Keyboard Shortcuts
Current shortcut bindings are routed through shortcutRegistry, so presets and per-action overrides update live from Settings.
Presets
Section titled “Presets”MasterSelects ships with 6 presets:
- MasterSelects
- Premiere Pro
- DaVinci Resolve
- Final Cut Pro
- After Effects
- Beginner
Beginner currently matches MasterSelects.
Preset Differences
Section titled “Preset Differences”| Action | MasterSelects / Beginner | Premiere Pro | DaVinci Resolve | Final Cut Pro | After Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loop | Shift+L | Ctrl+L | Ctrl+/ | Ctrl+L | none |
| Cut tool | C | C | B | B | none |
| Split at playhead | Shift+C | Ctrl+K | Ctrl+B | Ctrl+B | Ctrl+Shift+D |
| Clear In/Out | X | Ctrl+Shift+X | Alt+X | Alt+X | none |
| Frame step | Left/Right | Left/Right | Left/Right | Left/Right | PageUp/PageDown or Ctrl+Left/Right |
| Add marker | M | M | M | M | Numpad* or Shift+8 |
| New project | Ctrl+N | Ctrl+Alt+N | none | Ctrl+N | Ctrl+Alt+N |
| Open project | Ctrl+O | Ctrl+O | none | Ctrl+O | Ctrl+O |
| Save | Ctrl+S | Ctrl+S | Ctrl+S | none | Ctrl+S |
| Save As | Ctrl+Shift+S | Ctrl+Shift+S | Ctrl+Shift+S | none | Ctrl+Shift+S |
| Redo | Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y | Ctrl+Shift+Z | Ctrl+Shift+Z | Ctrl+Shift+Z | Ctrl+Shift+Z |
On Mac, Ctrl maps to Cmd and Alt maps to Option.
Current Bindings
Section titled “Current Bindings”Playback
Section titled “Playback”Spacetoggles play/pause.Jreverses playback.Kpauses playback.Lplays forward.Shift+Ltoggles loop playback in the default preset.Isets the in point at the playhead.Osets the out point at the playhead.Xclears in/out in the default preset.
Navigation
Section titled “Navigation”Shift+Scrollpans horizontally.Ctrl+ScrollorAlt+Scrollzooms the timeline around the playhead.Ctrl+Shift+ScrollorCmd+Shift+Scrolltoggles slot-grid view.LeftandRightarrows step one frame at a time.
Editing
Section titled “Editing”Cselects the Blade tool in the default preset.Escapeexits cut mode.Shift+Csplits the clip at the playhead in the default preset.Ctrl+Ccopies selected keyframes when any are selected; otherwise it copies selected clips.Ctrl+Vpastes keyframes when the clipboard contains keyframes; otherwise it pastes clips.Delete/Backspaceremoves selected keyframes first, then clips.Madds a marker at the playhead.
Selection
Section titled “Selection”- Click selects a single clip.
Ctrl+Click/Cmd+Clickadds or removes a clip from the selection.Shift+Clicktoggles only the clicked clip.- Normal click on a linked video clip selects the linked audio clip too.
Alt+dragmoves linked clips independently.
Keyframes
Section titled “Keyframes”- Click a diamond to select a keyframe.
Shift+Clickadds or removes keyframes from the selection.Shift+dragmoves keyframes more slowly.- Right-click a keyframe to change easing.
- Right-click a Bezier handle to reset it to its default position.
Blend Modes
Section titled “Blend Modes”+orNumpad+advances the blend mode on the selected clip(s).-orNumpad-moves to the previous blend mode.- In After Effects preset mode, the blend-mode bindings follow the AE-style
Shift+=/Shift+-layout.
Project
Section titled “Project”Ctrl+Ncreates a new project in presets that expose it.Ctrl+Oopens a project in presets that expose it.Ctrl+Ssaves the current project.Ctrl+Shift+Ssaves as a new project name.Ctrl+Zundoes the last action.Ctrl+Shift+Zredoes the last action.Ctrl+Yis available in the default preset only.
Preview
Section titled “Preview”Tabtoggles preview edit mode on the focused editable preview, or on the first editable preview when no preview has focus.1,2,3, and4highlight the matching slot in the multi-preview panel.
Panels
Section titled “Panels”- The German-layout umlaut key toggles fullscreen for the hovered dock tab.
Gtoggles the timeline between timeline and graph view.
Masking
Section titled “Masking”When the Mask panel is active, the default preset provides P (pen), V (edit path), R (rectangle), E (ellipse), Enter (close path), Alt+I (invert), Alt+H (toggle outline), Ctrl+A (select all vertices), and B (toggle selected vertex handles).
Context-Specific Behavior
Section titled “Context-Specific Behavior”Timeline Keyframes
Section titled “Timeline Keyframes”Ctrl+C/Ctrl+Vobey the keyframe clipboard first.- Paste uses the selected clip when exactly one clip is selected; otherwise it falls back to the original clip from the copied keyframes.
Preview Edit Mode
Section titled “Preview Edit Mode”Tabonly works when the preview source is editable.- The preview panel ignores the shortcut when showing a non-editable source monitor.
- In camera edit mode,
1,2,3, and4animate only the focused/first edit preview between Front, Side, Top, and Camera view. Escapecloses an open Source Monitor when text entry does not own the key.
Docking
Section titled “Docking”Escapealso cancels panel drag operations in the dock container.
Inputs
Section titled “Inputs”- Text inputs, textareas, content-editable regions, and ARIA textboxes retain keyboard ownership.
- A primary pointer press outside the currently focused control releases that old focus before editor surfaces handle the gesture. This prevents controls whose pointer handlers cancel the browser default from retaining stale focus.
- Global shortcut actions claim each key event at most once.
Spacecontrols the hovered playable Source Monitor; everywhere else it controls timeline playback. Text entry and target handlers that already consumed the event still take precedence. - Timeline or Source Monitor transport claims release stale focused controls before handling
Space, preventing native button activation from the same key press.Enterremains with deliberately focused controls. - Directional keys remain with deliberately focused native or ARIA controls such as sliders, selects, and tab lists, independent of user shortcut remapping.
- Non-conflicting global shortcuts keep the current keyboard focus, preserving the user’s place in the Tab order.
- Visible focus rings remain enabled for genuine keyboard navigation; the focus policy does not hide outlines with CSS.
- Save / Save As still prevent the browser default save dialog even when focus is inside an input.
Customization
Section titled “Customization”- Shortcuts can be changed in
Preferences -> Shortcuts. - Each action can be assigned one recorded combo; preset maps can provide multiple combos.
- Conflicts are detected live in the UI.
- Custom named presets are saved locally.
- Resetting to a preset clears manual overrides.
Input Display
Section titled “Input Display”Preferences -> General -> Input Display can show recent key presses, mouse clicks, mouse drags, and wheel gestures as a large overlay near the bottom-left of the app.
- The overlay can be toggled on or off.
- The size slider persists locally.
- Moving the size slider shows a live mock overlay in the real screen position.
- Mouse clicks show the mouse icon without a click text label.
- Drag input is distinguished from a simple click after the pointer moves past a small threshold and remains visible until the drag ends.
- Wheel input shows scroll up, down, left, or right and stays as one continuous overlay while scrolling continues.
- Held keys are combined with pointer input, so combinations such as
Shift + Left DragorCtrl + Scroll Upare visible.