Last reviewed on 2026-04-24
Learning every keyboard shortcut in every app is a waste of a life. A small, deliberately chosen set — the ten or so that show up in every program you use — pays back almost all of the benefit. The rest is garnish.
This guide lists the shortcuts that are worth hard-coding into your muscle memory, groups them by what they actually do, and finishes with the handful that are specific to CNotepad.
Where a shortcut differs between platforms, both are shown. Use Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and most Linux desktops.
These work in almost every text input everywhere — email, notes apps, browsers, IDEs. If you learn nothing else, learn these.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Cmd + C | Copy selection. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + X | Cut selection. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + V | Paste. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Z | Undo. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z | Redo (also Ctrl+Y on Windows). |
| Ctrl/Cmd + A | Select all. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + S | Save. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + F | Find. |
If any of these eight is still a menu-click-and-search operation for you, fixing that is the single highest-value shortcut upgrade you can make. Start there.
These shortcuts change how fast you move a cursor through a line of text. Most people type the same words per minute on the keyboard but lose minutes every day slowly arrow-keying between positions.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Option + ←/→ | Jump one word left or right. |
| Home / End (Cmd+←/→ on macOS) | Jump to start or end of line. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + ↑/↓ | Jump to top or bottom of the document. |
| Any of the above with Shift | Select while moving. |
| Ctrl/Alt + Backspace | Delete the previous word. |
Most people underestimate how much of their typing time is spent moving around, not writing. The word-jump and line-jump pair alone will shave a noticeable amount off a writing session.
If the browser is your main working environment, these save more time than almost anything else on this page.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/Cmd + T | Open a new tab. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + W | Close the current tab. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T | Reopen the last closed tab. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + Tab | Switch to the next tab. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + 1…9 | Jump to tab 1 through 9. |
| Ctrl/Cmd + L | Jump to the address bar. |
Fewer people use these, but they matter if you juggle many apps.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Alt + Tab (Windows/Linux) / Cmd + Tab (macOS) | Switch between open apps. |
| Cmd + ` (macOS) | Switch between windows of the current app. |
| Windows + ←/→ | Snap the active window to half the screen. |
| Cmd + H (macOS) | Hide the current app. |
| Cmd/Ctrl + Space | Open the system launcher (Spotlight on macOS; Start search on Windows). |
If you remember only one application-level shortcut, make it the launcher. Typing the first three letters of an app name is faster than clicking through a dock or start menu — and it works consistently across operating systems.
CNotepad uses a small set of shortcuts that mirror the universal ones above where possible.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + N | Create a new sticky note. |
| Ctrl + T | Create a new tab. |
| Ctrl + F | Focus the search box to find notes. |
| Tab | Navigate between notes and controls for keyboard accessibility. |
| Click on canvas | Create a note at the cursor position. |
| Drag a note | Reposition it on the canvas. |
| Double-click a note | Edit its text. |
You can also click the colour picker in the toolbar to choose the default colour for new notes, and the icons on the right side of the toolbar open the templates, export, import, and trash dialogs.
Reading a list does not burn a shortcut into memory. Four habits that work: