Keyboard Shortcuts

^{!!! Work in progress !!!}

Not all PICO-8 hardware has a keyboard, but when it does, there are many keyboard shortcuts that one can use. Known shortcuts are listed here.

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Important: the lists below all start with the shortcuts for a QWERTY keyboard layout on a Windows build of PICO-8. Key bindings for other keyboard layouts or platform builds are only listed if they are known to be different from the Windows Build.

If your key isn't listed, or doesn't work right, try to use the Windows-style shortcut the way you would usually expect one to be done in your own OS. For instance, if you know Undo is Ctrl-Z on Windows, you'd want to try Cmd-Z on MacOS. Certain MacOS functions, but not all, permit the use of either the Ctrl or Cmd keys interchangeably. For instance, both Ctrl+C and Cmd+C will copy text on MacOS. As such, certain functions may have multiple redundant shortcuts listed under the MacOS column. As these are functionally equivalent, you can choose whichever shortcut works best for your workflow and/or preference.

Also, if you are on a different regional layout, such as AZERTY or QWERTZ, try using the key that would be in the same physical position as the QWERTY key. And remember, there is a keyconfig command you can use to change in-game button assignments.

Readers with knowledge of other platforms are encouraged to fill in the blanks if they know of keys that differ from the Windows layout. Don't worry too much about following the tricky formatting in these tables, unless you want to. Feel free to just enter whatever helpful notes you have, even if they aren't put into the tables. Someone else can do the formatting later if needed. Thanks!

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Global use

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Quit	Alt+F4	Ctrl+Q	⌘Cmd+Q
Reload/Run/Restart	Ctrl+R	Ctrl+R	⌘Cmd+R
Quick-Save	Ctrl+S	Ctrl+S	⌘Cmd+S
Mute/unmute	Ctrl+M	Ctrl+M	^Ctrl+M
Editor toggle	Esc	Esc	Esc
Full screen toggle	Alt+Enter	Alt+Enter	⌘Cmd+F
Save a screenshot to desktop	F1 / F6 Ctrl+6		^Ctrl+6
Capture cartridge label image	F2 / F7 Ctrl+7		^Ctrl+7
Start recording a video	F3 / F8 Ctrl+8		^Ctrl+8
Save GIF video to desktop	F4 / F9 Ctrl+9		^Ctrl+9
Toggle keyboard cursor	F5 / F10 Ctrl+0		^Ctrl+0
Toggle FPS display	Ctrl+1		^Ctrl+1
Previous editor	Alt+←	Alt+←	⌥Alt+←
Next editor	Alt+→	Alt+→	⌥Alt+→

While running

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Pause menu	P / Enter
Performance Monitor	Ctrl+P

See btn() for details on default controller/keyboard mappings, and keyconfig for info on changing those mappings.

Command Line

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Copy (entire line)	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
History	↑  /  ↓
End-of-line	End Ctrl+E
Start-of-line	Home Ctrl+A
Kill to end-of-line	Ctrl+K
Kill to start-of-line	Ctrl+U
Clear screen	Ctrl+L

Text Editor

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Cut	Ctrl+X		⌘Cmd+X
Copy	Ctrl+C		⌘Cmd+C
Paste	Ctrl+V		⌘Cmd+V
Select All	Ctrl+A		⌘Cmd+A
Katakana (Japanese) Font Entry Mode Toggle	Ctrl+K		⌘Cmd+K
Hiragana (Japanese) Font Entry Mode Toggle	Ctrl+J		⌘Cmd+J
Puny (Small Caps) Font Entry Mode Toggle	Ctrl+P		⌘Cmd+P
Glyph (Icons) Font Entry	Shift+ABC...XYZ		Shift+ABC...XYZ
Insert/overwrite toggle	Ins
Add indented line and 'END'	Shift+Enter
Start of line	Home Ctrl+W
End of line	End Ctrl+E
Start of document	Ctrl+Home Ctrl+ ↑
End of document	Ctrl+End Ctrl+ ↓
Previous word	Ctrl+←
Next word	Ctrl+→
Previous function	Alt+ ↑
Next function	Alt+ ↓
Indent selection	⇥Tab
Un-indent selection	Shift+⇥Tab
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Y
Find text in current tab	Ctrl+F
Find text aGain	Ctrl+G
Repeat search across tabs (Hyper search)	Ctrl+H
Go to Line number	Ctrl+I Ctrl+L
Duplicate current line	Ctrl+D
Toggle comment Block	Ctrl+B		⌘Cmd+B
Switch to next tab	Ctrl+⇥Tab		^Ctrl+⇥Tab
Switch to previous tab	Ctrl+Shift+⇥Tab		^Ctrl+Shift+⇥Tab

Sprite editor

All tools:

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Pan tool	Space+🖰 LClick+Drag
Copy (see note below)	Ctrl+C
Paste (at current sprite location)	Ctrl+V
Undo/Redo (single-step)	Ctrl+Z
Previous sprite	Q
Next sprite	W
Sprite above	Shift+Q
Sprite below	Shift+W
Previous color	1
Next color	2
Toggle full view	⇥Tab
Replace color	Ctrl+🖰 LClick
Shift by one pixel	← / → /  ↑  /  ↓
Flip Horizontal	F H
Flip Vertical	V
Rotate 90° CCW	R
Zoom	< / > 🖰 Wheel

Draw tool:

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste (at upper left)	Ctrl+V
Replace color	Ctrl+🖰 LClick
Color Picker	🖰 RClick

Stamp tool:

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Stamp with color 0 transparent	LCtrl+🖰 LClick

Select tool:

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Select none	Enter

Fill tool:

(n/a?)

Lower sprite sheet area:

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Select multiple sprites (for flip, shift, copy, rotate)	Shift+🖰 LClick+Drag

Note: When a sprite or range of sprites is copied to the clipboard, they may be pasted into other programs as a text-encoded representation. This representation can be uploaded in a BBS post and will show as the actual sprite. Similarly, a sprite encoded in text may be copied from outside of PICO-8 and pasted into the sprite editor.

Map editor

Function	MacOS
Move a sprite to another sprite and changes all sprites on map equal to the sprite number to the new sprite number	Ctrl+X

SFX editor

Both views

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Swap pitch/note views	Tab	Tab
Increase Speed	Period	Period
Decrease Speed	Comma	Comma
Increase Speed by 4	Shift + Period	Shift + Period
Decrease Speed by 4	Shift + Comma	Shift + Comma
Switch to Next Sound Effect	=	=
Switch to Previous Sound Effect	-	-
Switch to n+4 Sound Effect	Shift+=
Switch to n-4 Sound Effect	Shift+-
Change all notes to the selected instrument	Shift+🖰 LClick on an instrument

Note view

For each of the transpose shortcuts, you need to have notes selected.

Function	Windows	Linux	MacOS
Select Multiple Notes	Shift+🖰 LClick the notes (first click is left side, second click is right side)
Apply Effect to All Notes	Shift+🖰 LClick an effect
Navigate down/up 4 notes	Ctrl+ ↓  or Ctrl+ ↑
Navigate to right/left column	Ctrl+→ or Ctrl+←
Transpose +1 (one semitone)	Shift+2
Transpose +2	Shift+W
Transpose +3	Shift+3
Transpose +4	Shift+E
Transpose +5	Shift+R
Transpose +6	Shift+5
Transpose +7	Shift+T
Transpose +8	Shift+6
Transpose +9	Shift+Y
Transpose +10	Shift+7
Transpose +11	Shift+U
Transpose +12 (one octave)	Shift+i
Transpose +13	Shift+9
Transpose +14	Shift+O
Transpose +15	Shift+0
Transpose -12 (one octave)	Shift+Z
Transpose -11	Shift+S
Transpose -10	Shift+X
Transpose -9	Shift+D
Transpose -8	Shift+C
Transpose -7	Shift+V
Transpose -6	Shift+G
Transpose -5	Shift+B
Transpose -4	Shift+H
Transpose -3	Shift+N
Transpose -2	Shift+J
Transpose -1	Shift+M

Music editor

(TODO)