Keyboard shortcuts

Three ways to look a shortcut up in the app:

• Help › Controls cheat sheet (?) opens Drawing shortcuts, a one-page document of the drawing keys you can print or keep open in a tab.
• Help › Search keyboard shortcuts opens Settings › Shortcuts, the full list, where you can also change any of them.
• Ctrl+K (Search everything) shows each command's shortcut beside it.

Tools

One key each, from anywhere on the canvas.

Key	Tool	Key	Tool
V	Select	S	Brackets and shapes
P	Annotate (pen and shapes)	O	Orbitals
D	Bond	T	Text
R	Ring	Q	Charges
W	Arrow	E	Erase

Tool variants

With a tool on, these keys pick a variant from the row above the toolbar.

Tool	Keys
Select	V click, M marquee, L lasso
Bond	1 single, 2 double, 3 triple, G chain, U wedge, H hash, Y wavy, B bold, A aromatic
Ring	J benzene, 3 to 8 cyclopropane to cyclooctane
Arrow	1 forward, 2 equilibrium, 3 lies forward, 4 lies backward, 5 resonance, 6 retrosynthetic, 7 curly, 8 fishhook, 9 no reaction
Brackets and shapes	1 bracket, 2 parentheses, 3 box, 4 ellipse, F frame
Orbitals	1 p orbital, 2 sp³, 3 sp², 4 sp, 5 sp³ set, 6 sp² set, 7 sp set, 8 π bond, 9 s orbital
Charges	+ plus, - minus, L lone pair
Annotate	B pen, P path, 1 to 8 rectangle, ellipse, triangle, polygon, star, line, arrow line, custom shape

Every command

The tables below are the defaults, taken from the app's own list. Notes in parentheses say where a shortcut only works in the desktop app: in a browser, the browser keeps Ctrl+N, Ctrl+T and Ctrl+W for itself.

On the canvas

Command	Shortcut
Set the element of the atom under the pointer	C N O S P F I H B K
Type any label: Cl, Br, OMe, Boc	Enter
Positive charge	+
Negative charge	−
Over a bond: single, double, triple. Over an atom: grow a bond	1 2 3
Over a bond: wedge, hash, bold, dashed, wavy; F swaps its ends	W H B D Y
Over a bond: fuse a ring of that size, A for benzene	4-8 A
Nudge the selection	↑↓←→
Nudge it further	Shift+↑↓←→
Rotate counterclockwise	Alt+←
Rotate clockwise	Alt+→
Draw a reaction arrow off it	Ctrl+↑↓←→
Delete the selection	Delete
Select nothing	Escape
Hold and drag to pan	Space
Play or pause the film	Shift+Space
Add to the selection	Shift+click
Pick one atom or one group member	Ctrl+click
Select atom by atom	Ctrl+drag
Select a whole reaction	Double-click an arrow

File

Command	Shortcut
Close tab (desktop app only)	Ctrl+W
Comment mode	Shift+C
Export again	Ctrl+Alt+E
Export…	Ctrl+Shift+E
New document (desktop app only)	Ctrl+N
New tab (desktop app only)	Ctrl+T
Open a file	Ctrl+O
Reopen closed tab	Ctrl+Alt+T
Version history	Shift+H

Edit

Command	Shortcut
Align text center	Ctrl+Shift+C
Align text left	Ctrl+Shift+L
Align text right	Ctrl+Shift+R
Bold text	Ctrl+B
Copy	Ctrl+C
Cut	Ctrl+X
Equation…	Alt+=
Find and replace…	Ctrl+F
Italic text	Ctrl+I
Paste in place	Ctrl+Shift+V
Quick insert…	/
Redo	Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z
Select all	Ctrl+A
Undo	Ctrl+Z

Draw

Command	Shortcut
Annotate	P
Arrows	W
Bond tool	D
Brackets and shapes	S
Charges	Q
Erase	E
Orbitals	O
Ring templates	R
Select	V
Text	T

Insert

Command	Shortcut
Insert sticky note	Shift+S

Selection

Command	Shortcut
Align bottoms	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+B
Align centers horizontally	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+M
Align centers vertically	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C
Align left edges	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L
Align right edges	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R
Align tops	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T
Bring to front	[[]]]
Copy style	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C
Duplicate (desktop app only)	Ctrl+D or Ctrl+Shift+D
Exclude	Alt+Shift+E
Group	Ctrl+G
Hide selection	Ctrl+Shift+H
Intersect	Alt+Shift+I
Make catalytic cycle	Ctrl+Alt+Y
Paste style	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V
Send to back	[
Space evenly across	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+H
Space evenly down	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V
Subtract	Alt+Shift+S
Ungroup	Ctrl+Shift+G
Union	Alt+Shift+U

Chemistry

Command	Shortcut
Check structure	Shift+K
Clean up reaction	Ctrl+Shift+X
Clean up structure	Ctrl+Shift+K
Convert text to a structure (desktop app only)	Ctrl+Shift+N
Copy as SMILES	Alt+Ctrl+C
Plan synthesis…	Shift+R
Structure to name	Ctrl+Alt+N

View

Command	Shortcut
3D view	Shift+D
Hide all chrome	Tab
Next tab	Ctrl+Tab
Previous tab	Ctrl+Shift+Tab
Timeline (desktop app only)	Ctrl+Shift+T
Zoom in	Ctrl+=
Zoom out	Ctrl+-
Zoom to 100%	Ctrl+0
Zoom to fit	Shift+1
Zoom to selection	Shift+2

Panels

Command	Shortcut
Expand the library	Shift+M
Open 3D preview	Shift+3
Open AI assistant	Shift+A
Open Compound info	I
Open Layers	Shift+L
Open Library	Shift+B
Show structure issues	Shift+E

AI

Command	Shortcut
Ask arbastro Intelligence	Ctrl+J

Help

Command	Shortcut
Controls cheat sheet	?
Search everything	Ctrl+K

Change a shortcut

Any shortcut can be changed, removed or added in Settings › Shortcuts, and the ChemDraw classic set swaps in ChemDraw's keys. See How to change a keyboard shortcut.