Most of the keyboard shortcuts in NEdit-ng are shown on the right hand sides of menus. However, there are more which are not as obvious. These include; dialog button shortcuts; menu and dialog mnemonics; labeled keyboard keys, such as the arrows, Page Up, Page Down, and Home; and optional Shift modifiers on accelerator keys, like [Shift] Ctrl + F.

Pressing the key combinations shown on the right of the menu items is a shortcut for selecting the menu item with the mouse. Some items have the "Shift" enclosed in brackets, such as [Shift] Ctrl + F. This indicates that Shift is optional. In Search commands including Shift reverses the direction of the search. In shift commands, it makes the command shift the selected text by a whole tab stop rather than by single characters.

Pressing Alt in combination with one of the underlined characters in the menu bar pulls down that menu. Once the menu is pulled down, typing the underlined characters in a menu item (without Alt) activates that item. With a menu pulled down, you can also use the arrow keys to select menu items, and Space or Enter to activate them.

Keyboard Shortcuts within Dialogs

The default button in a dialog is usually marked with a highlighted outline. Pressing Return or Enter activates this button.

All dialogs have either a Cancel or Close button. This button can be activated by pressing Escape (or Esc).

Pressing Tab moves the keyboard focus to the next item in a dialog. Within an associated group of buttons, the arrow keys move the focus among the buttons. Shift + Tab moves backward through the items.

Many items in dialogs have an underline under one character in their name. Pressing Alt along with this character, activates a button as if you had pressed it with the mouse, or moves the keyboard focus to the associated text field or list.

You can select items from a list by using the arrow keys to move the selection and space to select.

In file selection dialogs, you can type the beginning characters of the file name or directory in the list to select files.

Labeled Function Keys

The labeled function keys on standard workstation and PC keyboards, like the arrows, and Page Up and Page Down, are active in NEdit-ng, though not shown in the menus.

Holding down Ctrl while pressing a named key extends the scope of the action that it performs. For example, Home normally moves the insert cursor the beginning of a line. Ctrl + Home moves it to the beginning of the file. Backspace deletes one character, Ctrl + Backspace deletes one word.

Holding down Shift while pressing a named key begins or extends a selection. Combining Shift and Ctrl combines their actions. For example, to select a word without using the mouse, position the cursor at the beginning of the word and press Ctrl + Shift + →.
Holding down Alt modifies selection commands to make the selection rectangular.

Your operating system may perform several levels of translation between keyboard keys and the actions they perform in a program. Customizing NEdit-ng, and Config Entries have more information on this subject. Because of all of this configurability, and since keyboards and standards for the meaning of some keys vary from machine to machine, the mappings may be changed from the defaults listed below.

Modifier Keys (in general)

  • Ctrl
    Extends the scope of the action that the key would otherwise perform. For example, Home normally moves the insert cursor to the beginning of a line. Ctrl + Home moves it to the beginning of the file. Backspace deletes one character, Ctrl + Backspace deletes one word.
  • Shift
    Extends the selection to the cursor position. If there's no selection, begins one between the old and new cursor positions.
  • Alt
    When modifying a selection, makes the selection rectangular.

(For the effects of modifier keys on mouse button presses, see Using the Mouse)

All Keyboards

  • Escape
    Cancels operation in progress: menu selection, drag, selection, etc. Also equivalent to Cancel or Close button in dialogs.
  • Backspace
    Delete the character before the cursor
  • Ctrl + Backspace
    Delete the word before the cursor
  • ←
    Move the cursor to the left one character
  • Ctrl + ←
    Move the cursor backward one word (Word delimiters are settable, see Customizing NEdit-ng, and Config Entries)
  • →
    Move the cursor to the right one character
  • Ctrl + →
    Move the cursor forward one word
  • ↑
    Move the cursor up one line
  • Ctrl + ↑
    Move the cursor up one paragraph. (Paragraphs are delimited by blank lines)
  • ↓
    Move the cursor down one line.
  • Ctrl + ↓
    Move the cursor down one paragraph.
  • Ctrl + Return
    Return with automatic indent, regardless of the setting of Auto Indent.
  • Shift + Return
    Return without automatic indent, regardless of the setting of Auto Indent.
  • Ctrl + Tab
    Insert an ASCII tab character, without processing emulated tabs.
  • Ctrl + Alt + <C>
    Insert the control-code equivalent of a key <C>
  • Ctrl + /
    Select everything (same as Search → Select All or Ctrl + A)
  • Ctrl + \
    Unselect
  • Ctrl + U
    Delete to start of line

PC Standard Keyboard

  • Ctrl + Insert
    Copy the primary selection to the clipboard (same as Edit → Copy or Ctrl + C)
  • Ctrl + Shift + Insert
    Copy the primary selection to the cursor location.
  • Delete
    Delete the character before the cursor. (Can be configured to delete the character after the cursor, see Customizing NEdit-ng, and Config Entries)
  • Ctrl + Delete
    Delete to end of line.
  • Shift + Delete
    Cut, remove the currently selected text and place it in the clipboard. (same as Edit → Cut or Ctrl + X)
  • Ctrl + Shift + Delete
    Cut the primary selection to the cursor location.
  • Home
    Move the cursor to the beginning of the line
  • Ctrl + Home
    Move the cursor to the beginning of the file
  • End
    Move the cursor to the end of the line
  • Ctrl + End
    Move the cursor to the end of the file
  • Page Up
    Scroll and move the cursor up by one page.
  • Page Down
    Scroll and move the cursor down by one page.
  • Alt
    Make the menu bar active for keyboard input (Arrow Keys, Return, Escape, and the Space Bar)
  • Alt + Home
    Switch to the previously active document.
  • Ctrl + Page Up
    Switch to the previous document.
  • Page Down
    Switch to the next document.

Specialty Keyboards

On machines with different styles of keyboards, generally, text editing actions are properly matched to the labeled keys, such as Remove, Next-screen, etc.. If you prefer different key bindings, see Key Binding.