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novolis-apps / sketch-studio/shortcuts.md

Shortcuts and tooltips

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Discoverability in the app

MechanismBehavior
Hover tooltipEvery toolbar control: title, shortcut (when any), one-line help. Show delay ~200 ms (SketchShortcuts.TipShowDelayMs).
F1 / ? buttonModal Keyboard shortcuts dialog — same content as the tables below (SketchShortcuts.ShowHelpAsync).
Hint stripPoints at hover tips + F1; not a substitute for the full list.

Source of truth in code: SketchShortcuts.cs (File / Tools / Edit / Export / Help rows). Keep this doc aligned when adding chords.

Chord rule: letter commands are always hold Ctrl, then press the letter. Bare letters are never tools, so typing in a text label, text box, or hex field cannot switch tools. Keys that originate from a TextBox are ignored by the window handler (Ctrl+V stays paste-text, not paste-image).

While Control is held, every Ctrl-bound toolbar button shows its letter in the corner (P, ⇧S, ↵, …). Release Control to hide the letters.

File

ActionKeysNotes
NewCtrl+NPrompts if dirty — Documents
OpenCtrl+O.sketchjson picker
Recent—Clock flyout; MRU max 8
SaveCtrl+SCurrent path or Save As
Save AsCtrl+Shift+SNew .sketchjson path
Shortcuts helpF1Also the ? toolbar button

Tools

ActionKeys
Pen / Line / Spline / Box / CircleCtrl+P Ctrl+L Ctrl+U Ctrl+R Ctrl+C
Speech bubble / Text / Text boxCtrl+B Ctrl+T Ctrl+X
Eraser / Paint bucket / SelectCtrl+E Ctrl+K Ctrl+M

Hold Ctrl, then press the letter. Shift, Alt, or Meta together with Ctrl does not switch tools. Spline is Ctrl+U because Ctrl+S is Save; Select is Ctrl+M because Ctrl+V pastes an image.

Edit and canvas

ActionKeysWhere handled
Undo / RedoCtrl+Z / Ctrl+YHost and SketchControl
Fuse / UngroupCtrl+G / Ctrl+Shift+GHost and SketchControl
Paste imageCtrl+VHost
Select allCtrl+ASketchControl (Select tool)
Complete line/splineEnterSketchControl
Close shapeCtrl+Enter (or Shift+Enter)SketchControl
Cancel drawingEscSketchControl
Delete selectionDel / BackspaceSketchControl (+ host Del)
PanSpace + dragSketchControl

Export

ActionKeys
Copy PNG / Save As PNG— (toolbar)
Copy SVG / Save As SVG— (toolbar)

See Export.

Focus notes

  • Enter / Esc / Space / Ctrl+A need canvas focus (SketchControl) to fire inside the control.
  • File chords (Ctrl+N/O/S, …) and tool chords (Ctrl+P, …) are handled on the window KeyDown and work when the window is focused even if the canvas last received pointer input (after a click on the canvas, control keys still reach the window unless the control marks them handled). File/edit chords win when they share a letter (Ctrl+S, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+G).
  • Hold Ctrl to reveal the letter badge on each bound button (tunneled KeyDown / KeyUp on the window).

See also