WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts to Maximize Your Productivity

Time undeniably is a precious commodity and all productive people live by this rule. The faster you can work, the more you can accomplish and stay competitive. If you are looking tips for how to save time while writing posts in WordPress, then you need to use WordPress keyboard shortcuts. It let you keep your hands on your keyboard without losing the ability to select text, add formatting, or even moderate your comments section.

It might not seem like it takes very long. But every time you need to move your hands away from your keyboard to use your mouse, there’s going to be a short period of wasted time. For this reason over a full day of work, that time can add up. The main secret of speed is the keyboard shortcuts. And by the end of this article, you’ll know a huge variety of WordPress keyboard shortcuts.

The basic WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts

If you use your PC a lot, then you’re probably already familiar with keyboard shortcuts like ctrl + c and ctrl + v. I just put here few popular handy shortcuts that help you increase your productivity. This shortcuts can be used in various other applications outside of WordPress as well. For example, in a Microsoft Word doc. Of course, these are just generic keyboard shortcuts. But most modern operating systems and associated software applications undoubtedly will understand it. I think, it must be remembered any user!

 

Win/Linux Keyboard	Mac Keyboard	Action
Ctrl + C	Command (⌘) + C	Copy
Ctrl + V	Command (⌘) + V	Paste
Ctrl + X	Command (⌘) + X	Cut
Ctrl + A	Command (⌘) + A	Select all
Shift + Left	Shift + Left	Select one letter to the left
Shift + Right	Shift + Right	Select one letter to the right
Ctrl + Shift + Left	Command (⌘) + Shift + Left	Select one word to the left
Ctrl + Shift + Right	Command (⌘) + Shift + Right	Select one word to the right
Ctrl + Shift + Up	Command (⌘) + Shift + Up	Select one line above
Ctrl + Shift + Down	Command (⌘) + Shift + Down	Select one line below
Shift + Home	Shift + Home	Select all text until the beginning of the current line
Shift + End	Shift + End	Select all text until the end of the current line
Ctrl + Z	Command (⌘) + Z	Undo
Ctrl + Y	Command (⌘) + Y	Redo
Ctrl + P	Command (⌘) + P	Print

 

WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts (WYSIWYG)

WordPress comes with a slightly modified version of Tiny MCE editor. It appears on the Visual tab in your WordPress post editor. It is a rich text editor with formatting buttons much like MS Office. Many beginner level users use their mouse to access these formatting and styling buttons on the editor. Using WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts you can rest your hands on keyboard and edit posts quicker. Mac users running any WordPress version below 4.2 can use “Alt + Shift (⇧) + letter”.

Total Shortcuts

Win/Linux Keyboard	Mac Keyboard	Action
Ctrl + Shift + F	Command (⌘) + Shift + F	Fullscreen
Alt + Shift + W	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + W	Free writing mode
Alt + Shift + N	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + N	Check Spelling
Alt + Shift + H	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + H	Help
Alt + Shift + Z	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + Z	Expands the WordPress Editor formatting bar
Shift + Enter	Shift + Enter	Move down in the editor one line without inserting a full line break

Formating Content

Win/Linux Keyboard	Mac Keyboard	Action
Ctrl + B	Command (⌘) + B	Bold
Ctrl + I	Command (⌘) + I	Italic
Ctrl + U	Command (⌘) + U	Underline
Ctrl + K	Command (⌘) + K	Insert/edit link
Ctrl + Shift + V	Command (⌘) + Shift + V	Paste as plain text (without any formatting)
Alt + Shift + L	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + L	Align Left
Alt + Shift + C	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + C	Align Center
Alt + Shift + R	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + R	Align Right
Alt + Shift + D	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + D	Strikethrough
Alt + Shift + J	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + J	Justify Text
Alt + Shift + O	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + O	Ordered List
Alt + Shift + U	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + U	Unordered List
Alt + Shift + 1	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + 1	Heading 1
Alt + Shift + 2	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + 2	Heading 2
Alt + Shift + 3	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + 3	Heading 3
Alt + Shift + 4	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + 4	Heading 4
Alt + Shift + 5	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + 5	Heading 5
Alt + Shift + 6	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + 6	Heading 6
Alt + Shift + A	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + A	Insert Link
Alt + Shift + S	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + S	Remove Link
Alt + Shift + M	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + M	Insert Image
Alt + Shift + Q	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + Q	Insert Quote
Alt + Shift + T	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + T	Insert More Tag
Alt + Shift + P	Ctrl + Option (⌥) + P	Insert Page Break Tag

WordPress Formatting Shortcuts

For things like lists and headings, the main advantage of formatting shortcuts is that they don’t require you to hit as many keys at the same time as the keyboard shortcuts above. Unlike the keyboard shortcuts above, you activate formatting shortcuts by actually typing something into the WordPress Editor. You must be using the Visual tab for these shortcuts to work.

Formatting shortcuts are a WordPress 4.3 feature that help you automatically add formatting. Note, you need to hit Space or sometimes Enter after typing any of the shortcuts to apply the formatting.

Character	Action
1.	Start an ordered list
1)	Second way of ordered list
*	Start an unordered list
–	Second way of unordered list
##	Heading 2
###	Heading 3
####	Heading 4
#####	Heading 5
######	Heading 6
>	Creates a blockquote
—	Creates a horizontal line
`..`	Transform text into code block

Comments Moderation Shortcuts

If you receive a lot of comments then you can moderate comments quickly using keyboard shortcuts for comment management. With these shortcuts you can fly through hundreds of comments in no time. By default, these shortcuts are disabled. In this case you can enable them with just a few seconds of work:

Firstly, go to Users → Your Profile in your WordPress dashboard.
Secondly, check the box next to Keyboard Shortcuts to Enable keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.
Thirdly, save your changes.

Single Comment

Key	Action
J	Next comment (moves the current selection down)
K	Previous comment (moves the current selection up)
A	Approve comment
U	Unapprove comment
D	Delete comment
R	Reply comment
Q	Quick edit a comment
Z	Restore Comment from Trash or Undo if you Delete a comment

Bulk Actions

You can also perform an action on multiple comments at once. You’ll need to select the comments for the bulk action, using the x key to check the checkbox for the currently selected comment. Shift-x can be used to toggle the checkboxes, inverting their state.

Shortcuts	Action
Shift + A	Approve checked comments
Shift + U	Unapprove selected comments
Shift + D	Delete checked comments
Shift + T	Move selected comments to trash
Shift + Z	Restore selected comments from trash

Shortcuts for Gutenberg

At the present time, here are some neat ways that you can speed up content creation in the new Gutenberg editor.

Win/Linux Keyboard	Mac Keyboard	Action
/	/	Quick-insert a block by its name
Enter	Enter	Create a new block
CTRL + Shift + ALT + M	Cmd + Shift + ALT + M	Switch to the code editor or to the block editor (if you’re already in the code editor)

Note: these are keyboard shortcuts that are specific to Gutenberg. Because Gutenberg is still in beta, this section will certainly evolve in the future as Gutenberg becomes more finalized. Maybe will be wrote additional article about Gutenberg only, and for not to miss it, I recommend signing up for news.