40+ Most Useful Time Saving WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts

The metric of how productive you are at work is directly proportional to the amount of time an individual takes per task.

While you might not feel it happening from the outset, navigating from your keyboard to your mouse and back again can significantly hamper your work productivity.

You might have seen spreadsheet power users navigating through columns, rows, and sheets without taking their hands of the keyboard. Fortunately, WordPress content writers can also do a similar thing with the help of some very powerful keyboard shortcuts for WordPress.

In this article, we will be talking about those shortcuts, showing you how they work, and how, with practice, you can boost your WordPress task productivity without having to lift your hands off the keyboard.

By the end of this article, you will have a fair understanding of a variety of WordPress shortcuts. To keep things modernized, we have also included keyboard shortcuts for the Gutenberg Editor as well.

So, without further ado, let’s begin with the first list of keyboard shortcuts.

WordPress Shortcuts for The Windows Platform

Ctrl + A – Selects all the text within a specific text field
Ctrl + C – Copies the selected into the clipboard
Ctrl + V – Pastes the selected text from the clipboard into a text field or a file
Ctrl + B – Makes selected text bold
Ctrl + I – Italicizes the selected text
Ctrl + U – Underlines selected text
Ctrl + K – Prompts a link box to open where you can link a selected text to a URL
Ctrl + X – Copies text to clipboard but removes it in the process
Ctrl + Z – Undo recent changes
Ctrl + S – Save changes
Ctrl + P – Opens up the printer to print text
Alt +Shift + X – Selected text becomes monospace
Alt +Shift + H – Displays the keyboard shortcuts on WordPress

WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac

While the WordPress shortcuts are generally the same on Mac, there are a few differences in the keys that are used to call those commands.

Command + C – Copies the selected into the clipboard
Command + V – Pastes the selected text from the clipboard into a text field or a file Command + B – Makes selected text bold
Command + I – Italicizes the selected text
Command + X – Copies text to clipboard but removes it in the process
Command + A – Selects all the text within a specific text field
Command + Z – Undo recent changes
Command + S – Save changes
Command + P – Opens up the printer to print text
Command + U – Underlines selected text
Command + K – Prompts a link box to open where you can link a selected text to a URL
Option + Control + X – Selected text becomes monospace
Option + Control + H – Displays the keyboard shortcuts on WordPress

All of the shortcuts mentioned above are applicable when you’re working on the post/page editor on WordPress. While it will take some practice and time, adding these shortcuts to your muscle memory can make you workday more productive.

Gutenberg Keyboard Shortcuts for the WordPress Block Editor on Windows

Now that the classic editor is replaced by Gutenberg as the default post/page editor, we feel that its important to make you aware of the keyboard shortcuts available on Gutenberg.

Gutenberg, like the classic editor, comes with the same set of keyboard shortcuts with a few minor exceptions. Let’s look at some of them, shall we:

Enter – Add blocks to the editor
Ctrl + Shift + D – Duplicate the selected block(s)
Alt + Shift + Z – Delete selected block(s)
Ctrl + Alt + T – Creates new block(s) before selected blocks
Ctrl + Alt + Y – Opens new blocks to open after selected blocks.
/ – Allows you to change the block type once you add a new paragraph
Esc – Clear your selection
Ctrl + Shift + Z – Brings you back to the previous undo
Ctrl + Shift + , – Shows/hides the settings menu
Alt + Shift + O – Opens up the block navigation menu
Alt + Shift + N – Helps you move to the next part of the block editor
Alt + Shift + P – Helps you move to the previous part of the block editor
Alt + F10 – Navigates you to the nearest toolbar
Ctrl + Shift + Alt + M – Enables you to switch between the block and code editor.

Gutenberg Keyboard Shortcut for Mac users:

Enter – Add blocks to the editor
/ – Allows you to change the block type once you add a new paragraph
Command + Shift + D – Duplicate the selected block(s)
Control + Option + Z – Delete selected block(s)
Command + Option + T – Creates new block(s) before selected blocks
Command + Option + Y – Opens new blocks after selected blocks.
Esc – Clear your selection
Command + Shift + Z – Brings you back to the previous undo
Command + Shift + , – Shows/hides the settings menu
Option + Control+ O – Opens up the block navigation menu
Option + Control+ N – Helps you move to the next part of the block editor
Option + Control+ P – Helps you move to the previous part of the block editor
fn + Option + F10 – Navigates you to the nearest toolbar
Command + Option + Shift + M – Enables you to switch between the block and code editor.

WordPress Formatting Shortcuts

To make your content writing and editing processes a lot simpler, WordPress has a few shortcuts introduced specifically for quicker formatting. They are not exactly keyboard shortcuts, but learning them would prove as a handy alternative when you’re writing or editing.

These are some of the shortcuts we will be discussing:

Ordered and unordered lists
Blockquotes
Horizontal lines

When you’re in the WordPress Editor, typing the following keys will perform several different functions. Here are some of them:

* – Starts an unordered list
“1.” – Starts an ordered list
Alt + Shift + 2 – H2 heading
Alt + Shift + 3 – H3 heading
You can use the Alt+Shift+4, 5 and 6 to accordingly use the H4, H5, and H6 headings
Shift + Alt + Q – Creates blockquotes of a selected paragraph

Conclusion:

These are tough to get used to, we know. With enough time and practice, however, these shortcuts promise speed and productivity in your workday. Gain productivity for your workday with these time saving tips and get more work done.

We hope this article proved informative to you!

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