Shortcuts and tooltips
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Discoverability in the app
| Mechanism | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Hover tooltip | Every toolbar control: title, shortcut (when any), one-line help. Show delay ~200 ms (SketchShortcuts.TipShowDelayMs). |
| F1 / ? button | Modal Keyboard shortcuts dialog — same content as the tables below (SketchShortcuts.ShowHelpAsync). |
| Hint strip | Points 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
| Action | Keys | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New | Ctrl+N | Prompts if dirty — Documents |
| Open | Ctrl+O | .sketchjson picker |
| Recent | — | Clock flyout; MRU max 8 |
| Save | Ctrl+S | Current path or Save As |
| Save As | Ctrl+Shift+S | New .sketchjson path |
| Shortcuts help | F1 | Also the ? toolbar button |
Tools
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| Pen / Line / Spline / Box / Circle | Ctrl+P Ctrl+L Ctrl+U Ctrl+R Ctrl+C |
| Speech bubble / Text / Text box | Ctrl+B Ctrl+T Ctrl+X |
| Eraser / Paint bucket / Select | Ctrl+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
| Action | Keys | Where handled |
|---|---|---|
| Undo / Redo | Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y | Host and SketchControl |
| Fuse / Ungroup | Ctrl+G / Ctrl+Shift+G | Host and SketchControl |
| Paste image | Ctrl+V | Host |
| Select all | Ctrl+A | SketchControl (Select tool) |
| Complete line/spline | Enter | SketchControl |
| Close shape | Ctrl+Enter (or Shift+Enter) | SketchControl |
| Cancel drawing | Esc | SketchControl |
| Delete selection | Del / Backspace | SketchControl (+ host Del) |
| Pan | Space + drag | SketchControl |
Export
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| 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 windowKeyDownand 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/KeyUpon the window).