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Keyboard shortcut

In computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a pre-programmed action.

This action maybe part of the standard functionality of the operating system or application program, or it may have been written by the user in a scripting language.

Some integrated keyboards also include pointing devices; the definition of exactly what counts as a “key” sometimes differs.
— Wikipedia

Touch typing and computer keyboard shortcuts are main driver of mouseless workflow. In this note I describe the most used shortcuts in my workflow, each section except “Universal” is linked to a more detailed note.

Sometimes you need to create and use non-standard shortcuts, and this Keyboard Heatmap tool can find most used keys, you can type comfort keys for you, analyze heatmap and decide which keys you want to use.

In this file I place basic keybindings list for each my most used program, with link to detailed keybindings in separate note.

Universal

Notepad based shortcuts, work mostly in all “classic” GUI program.

  • Close an open dialog box: ESC, sometimes q or even M-F4

  • Open the help: F1

  • Switch tabs forward: C-tab

  • Switch tabs backward: C-S-tab

  • Close tab: C-w

  • Zoom in, zoom out, reset zoom of the page: C-+, C--, C-0

  • Select all the text: C-a

  • Search text: C-f, /

  • Create new tab: C-t

  • Create new window: C-n

  • Open the Print dialog box: C-p

  • Undo: C-z

  • Redo: C-y or C-S-z

  • Refresh: C-r

  • Delete Word Left: C-BCK

  • Delete Word Right: C-DEL

I use 75 keyboard (My layers and modifiers), which haven’t individual navigation keys and I use custom NAV layer, which allowing me to use them, here is list of this shortcuts:

  • Up, Select Up: NAV-u, NAV-S-u
  • Down, Select Down: NAV-e, NAV-S-e
  • Left, Select Left: NAV-n, NAV-S-n
  • Word Left, Select Word Left: NAV-C-n, NAV-C-S-n
  • Right, Select Right: NAV-i, NAV-S-i
  • Word Right, Select Word Right: NAV-C-i, NAV-C-S-i
  • PgUp, Select PgUp: NAV-l, NAV-S-l
  • PgDn, Select PgDn: NAV-y, NAV-S-y
  • Home, Select to Home: NAV-j, NAV-S-j
  • Top, Select to Top: NAV-C-j, NAV-C-S-j
  • End, Select to End: NAV-;, NAV-S-;
  • Bottom, Select to bottom: NAV-C-;, NAV-C-S-;

Other

I can setup RightAlt- to ISO level3 Shift (type characters like ¡ºª¢áß while holding RightAlt-, label 2) and Shift-RightAlt- to compose key (one key press + sequence) in KDE, system settings → configure switching → alternate symbols.

My current Desktop Environment is KDE and I use a lot customized KDE common shortcuts.

Since my most used program is Neovim, I have a lot of shortcuts for it. To quit I use ZZ, :x, :q and :qa 😼. I store basic keybindings in my Base keybindings note and more advanced in Neovim.

GNU Readline used in many programs like Bash, Python, etc. So I need to know some basic keybindings to work with it.

Obsidian is my Zettelkasten system companion, main task is to render markdown, process spaced repetition notes and work with excalidraw diagrams.

Browser, currently, I use Firefox with Vimium extension.

I use Zathura to read PDFs. It’s fast and support many formats.

Slack is my team communication tool.

Blender is my favorite 3D modeling software.

I use Krita as my primary drawing tool.

Inkscape is a vector graphics editor. I use it rarely, but it’s very powerful, and I’m planning to learn it more.

I use MPV as my main multimedia player.

cmus is my favorite audio-player, near to zero setup, and keyboard driven.

I use Zsh as my main interactive command interpreter. Some keybindings from GNU readline are available in Z shell, but I usually use Vi-mode in Zsh, and it has its own keybindings. To enter Vi-mode in Zsh type Esc, to back to insert mode type i.

I use fzf as main UI provider for list of anything, for mine shell scripts and commands.

For reverse search in history with ==C-r hotkey and Up== key, I use atuin.

Remove item from atuin:

  • Select the entry you want to delete
  • Press C-o to open the inspector
  • Press C-d to delete the entry NOTE: there is no confirmation dialog after pressing C-d.

Lazygit as version control tool, to list shortcuts press ? in TUI.

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