| shortcut | action |
|---|---|
| alt+d | address bar (browser) |
| alt+f | file menu |
| ctrl+o | file open |
| ctrl+s | file save |
| win+e | launch explorer |
| ctrl+alt+del | session dialog box |
| win+l | session lock |
| ctrl+w | tab close |
| ctrl+tab | tab switch |
| ctrl+tab+shift | tab switch back |
| win+arrow | window move |
| win+shift+arrow | window move screen |
| win+tab | window navigate |
| alt+tab | window switch |
| win+° | window switch (within application) |
Keyboard shortcuts
tools
Why keyboard shortcuts?
Why keyboard shortcuts? Why so many keyboard short cuts? Trying to avoid the mouse or the mouse-pad seems like a eccentric thing reserved for computer hackers. Terminals were a thing of the past during the mac and windows domination of the personal computer in the first two decades of the 20th Century. But in recent years the terminal is coming back stronger and support for keyboard shortcuts remains strong, also with greater care for accessibility in general. Using shortcuts instead of the mouse has high impact in our work.
Learning shortcut keys is a long term effort. The tendency to use back the mouse is very big. The more we learn short cut keys the smoother our work becomes, our wrists remain in a single position and we can switch window, application much easily. The benefit in my view comes from the brain-machine connection and not from speed. In other terms it comes from keeping the mind free to think on the content, just like knowing your chords and scales by heart allows you to convey your ideas in an improvisation without being over concerned with the notes and finger positions.
I know that there are people out there that know dozens if not hundreds, in my case I seem to know around 60 by heart on the different applications. My shortlists below helps me adding one by one as it grows. Bonus: most short cuts work across applications including web browser, text editors and more.
OS shortcuts
Short cuts to handle session windows and other, in general common in windows and linux and many applications.
Text shortcuts
Shortcuts common in many text editors.
| shortcut | action |
|---|---|
| del | character / selection delete |
| home | line go to begining |
| end | line go to end |
| ctrl+shift+z | redo |
| ctrl+home | text go to begining |
| ctrl+end | text go to end |
| ctrl+z | undo |
| ctrl+backspace | word delete backward |
| ctrl+del | word delete forward |
| ctrl+f | word find (in document) |
| ctrl+shift+f | word find (in files) |
| ctrl+arrow | word move |
| ctrl+a | word select all |
RStudio shortcuts
Shortcuts here are in principle specific to RStudio.
| shortcut | action |
|---|---|
| ctrl+alt+i | chunk insert |
| ctrl+alt+r | chunk run all |
| ctrl+shift+enter | chunk run current |
| ctrl+alt+n | chunk run next |
| ctrl+shift+p | command palette |
| ctrl+up | console history |
| ctrl+2 | focus console |
| ctrl+3 | focus help |
| ctrl+1 | focus source |
| alt+shift+m | focus terminal |
| alt+shift+k | help keyboard shortcuts |
| ctrl+enter | line run |
| shift+arrow | line select |
| ctrl+shift+m | pipe insert |
| ctrl+shift+F10 | session restart |
| ctrl+shift+up | window zoom in |
| ctrl+shift+down | window zoom out |
Terminal shortcuts
Here additionaly some key commands are listed too.
| shortcut | action |
|---|---|
| tab | autocompletion |
| tab 2x | autocompletion possibilities |
| ctrl+c | break command |
| up | history |
| !! | history repeat last |
| !88 | history run line 88 |
| ctrl+r | history search |
| ctrl+k | kill (cut) until line end |
| ctrl+a | line begin |
| ctrl+e | line end |
| ctrl+l | terminal clear |
| ctrl+d | terminal close |
| ctrl+alt+t | terminal launch |
| ctrl+y | yank (paste) |
References
Ubuntu shell keyboard shortcuts
Setting launch explorer in Ubuntu: https://askubuntu.com/questions/692880/keyboard-shortcut-to-open-ubuntu-file-manager
The official RStudio keyword short list can be accessed with alt+shift+k from inside RStudio.