In short
Shortcuts belong to the IDE: the editor, the terminal and notebooks. They are all rebindable, and two presets — RStudio and Jupyter — align the notebook shortcuts in one go with whichever tool you are used to.
Cmd or Ctrl, depending on your machine
Combinations are written Cmd/Ctrl: that is the Command key on a Mac, Control on Windows and Linux. The rest is the same.
General
These work anywhere in the IDE.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Toggle sidebar | Cmd/Ctrl + B |
| Toggle terminal | Cmd/Ctrl + ` |
| New file | Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + N |
| Clear terminal / output | Cmd/Ctrl + K |
Why Alt for "New file"
Cmd/Ctrl + N is reserved by the browser, which opens a window without a page being able to prevent it. The shortcut therefore goes through Alt.
Editor
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Save file | Cmd/Ctrl + S |
| Run selection / line | Cmd/Ctrl + Enter |
| Run file | Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Enter |
| Run file as background job | Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + J |
| Toggle comment | Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + C |
Four more are handled by the code editor itself and therefore keep their usual combinations: find (Cmd/Ctrl + F), find and replace (Cmd/Ctrl + H), undo (Cmd/Ctrl + Z) and redo (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z).
Notebooks
This is where habits diverge most, which is why the two families have their own defaults.
| Action | R Notebooks (Rmd / Qmd) | Jupyter (ipynb) |
|---|---|---|
| Run cell | Cmd/Ctrl + Enter | Cmd/Ctrl + Enter |
| Run cell and advance | Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Enter | Shift + Enter |
| Run cell and insert below | — | Alt + Enter |
| Run all cells | Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + R | Cmd/Ctrl + F9 |
| Run all cells above | Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + P | F8 |
| Insert cell | Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + I | — |
| Insert cell above | — | A |
| Insert cell below | — | B |
| Delete cell | — | D |
| Render document | Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + K | Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + K |
A dash marks an action with no default shortcut: it stays available from the menu, and you can assign one to it.
Both sets coexist
The R notebook shortcuts apply only to an .Rmd or .qmd file, the Jupyter ones only to an .ipynb. Working with both formats therefore needs no setting.
Customising
The Keyboard shortcuts window opens from the IDE toolbar. It lists shortcuts by family — General, Editor, Terminal, R Notebooks, Jupyter Notebooks.
To change one, click its combination: the application shows “Press keys…” and records what you type.
Conflicts are flagged
If the combination is already taken, the application says so and names the action concerned, rather than letting two identical shortcuts fight over the key.
Some combinations are out of reach
Those the browser reserves are marked as such: no web page can intercept them. Others are handled by the code editor and keep their standard behaviour.
You can always go back
Each shortcut has its own reset button, and a global one puts everything back to its original value.
The presets
A Preset selector offers RStudio and Jupyter. It aligns the notebook shortcuts in one go with either set of habits — useful when you arrive from one of those tools and would rather not relearn the gestures.
Your shortcuts follow you, not the project
They are saved with your personal preferences, like the editor theme. They do not travel in an export and are not imposed on your colleagues.