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User Guide: Keyboard Shortcuts

Many functions in CKEditor have their equivalent keyboard shortcuts. This is one of the reasons why working with the editor is simple and efficient.

The list below contains available keyboard shortcuts grouped by problem areas.

Working with a Document

  • Esc – closes a CKEditor dialog window, drop-down list, or context menu. Also moves from the context menu submenu to the parent option.
  • Enter – selects a CKEditor function from the toolbar, drop-down list, or context menu. Equivalent to the OK button in a dialog window.
  • Shift+F10, Menu/Application key – opens the element's context menu.

Navigation

  • Home – jumps to the beginning of the line.
  • Ctrl+Home – jumps to the beginning of the document.
  • End – jumps to the end of the line.
  • Ctrl+End – jumps to the end of the document.
  • PgDn – scrolls down the document, approximately by the length of the editing area.
  • PgUp – scrolls up the document, approximately by the length of the editing area.

Writing

  • Enter (Return) – ends a paragraph and starts a new one.
  • Shift+Enter – adds a line break.
  • Backspace, Del – deletes a character.
  • Ctrl+Backspace, Ctrl+Del – deletes a word.

Undo and Redo

  • Ctrl+Z – performs the undo operation.
  • Ctrl+Y – performs the redo operation.

Cut, Copy and Paste

  • Ctrl+X, Shift+Del – cuts a text fragment to clipboard.
  • Ctrl+C – copies a text fragment to clipboard.
  • Ctrl+V, Shift+Insert – pastes a text fragment from clipboard.

Text Selection

  • Ctrl+A – selects all document contents.
  • Shift+Arrow – selects a text fragment by letters.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Arrow – selects a text fragment by words.
  • Shift+Home – selects a text fragment from the cursor to the beginning of the line.
  • Shift+End – selects a text fragment from the cursor to the end of the line.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Home – selects a text fragment from the cursor to the beginning of the document.
  • Ctrl+Shift+End – selects a text fragment from the cursor to the end of the document.
  • Shift+PgDn – selects a text fragment of approximately the length of the editing area starting from the cursor and going down.
  • Shift+PgUp – selects a text fragment of approximately the length of the editing area starting from the cursor and going up.

Text Styling

  • Ctrl+B – applies bold formatting to a text fragment.
  • Ctrl+I – applies italics formatting to a text fragment.
  • Ctrl+U – applies underline formatting to a text fragment.

Rich Text

  • Ctrl+L – opens the Link dialog window.

Accessibility

  • Alt+0 – opens Help.
  • Alt+- (minus) – collapses and restores the toolbar.
  • Alt+F10 – enters the toolbar or the tab list of the currently open dialog window.
  • Alt+F11 – enters the elements path.
  • Tab – moves to the next toolbar button group, context menu suboption, elements path element, dialog window element, or dialog window tab while in the tab list.
  • Right Arrow – moves to the next toolbar button within the group, context menu suboption, elements path element, dialog window element, or dialog window tab while in the tab list.
  • Tab or Down Arrow – moves to the next drop-down list or context menu option.
  • Shift+Tab – moves to the previous toolbar button group, context menu parent option, elements path element, dialog window element, or dialog window tab while in the tab list.
  • Left Arrow – moves to the previous toolbar button within the group, context menu parent option, elements path element, dialog window element, or dialog window tab while in the tab list.
  • Shift+Tab or Up Arrow – moves to the previous drop-down list or context menu option.
  • Space or Enter – activates a toolbar button, a context menu option, a drop-down list option, an elements path element, or a dialog window tab once selected. Also enters a context menu submenu, if it is available.
important note
The accessibility shortcuts for toolbar navigation were modified in CKEditor 3.6, when the concept of a toolbar button group was initially introduced. On entering the toolbar you can now use the Tab and Shift+Tab shortcuts to navigate between button groups and the Arrow keys to navigate between the buttons within a group. In CKEditor 3.5.x and before both Tab and Arrow keys were used to navigate between the toolbar buttons.