Brackets Shortcuts
In this chapter, we are going to show the most used and important Brackets shortcuts.
Important Tips:
Do not try to learn all the shortcuts at once.
Try using the important ones first and use them frequently so that you do not need to memorize them. Use them often as a habit while coding.
Related to Files & Folders
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra Comments |
| Ctrl+N | Create a New File under Working Files | |
| Ctrl+O | To open a File from your computer | Use this option to open a file from some other project |
| Ctrl+Shift+O | Quick Open | Good option to quickly open a file from current project |
| Ctrl+Alt+O | To Open a Folder(Not File) | Remember this as it is very useful |
| Alt+O | To Open Recent Files(Not Folder) | |
| Ctrl+W | Closes the current file | |
| Ctrl+Shift+W | Closes all the files | |
| F2 | To rename a file |
Editing Shortcuts
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl+D | Duplicate a Line or Selection | Duplicates a selection if text is selected else it duplicates the line |
| Ctrl + / | To toggle Line comment | Use this for Single Line |
| Ctrl + Shift+ / | To toggle Block comment | Use this for Multiple lines |
| Ctrl + Enter | To add a new line after the current line. | The cursor can be anywhere in the line |
| Ctrl + Shift + Enter | To add a new line before the current line. | The cursor can be anywhere in the line |
| Ctrl + Shift + D | To Delete the current line | |
| Ctrl+C | To copy entire line or a selection | If you do not select a string to copy, it will copy the entire line |
| Ctrl+X | To Cut entire line or a selection | If you do not select a string to Cut, it will cut the entire line |
Find & Replace
| Shortcuts | Description |
| Ctrl + F | To find a regular expression pattern or a text in the current file |
| Ctrl + Shift + F | To find a regular expression pattern or a text in entire project(in multiple files) |
| F3 | To find the Next text or pattern |
| Shift + F3 | To find the Previous text or pattern |
| Ctrl + H | To find a regular expression pattern or a text in the current file and replace it with another text |
Important Tips:
The “Batch” button of the “Replace” button will give option to select the files where you want to replace the word with.
Related to Work-space & View
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl++ | To Increase the size of the Font | Use Zoom Wheel Extension as an alternative |
| Ctrl– | To decrease the size of the Font | Zoom Wheel Extension as a better alternative |
| Ctrl+0 | To Reset the Font size | |
| Ctrl+Alt+P | Shows Live Preview | It is better to use the “Live Preview” icon |
| Ctrl+Alt+H | Hides/Shows the working & Project Files Sidebar | Better to show the Hidebar by default |
| Ctrl+Shift+2 | No Distractions – Hides the sidebar from left and right sides | Use this option if you like to work on Full view |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | Live Preview Highlight | Works only when “Live Preview is enabled”. Keep it checked |
Navigate
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl + Shift + O | To Quickly open files from the list | |
| Ctrl + G | To quickly go to a particular Line | |
| Ctrl + T | Opens the “Quick Find Defintion” in that File | |
| Shift + Ctrl + T | Opens the “Quick Find Defintion” in that entire project | |
| Ctrl + J | Jump to Definition | Very good feature for PHP in Brackets |
| Ctrl + Page Down | Navigate to the next document(file) in the List | |
| Ctrl + Page Up | Navigate to the previous document(file) in the List | |
| Ctrl + E | Opens the Quick Edit feature | Very good feature of Brackets |
| Ctrl + K | Navigate to Quick Docs to learn about that element/tag/property etc. | Very good feature of Brackets. This works for both HTML as well as CSS |
Move Cursors
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl+ → | To move to the next word | |
| Ctrl+ ← | To move to the previous word | |
| Alt + → | To move to the end of current line | End Key is better option |
| Alt+ ← | To move to the Start of current line | Home key is better option |
| Ctrl+ Home | To move the cursor at the Start of file | |
| Ctrl+ End | To move the cursor at the End of file |
Selection
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl+ L | To select the current and the next lines | |
| Ctrl+ B | To select the current line | The cursor can be at the start, in-between or end of the word |
| Shift + Alt + → | To select the next words in the line from the cursor position | |
| Shift+ Alt + ← | To select the previous words in the line from the cursor position | |
| Shift+Ctrl + Home | To select from the cursor position to the start of the file | |
| Shift+Ctrl + End | To select from the cursor position to the end of the file |
Indent & Move
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl+ Shift + ↑ | Move the current line or selection to previous line | |
| Ctrl+ Shift + ↓ | Move the current line or selection to next line | |
| Ctrl + ] | To indent the code to Right side | Similar to pressing a Tab Key |
| Ctrl + [ | To indent the code to Left side | Similar to pressing a ‘Shift+Tab’ Key |
| Tab | To move the code to right with an amount of space by Tab | |
| Shift + Tab | To move the code to left with an amount of space by Tab |
Quick Edit
| Shortcuts | Description |
| Ctrl + E | Opens the Quick Edit option |
| Ctrl + N | To create a new rule (inside the Quick Edit option only) |
| Alt + ↑ | To navigate to the previous rule for the same tag |
| Alt + ↓ | To navigate to the next rule for the same tag |
| Esc | To close the Quick Edit Window/Panel |
Important Tips:
- You can open multiple quick edit window in the file
- To close the current Quick Edit window, place your cursor inside this window and press ‘ESC‘
- To close all the Quick Edit windows, place your cursor on the main document(except inside any Quick Edit windows) which has multiple Quick edit sessions and press ‘ESC‘
Cursors to add match
| Shortcuts | Description | Extra comments |
| Ctrl + B | Select the next match | You can select some selection and change them at once |
| Ctrl + Shift + B | Skip and select the next match | |
| Ctrl + U | Undo the changes of the last selectiion | |
| Ctrl + Shift + U | Redo the changes of the last selectiion | |
| Ctrl + Click | Keep adding those texts in your selection | |
| Alt + Click + Drag | Select a column or multiple columns across multiple lines | This is an important feature which is present in most of the code editors |
| Alt + Shift + ↑ | Expands the cursor from the current position to the previous lines | |
| Alt + Shift + ↓ | Expands the cursor from the current position to the Next lines |
Important Tips:
Selecting cursors across multiple lines gives you an option to edit changes in multiple lines simultaneously
Debug related
| Shortcut | Description | Extra comments |
| F12 | This shows the Developer Tools | Powerful – Opens Chrome dev tools in Brackets itself |
| F5 | Refresh – Reload with extensions | In case of an issue, try refreshing your brackets using this shortcut |
| Shift + F5 | Reoad without extensions | To find out issues related to extensions, use this |
Help
| Shortcut | Description |
| F1 | To open Brackets support link |
Bonus Tips:
- We are not showing the basic shortcuts like Ctrl + A, Ctrl + V, etc because these are common across any editors
- This tutorial contains the list of shortcuts which are sufficient and we do not recommend to try learning all the Brackets shortcuts
- Learn the shortcuts as per your usage. Slowly, you will be able to master them
If you are looking for a comprehensive list, visit the Github link.