Keyboard shortcuts

flowss is built to be driven from the keyboard. A handful of keys work everywhere — the command palette, the shortcut sheet, the AI prompt — and each studio adds its own set for its tools, panels, zoom and exports. This page is the complete reference: the platform-wide keys, the keys every island studio shares, each studio's own keys, the places where studios deliberately differ, the chords your browser may keep for itself, and the mouse, trackpad and touch gestures that go with them. The ? sheet inside each studio always shows the live list for the screen you are on.

At a glance

How to read the keys on this page

Keys are written the Mac way. On Windows and Linux, read them as follows:

A few rules apply everywhere:

• ⌘ and Ctrl are interchangeable for flowss's own shortcuts. Wherever this page says ⌘, both Command and Ctrl work, on any computer. The shortcut sheet prints ⌘ on a Mac and Ctrl elsewhere.
• Shortcuts stay out of your typing. While your cursor is in a text field, the code editor or another editable area, single-key shortcuts and most chords do nothing, so typing an "h" never switches tools. The few that deliberately work while you type are marked "works while typing" below.
• A bare key never answers a chord. A single-key shortcut such as + or 0 never fires when you hold ⌘, so your browser's own page zoom (⌘+, ⌘−, ⌘0) keeps working in the studios that use bare keys for the canvas.
• Punctuation follows your keyboard layout. ?, +, { and } mean the character, whatever keys your layout needs to type it.
• Option on a Mac. flowss recognises ⌥ shortcuts by the physical key, so they work even though a Mac turns Option and a letter into a special character.

Platform keys

These work across the whole product.

Inside the command palette

In the studio switcher

The studio switcher is the button with the studio's name in the header bar (Study, the Library, the Flow console, Scholar).

In the island studios the same list is under the app menu's Studios ▸.

Keys shared by every island studio

The eight studios on the island layout — Studio, Weave, Lab, BPMN, Science, Figure, Sketch and Evidence — share the keys below. Each one steps aside when a studio already uses the same key for something of its own, so a studio's key always wins; the action stays reachable from its button and from ⌘K.

Moving around the islands with the keyboard

The prompt

The document title and switcher

Panels and their edges

Studio

The Studio publishes the largest set of keys. Everything here also appears in its ? sheet.

Studio canvas keys

These are single keys, so they never interfere with your browser's page zoom.

What Escape closes in the Studio

Escape closes one panel per press, topmost first: Settings, the embed dialog, the schema import dialog, the explain dialog, the shortcut sheet, TikZ / LaTeX, Diagram Intelligence, the Diagram timeline, the Icon library, Data → Chart, Comments, Collaborate, the flowss Studio Agent and finally the welcome tour. In the code editor, Escape belongs to the editor; click the canvas first. The code editor also keeps its own standard editing commands (find, multiple cursors and so on), which take priority while your cursor is in it.

See The Studio editor and Data, timeline, TikZ and the diagram tools.

Weave

Weave's ? opens its own sheet, which also lists its mouse gestures.

Building a board without the mouse

These keys work when exactly one ordinary shape is selected. With nothing selected, or with several shapes selected, Tab and Enter keep their usual meaning.

Mind maps

When a mind-map node is selected, these take priority over the keys above.

Fold or unfold a branch by clicking the caret on the node.

Presenting a walkthrough

These keys work only while a walkthrough is running; the rest of the time the arrow keys, F and Space keep their usual meaning.

See Weave.

Sketch

Tools

Press a letter to pick a tool.

Heart, Speech bubble and Cloud have no key; pick them from the rail.

Editing

While editing text or a sticky note

Panels, view and file

In the Find on board box, Enter goes to the next match, ⇧Enter to the previous one (both wrap around), Escape closes the box, and ⌘F again re-selects the search text. In the AI wireframe dialog, ⌘Enter generates.

Presenting frames as slides

⌘K and ? keep working while you present.

See Sketch.

Lab

Escape closes one thing per press, in this order: a pending AI change (discarding it, with the message "AI change discarded"), the photo recogniser, the shortcut sheet, the insert menu, the template picker, revisions, comments, compliance, provenance, publish, the advisor, the flowss Lab Agent, the Hand tool, and finally the block selection. In a block's menu, Escape while renaming returns to the menu, and a second Escape closes it.

The revision timeline deliberately has no key, because every sensible chord is taken by a browser or the operating system; open it from its button or from ⌘K. The code pane keeps its own editor's undo and other commands while your cursor is in it. See Lab.

BPMN

BPMN's ? opens its own sheet, which lists both the canvas's built-in keys and the studio's own.

Zoom to fit and Zoom to selection have no key in BPMN; use the zoom menu. See BPMN.

Science

Hold Space and drag to pan in any tool; hold ⇧ and drag to draw a selection box. See Science.

Figure

See Figure.

Evidence

These single keys work when no button, tab, menu item or table row has focus; Escape works from anywhere.

See Evidence.

Study

Study's twenty-plus screens are reached by name: press ⌘K and type the screen's name.

Reviewing cards

Rating keys only work once the answer is showing, never while you type an answer, and never with ⌘, Ctrl or ⌥ held — so ⌘1 still switches browser tabs.

Answering concept questions

The learning map

When the map has focus:

See Study.

The Library

See Your library.

Where studios deliberately differ

A few keys mean different things in different studios. Each studio's sheet notes the difference beside the row.

Chords your browser may keep

Some chords are reserved by browsers or operating systems and never reach a web page. flowss avoids them, or gives you another way in.

Mouse, trackpad and touch

Other gestures:

• Weave: double-click a shape to rename it, or an arrow to edit its label; ⇧-click, ⌘-click or Ctrl-click adds to the selection; the Box-select tool draws a selection box; drag from any handle to connect; right-click a shape, an edge or the canvas for a menu; drag a shape near another for smart guides.
• Science: double-click empty canvas to zoom in; shapes snap to an 8-pixel grid; ⇧-drag draws a selection box.
• Every island studio on a touch screen: pinch to zoom where the canvas supports it, and hold two fingers still on the canvas for a little over half a second to hide or show the interface (moving either finger cancels the hold).
• Study on a touch screen: swipe a turned-over card to rate it.

Tips

• Press ? in any studio to see exactly what that screen answers; it is generated from the live keys, so it is never out of date.
• ⌘K reaches every action that has no key of its own — type its name.
• If a key seems to do nothing, click the canvas first: your cursor may still be in a text field.
• In Weave, select one shape and press Tab repeatedly to grow a flow without touching the mouse.
• In Sketch, F6 to F10 toggle the five workshop panels.
• Use ⌥Z to hide everything but your work when presenting on a call or taking a screenshot.

Limits and known constraints

• On Windows and Linux the sheet prints Ctrl, but the command-palette hint in the header always shows ⌘K; both mean the same key.
• Some chords are reserved by browsers and may never reach flowss (see "Chords your browser may keep").
• Keys cannot be remapped.
• Study's screens have no individual keys; reach them by name with ⌘K.
• The Lab's revision timeline has no key.
• Single-key shortcuts in Evidence only work when no button, tab or table row has focus.
• Weave's creation keys need exactly one ordinary shape selected; with several shapes selected, Tab and Enter keep their usual meaning.

Troubleshooting

Related pages

• A tour of the workspace
• Quickstart: your first diagram in ten minutes
• The Studio editor
• Data, timeline, TikZ and the diagram tools
• Weave
• Sketch
• Lab
• BPMN
• Science
• Figure
• Evidence
• Study
• Troubleshooting and FAQ