Text-based Document Editor Shortcuts

Created: January 27, 2023 | Updated: January 27, 2023 | Applies to versions: 23, 24 and 25

Now reading version 24. For the latest, read: Text-based Document Editor Shortcuts for version 25

The following shortcut keys are specific to text-based document editors, including the supported scripting text-based editors. For general information regarding shortcut keys - including access and editing, general Altium environment shortcuts, and accelerator keys - see Altium Designer Shortcut Keys.

When looking at the shortcut key listings, keep in mind the following:

When referring to shortcuts, use of the plus (+) symbol denotes holding multiple keys down on the keyboard in the indicated sequence. For example, Shift+F1 means holding down the Shift key then pressing the F1 key. Likewise, Shift+Ctrl+PgUp means holding down the Shift key then holding down the Ctrl key at the same time and pressing the PgUp key.
Where use of the standard mouse buttons is made, Click refers to a single click of the left-hand mouse button, Double-Click refers to two clicks of the left-hand mouse button, and Right-Click refers to a single click of the right-hand mouse button.

General Editing
Ctrl+Z	Restore a document to its state previous to the last operation. Multiple levels of undo are supported.
Ctrl+Y	Restore changes made by the Undo feature. Multiple levels of redo are supported.
Ctrl+X	Remove all selected text from the current document. A copy of the selection is placed on the standard Windows clipboard.
Ctrl+C	Copy all selected text from the current document to the standard Windows clipboard.
Ctrl+V	Place the current contents of the standard Windows clipboard into the active text-based document.
Right-Click	Access context menu for the document.
Document Scrolling
Mouse Wheel	Scroll vertically within the document.
PgDn	Scroll down one page.
PgUp	Scroll up one page.
Ctrl+Down Arrow	Scroll down one line.
Ctrl+Up Arrow	Scroll up one line.
Finding Text
Ctrl+F	Access the Find Text dialog in which you can configure a search for specific text located in the current document, all text-based documents in the active project, all open text-based documents, or all text-based documents in a specified directory.
Ctrl+H	Access the Replace Text dialog in which you can configure a search to locate and replace specific text - located in the current document, all text-based documents in the active project, all open text-based documents, or all text-based documents in a specified directory.
F3	Find the next occurrence of the last text search that was specified using the Find Text dialog.
Shift+Ctrl+F	Find the next occurrence of the currently selected text in the active document.
Text Cursor Movement
Down Arrow	Move the text cursor downwards one line at a time.
Left Arrow	Move the text cursor to the left in the current line and by one character at a time.
Ctrl+Left Arrow	Move the text cursor to the left one word at a time.
Right Arrow	Move the text cursor to the right one character at a time.
Ctrl+Right Arrow	Move the text cursor to the right one word at a time.
Home	Move the text cursor to the beginning of the current line.
Ctrl+End	Move the text cursor to the end of the file.
Ctrl+PgDn	Move the text cursor to the bottom of the document window.
End	Move the text cursor to the end of the current line.
Ctrl+Home	Move the text cursor to the beginning of the file.
Ctrl+PgUp	Move the text cursor to the top of the document window.
Up Arrow	Move the text cursor upwards one line at a time.
Text Selection
Ctrl+A	Select all of the text in the current document.
Click&Drag	Full control of text selection.
Shift+Left Arrow	Extend a selection by one character to the left of the current cursor position.
Shift+Ctrl+Left Arrow	Extend a selection by one word to the left of the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Down Arrow	Extend a column selection by one line down from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Left Arrow	Extend a selection column by one column to the left of the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Right Arrow	Extend a selection column by one column to the right of the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Up Arrow	Extend a column selection by one line up from the current cursor position.
Shift+PgDn	Extend a selection by one page down from the current cursor position.
Shift+Right Arrow	Extend a selection by one character to the right of the current cursor position.
Shift+Ctrl+Right Arrow	Extend a selection by one word to the right of the current cursor position.
Shift+Ctrl+Home	Extend a selection to the beginning of the current document from the current cursor position.
Shift+Home	Extend a selection to the beginning of the current line from the current cursor position. If the Smart 'Home' key option is enabled, on the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog, then using this command for the first time will extend the selection to the first non-space character in the current line. With the next Shift+Home key press, the selection will extend to the beginning of the line, and so on. This Home key behavior matches that of the Microsoft™ Visual Studio™ product. Disable this option and the Shift+Home key sequence will always extend selection to the beginning of the current line.
Shift+Ctrl+PgDn	Extend a selection to the bottom of the current document window from the current cursor position.
Shift+Ctrl+End	Extend a selection to the end of the current document from the current cursor position.
Shift+End	Extend a selection to the end of the current line from the current cursor position.
Shift+PgUp	Extend a selection by one page up from the current cursor position.
Shift+Down Arrow	Extend a selection by one line down from the current cursor position.
Shift+Up Arrow	Extend a selection by one line up from the current cursor position.
Shift+Ctrl+PgUp	Extend a selection to the top of the current document window from the current cursor position.
Text Column Selection
Alt+Click&Drag	Full control of column selection.
Alt+Shift+PgDn	Extend a column selection by one page down from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+PgUp	Extend a column selection by one page up from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+Left Arrow	Extend a column selection by one word to the left of the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+Right Arrow	Extend a column selection by one word to the right of the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+PgDn	Extend a column selection to the bottom of the current document window from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+Home	Extend a column selection to the beginning of the current document from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+End	Extend a column selection to the end of the current document from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Home	Extend a column selection to the beginning of the current line from the current cursor position. If the Smart 'Home' key option is enabled, on the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog, then using this command for the first time will extend the selection to the first non-space character in the current line. With the next Shift+Home key press, the selection will extend to the beginning of the line, and so on. This Home key behavior matches that of the Microsoft™ Visual Studio™ product. Disable this option and the Shift+Home key sequence will always extend selection to the beginning of the current line.
Alt+Shift+End	Extend a column selection to the end of the current line from the current cursor position.
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+PgUp	Extend a column selection to the top of the current document window from the current cursor position.
Note that column selection is disabled if word wrapping is enabled.
Insertion
Ctrl+N	Insert a new line at the current cursor position.
Enter	Insert a carriage return at the current cursor position. Enable the Auto indent mode option, on the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog, to indent the new line automatically in-line with the first non-whitespace character on the preceding line. With this option disabled, the new line will not be indented, and the cursor will be placed ready at the start of the line.
Tab	Tab forwards from the current cursor position. For standard tabbing, the number of characters involved in the tab is determined by the entry in the Tab Stops field, on the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog. The default entry in this field is `4` - therefore this command will tab forwards four characters at a time. For smart tabbing - with the Smart tab option enabled on the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog - this command will tab forwards on the current line, in keeping with the start of new words on the previous line.
Shift+Tab	Tab backwards from the current cursor position. For standard tabbing, the number of characters involved in the tab is determined by the entry in the Tab Stops field, on the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog. The default entry in this field is `4` - therefore this command will tab backwards four characters at a time.
Text Deletion
Backspace	Delete a single character to the left of the cursor. If one or more characters in the document are selected, the command will delete the selection.
Delete	Delete a single character to the right of the cursor. If one or more characters in the document are selected, the command will delete the selection.
Ctrl+Backspace	Delete all characters back to the beginning of the first word immediately to the left of the current cursor position.
Ctrl+Q+Y	Delete all characters from the current cursor position to the end of the current line.
Ctrl+T	Delete all characters up to the beginning of the first word immediately to the right of the current cursor position.
Miscellaneous
Shift+Ctrl+C	Clear any filtering that is currently applied to the active document.
Ctrl+Enter	Automatically open a document that the cursor is currently over. Note that this feature will only open documents that are stored in the same location on the hard disk as the text document making the call. If the document does not reside in that directory, an Open dialog will appear, from where you can browse to and open the required document. If the document is already open when a call is made, the document will become the active document. Note also that this feature will only open documents that have no spaces in their filenames. For example, `Example_Design_File.SchDoc` and `ExampleDesignFile.SchDoc` will both open using this feature, but `Example Design File.SchDoc` will not.
Insert	Toggle the text mode between Insert (additional text is added into the document at the cursor position) and Overwrite (additional text overwrites existing text as you type). The current mode is shown on the Status Bar. This feature can also be toggled from the Text Editors - General page of the Preferences dialog by enabling/disabling the Insert mode option.
Shift+Ctrl+n (n=1-9)	Store the current location of the text cursor into location marker n. A new location assigned to the location marker will overwrite a previously defined location.
Ctrl+n (n=1-9)	Move the text cursor to a predefined location on the current document, as stored in location marker n. If the applicable location marker has not been set, the text cursor will remain at its current location.
Scripting Specific
F9	Run the current script. If a run script is not defined, nominate a startup script procedure to execute in the Select Item to Run dialog.	-
Ctrl+F9	Run the current script up to the line where the text cursor is currently positioned, then pause.	-
F5	Toggle an enabled breakpoint for the current line. Clicking in the gutter will also toggle the breakpoint for the current line.	-
Ctrl+F7	Open the script Evaluate dialog to see the current value (result) of the expression located at the cursor. Note that this command is only available while the script is running or being debugged (stepped through).	-
F7	Step into and execute the next line of code. Use to execute the current script one line at a time.	-
F8	Step over (execute without stopping) a called procedure. If the line statement is not a called procedure, step into and execute the line as normal.	-
Ctrl+F3	Halt (stop) a currently running script procedure.	-
Ctrl+F5	Access the Add New Watch dialog in which you can define a new watch expression for the current script.	-
Ctrl+Click on variable/method	Jump the cursor to the respective variable/method declaration point.	-
Ctrl+J	Access the Statement Templates pop-up window.	-
Ctrl+Space	Access the Method Parameters pop-up window.	-
Alt+Ctrl+B	Open the Breakpoints panel.	-
Alt+Ctrl+E	Open the Code Explorer panel.	-
Alt+Ctrl+I	Open the Object Inspector panel.	-
Alt+Ctrl+P	Open the Tool Palette panel.	-
Alt+Ctrl+S	Open the Call Stack panel.	-
Alt+Ctrl+W	Open the Watch List panel.	-
F12	Toggle between the Code and Form view for the active script document.	-

Printer-friendly version

If you find an issue, select the text/image and pressCtrl + Enterto send us your feedback.

Text-based Document Editor Shortcuts

General Editing

Document Scrolling

Finding Text

Text Cursor Movement

Text Selection

Text Column Selection

Insertion

Text Deletion

Miscellaneous

Scripting Specific

Content

Was this page helpful?