fish, don't stop at one substitution per line (g) and ask for confirmation for each substitution (c).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Holding Ctrl+Shift+Page Up/Page Down will move the selected tab past multiple tabs to the left/right.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 In Microsoft Windows, all shortcuts with Alt+Space followed by another key are language dependent. The Alt+Space combination opens the window menu, and the following key selects from the menu. As the menu labels (and their underlined hotkeys) vary with the Windows system language, the hotkeys are different for international versions of Microsoft Windows, and may change if users change their Windows system language preference. The given examples are valid for English user preferences/version of Windows.
↑ Needs to be activated first on some distributions.
↑ The WinSplit window manager application for Windows knows to emulate this behaviour.
↑ There is no single consistent shortcut for closing a document or quitting an application in Windows XP. In many multiple document interface applications, Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 closes a document and Alt+F4 quits. In other applications where each document is in its own window, such as later versions of Microsoft Word, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+F4, and Alt+F4 close a document, and there is no consistent shortcut for quitting an application.
↑ macOS uses ⌘ Cmd+W Close (window), ⌘ Cmd+Q Quit (application), and ⌘ Cmd+⌥ Opt+Esc Force Quit (application); ⌥ Option+F4 can be used to quit certain services or applications. Quit is closest to Kill.
↑ This can be set as Greyscale, Invert Colours, Magnifier and more in Ease of Access settings
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(The Apple menu) > System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Full Keyboard Access > All Controls
