Keyboard shortcuts

On the web, some of these keys differ: see Keyboard shortcuts on the web.

On a phone or a tablet used by touch, Mahfouz doesn’t show keys: menus, the command palette, the / menu and tooltips leave them out, and Keyboard shortcuts and Settings → Shortcuts aren’t offered. A keyboard connected to the device still runs every shortcut, and a tablet used with a trackpad shows them as usual. Since 0.20.0

Remappable app shortcuts (.config/settings.md, ## Shortcuts table). Mod = ⌘ on macOS, Ctrl elsewhere:

If your vault’s ## Shortcuts table already gives ModShiftP, F8, ShiftF8, F6 or ShiftF6 to another action, that action keeps it. Since 0.20.0

The rail’s keys follow its order: the items at the top count up from Mod1 (all notes, tasks, people), and the ones at the bottom count back from Mod0 (the account menu, then notifications). Each rail button’s tooltip shows its key. Since 0.14.0 Each key belongs to its action, not to a place on the rail: it keeps working when you move or hide the rail item. Since 0.15.0

A vault whose ## Shortcuts table still holds the old default keys (Mod6 for tasks, Mod2 for bookmarks, Mod4 for trash) gets the new ones. If your vault already gives Mod3, Mod9 or Mod0 to another action, that action keeps it, and Go to people, Show notifications or Open the account menu has no key until you give it one in Settings → Shortcuts. Since 0.14.0

Fixed editor shortcuts (not remappable):

These keys are explained in Writing from the keyboard. Since 0.20.0

Other useful bindings: Tab/Enter inside a checklist or list continue it (Since 0.20.0 on other lines, Tab and ShiftTab move focus out of the editor); in Source, Cmd/Ctrl+click opens a link or wikilink in the background Since 0.20.0; [[ triggers wikilink autocomplete; { opens the field menu and a space then ! the date menu. Since 0.13.0 The Find and Replace bar has its own keys, listed under Find and replace; the Search tab shares them. Code blocks have their own fold keys, listed under Folding code. Since 0.13.0

The sidebar from the keyboard Since 0.13.0

The sidebar’s notes, folders, Bookmarks and Notes headers, and Trash entries are one stop when you press Tab: focus lands on the row of the open note, or on the row you last moved to. Then:

In the Search tab, ↓ and ↑ in the search field move through each note’s title and its matching lines, Enter opens the note at that line (at its top on its title) and ModEnter opens it in a new tab. Since 0.13.0

The menu bar (desktop)

Every app action above is also in the desktop menu bar, next to its shortcut:

• File: new notes (sibling, child, parent level), New Folder, New Database, New Vault, Open Vault, Save, Import Since 0.16.0, Export, Share (macOS only), Close Tab.
• Edit: the usual editing commands, Find and Replace, Find Selection, Find in All Notes Since 0.13.0, Command Palette.
• Note: acts on the note in the active tab. It has Bookmark, Auto-commit, Rename, Duplicate, Move, the Copy commands (Copy Permalink Since 0.16.0), Reveal in Finder (or File Explorer), Revision History, plugin commands such as Present, and Delete. These items are greyed out when no note tab is open.
• View: the sidebars, Toggle Source/Preview Since 0.20.0 (greyed out when no note editor shows), Line Numbers, Zoom In and Out, Stop Presenting.
• Go: All Notes, Bookmarks, Trash, Mind Map, Back, Forward.
• Help: Keyboard Shortcuts, User Guide, Send Feedback.

The keys shown in the menu follow your ## Shortcuts table: change a shortcut there and the menu shows the new key. A few keys never appear in the menu, though they still work:

• Shortcuts without ⌘ or Ctrl, such as F2 for Rename.
• ModD, Mod[ and Mod], which the editor also uses to select the next match and to indent or outdent. Leaving them off the menu keeps them working in the editor.

These menu keys are fixed and aren’t in the ## Shortcuts table: Mod, Settings, ModShiftN New Vault, ModShiftO Open Vault, ModF Find and Replace. Stop Presenting has no menu key: press Esc, since Mod. opens the menu at the cursor. Since 0.20.0 Line Numbers has no key, so ModShiftL copies the note as a wikilink.

Keyboard shortcuts on the web

The browser keeps some keys for itself (close tab, new window, switch tabs, zoom, bookmarks, developer tools, reload), so those shortcuts move on the web. Every other shortcut is the same as on desktop. Mod is ⌘ on a Mac and Ctrl elsewhere; Alt is ⌥ on a Mac.

Mod; assumes a US-style keyboard layout. On a layout where “;” needs Shift or another modifier, it can’t be pressed: choose Settings in the account menu (the account button at the bottom of the left rail) instead.

On a Mac, shortcuts with ⌥ go by the key you press, not the character ⌥ types with it, so ⌥⌘S works although ⌥S types “ß”. Mahfouz shows a shortcut’s symbols in Apple’s order: ⌃, ⌥, ⇧, then ⌘ (⌥⌘S, not ⌘⌥S). Since 0.14.0

On Windows and Linux, some keyboard layouts (German, Polish and others) treat Ctrl+Alt as AltGr, so in the browser a Ctrl+Alt+digit key may type a character instead of running its action. If one does, give the action another key in Settings → Shortcuts. Since 0.14.0

In Settings → Shortcuts, each binding shows one keycap per key, such as ⌘⇧K. Click it and press the new keys to record another one; each row has its own reset button to bring back the default. Since 0.19.0

Shortcuts you change in Settings → Shortcuts are saved in the vault (.config/settings.md) and apply on both. A default you haven’t changed stays each platform’s own default.