Keyboard shortcuts

These are the keyboard shortcuts Linea Codex defines, grouped by where they apply. (Inside the editor, the usual text-editing keys — select-all, move-line, word-delete and the like — follow standard CodeMirror/OS conventions and aren’t repeated here.) Many of the most-used commands also live in the menu bar and remember their shortcut beside the label, so you rarely have to memorise anything — but the tables below are the authoritative reference for the app’s own shortcuts.

The ⌘ / Ctrl convention

Linea Codex follows the platform convention for the primary modifier:

Modifier	macOS	Windows / Linux
Primary (“mod”)	⌘ Command	Ctrl
Secondary	⌃ Control	Ctrl
Option / Alt	⌥ Option	Alt
Shift	⇧ Shift	Shift

Throughout this page each shortcut shows the macOS form first and the Windows / Linux form second. A handful of shortcuts use both ⌘ and ⌃ on macOS — those are called out where they appear.

Focus matters

Shortcuts are scoped to where your focus is. The global shortcuts fire from anywhere in the workspace, but the per-area tables (tree, editor, spec viewer, pedigree, panels) only fire when that surface has keyboard focus. While you’re typing in a text field or the editor, the global menu shortcuts stand down so they don’t interfere with what you’re typing.

Global commands

These work from anywhere in the workspace. They map to the File and Edit menus.

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux	What it does
Apply	⌘S	Ctrl+S	Commits the current edit into the in-memory document.
Save	⇧⌘S	Ctrl+Shift+S	Writes the project to disk (OPFS storage).
Undo	⌘Z	Ctrl+Z	Reverts the last committed change.
Redo	⇧⌘Z	Ctrl+Y	Re-applies the last undone change.
Add record	⌃⌘N	Ctrl+N	Starts a new top-level record.

Apply is not Save

Apply (⌘S / Ctrl+S) commits your edit to the working document in memory. Save (⇧⌘S / Ctrl+Shift+S) is the separate step that writes that document to disk. The two are deliberately distinct — see Apply vs. discard and Saving and exporting.

Two details worth knowing:

• Redo differs by platform. On macOS it’s ⇧⌘Z (Shift+Command+Z); on Windows / Linux it’s Ctrl+Y. This matches each platform’s house style.
• Add record needs ⌃⌘N on macOS (Control and Command), but only Ctrl+N elsewhere — the extra Control on macOS avoids clashing with the browser’s own ⌘N. The same command also lives behind the Add Record submenu, where you pick the record type (Person, Family, Source, Note, Multimedia, Repository, Submitter); the submenu shows the shortcut as a hint.

Many menu commands have no keyboard shortcut and are reached from the menu only. Among them: New Project, every Export variant (Export, Export As…, Export as GEDZIP, Export as ZIP), Convert version, Advanced search…, Renumber Cross-References, Sort Records, Transform Nodes…, Specification, and Build pedigree. Delete also has no global shortcut — record deletion is bound locally in the tree (see below) so it can’t fire while you’re typing.

See also: Saving and exporting · Converting GEDCOM versions · Bulk transforms · Search.

Record tree navigation

These fire when the record tree has focus. They move the focused row without touching the global history.

Action	Key	What it does
Move down / up	↓ / ↑	Moves focus to the next / previous visible row.
Expand / into child	→	Expands a collapsed row; on an already-expanded row, steps into its first child.
Collapse / to parent	←	Collapses an expanded row; otherwise steps up to the parent.
First / last row	Home / End	Jumps to the first / last row in the tree.
Open or expand	Enter	Expands an expandable row, or selects a record to open it in the editor.
Delete record	Delete / Backspace	Deletes the focused record (only when it can be deleted — HEAD, TRLR, and group headers can’t).

Separately, session history moves between the records you’ve visited and is global:

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux	What it does
Back	⌘←	Alt+←	Returns to the previously viewed record.
Forward	⌘→	Alt+→	Steps forward again through history.

Tip

The mouse’s back / forward thumb buttons drive the same Back / Forward history, so you can mix mouse and keyboard freely.

See also: The record tree · Relatives & relationships.

The editor (CodeMirror)

These fire when the editor has focus. The first three work in both editor modes; the indentation keys apply only in structured mode, where each GEDCOM level is four spaces of indent.

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux	What it does
Apply	⌘S	Ctrl+S	Commits the current record’s edits (same as the global Apply).
Look up tag in spec	F1	F1	Opens the spec viewer on the tag at the cursor.
Autocomplete	⌃Space	Ctrl+Space	Opens autocomplete for valid tags / values at the cursor.
New line (keep indent)	Enter	Enter	Structured mode: starts a new line at the same GEDCOM level.
Indent / accept	Tab	Tab	Structured mode: accepts an open completion, otherwise indents one level (re-parents the node).
Outdent	⇧Tab	Shift+Tab	Structured mode: outdents one level.
Delete a level	Backspace	Backspace	Structured mode: in leading indentation, removes a whole level instead of one space.

On a DATE line, ⌃Space / Ctrl+Space opens the date editor popup instead of the tag autocomplete (see the next section).

Follow a reference with the modifier held:

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux	What it does
Jump to record	⌘-click a pointer	Ctrl-click a pointer	Navigates to the record a @xref@ points to.
Open tag in spec	⌘-click a tag	Ctrl-click a tag	Opens the spec viewer on that tag.

These are mouse-plus-modifier gestures, not pure keyboard shortcuts; hold the platform modifier and the pointer / tag becomes a link. See Following references.

See also: The editor · Editor modes · Autocomplete · Quick-fixes.

The date editor

The date editor is a small popup form anchored to a DATE line.

Action	Key	What it does
Open the date editor	⌃Space / Ctrl+Space	On a DATE line, opens the structured (or raw) date form.
Move within the form	Tab / ⇧Tab	Cycles through the form’s fields and buttons (focus is trapped in the popup).
Close	Esc	Closes the popup, reverting to the line’s original text.

See also: The date editor · Dates & places.

The spec viewer

These fire while the spec viewer panel has focus.

Action	Key	What it does
Toggle in-page search	⌘F / Ctrl+F	Shows / hides the find box for the open spec page.
Next / previous match	Enter / ⇧Enter	With the find box focused, moves to the next / previous match.
Back / forward	⌥← / ⌥→ (Alt+← / Alt+→)	Walks the spec viewer’s own page history.
Close search / table of contents	Esc	Closes the find box, or the table of contents on narrow layouts.

See also: The spec viewer.

The pedigree view

These fire when the pedigree canvas has focus.

Action	Key	What it does
Move selection	↑ ↓ ← →	Moves the selected card across the drawn frontier (expanding the tree if you step past it).
Build pedigree here	Enter	Re-anchors the chart on the selected card.
Center on anchor	F	Flies the camera back to the anchor card.
Fit to screen	0	Frames the whole chart in the viewport.
Zoom in / out	+ / -	Zooms the camera (the unshifted = also zooms in).
Card menu	⇧F10 / Menu	Opens the context menu for the selected card.

See also: The pedigree view.

Panel lists

The validation panel supports list navigation when focused — the same pattern any focused list uses:

Action	Key	What it does
Next / previous issue	↓ / ↑	Walks the list of validation issues.
First / last issue	Home / End	Jumps to the first / last issue.

Click any issue (or focus it and select) to jump to it in the editor and inspector.

See also: Reading and fixing validation.

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If a shortcut here ever seems off, the menu bar is the source of truth at your fingertips: every command that has one shows its shortcut next to the label, rendered for your platform.