Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigating Applications

Since there are so many applications that you can use in the GNOME Desktop, this manual does not describe all the custom keyboard shortcuts that you can use with each individual application. However, the basic keyboard shortcuts are common to many applications.

Access keys are another way to quickly navigate applications with the keyboard. An access key is identified by an underlined letter on a menu or control. In some cases, you must press Alt in combination with the access key to perform an action.

The following table lists the essential keyboard shortcuts that you can use to navigate applications:

Keys	Function
F10	Open the first menu on the application menubar.
Alt + access key	Open the menu that is associated with the access key.
access keys	Select the menu item that is associated with the access key.
left arrow and right arrow	Switch focus between the menus on the menubar.
up arrow and down arrow	Move focus into a menu.
Esc	Close the open menu and give focus to the control that had focus before the menubar.
Ctrl+O	Open the file selector dialog.
Ctrl+S	Open the Save dialog.
Ctrl+L	Open a Location dialog, enabling you to type the name of a file that you want to open or save.
Ctrl+P	Open a Print dialog, if available.
Ctrl+C	Copy highlighted text to the global, application-spanning clipboard.
Ctrl+X	Cut highlighted text to the global, application-spanning clipboard.
Ctrl+V	Paste text from the global, application-spanning clipboard to the current cursor position.