Keyboard shortcuts

Wabcut uses Premiere Pro's default keyboard shortcuts, panel by panel, so the keys you know from Premiere do the same thing here. You can change any key, import the key set you use in Premiere, and practise with the Keyboard Trainer.

Some shortcuts work everywhere in the app; others belong to one panel. When a panel uses the same key as an app-wide shortcut, the panel's shortcut wins while that panel has focus, as in Premiere. For example, Ctrl+L is "Loop" in the "Audio Track Mixer" and "Link" everywhere else.

This page lists the Windows keys. The Linux preview uses the same keys. For a Mac, see Shortcuts on a Mac.

The shortcuts you'll use most#

Panels have keys too: Shift+1 for the Library, Shift+2 the Source Monitor, Shift+3 the Timeline, Shift+4 the Program Monitor and Shift+7 Effects. The multi-camera keys (1–9, Ctrl+1–8 and Shift+0) are in Multicam. To see every command with its key, open Keyboard Shortcuts or the command palette.

Shuttle with J, K and L#

• Play faster. Press L to play forward. Press it again for 2x, 4x and then 8x, the top speed. J does the same in reverse. Changing direction starts again at normal speed.
• One press, one step. Holding L down doesn't keep speeding up; press it again for each step.
• Stop. Press K.
• Step a frame. Hold K and tap J or L.
• Play slowly. Hold K and hold J or L to play at a quarter of normal speed in that direction. Let go of either key to stop.
• After Space. If you started playback with Space, the next L climbs from that speed.

The same keys play the source while the Source Monitor has focus. In the Trim view (Shift+T), with edit points selected, J, K and L trim dynamically: playback runs from the edit point and the trim follows it. If you move the shuttle commands to other keys, all of this moves with them.

Change a shortcut#

Open Keyboard Shortcuts with Ctrl+Alt+K, or choose "Keyboard Shortcuts…" in the File menu (click the logo, or press Alt+F). It is also under Help ("Keyboard shortcuts…"), in Settings > "Keyboard", and in the command palette. It has two parts:

• A keyboard map. Each key shows what it does with the modifier keys you have chosen, coloured by kind: app-wide shortcuts, panel shortcuts, or both (split). Click a modifier key to see another combination. Click a key to list what it does in every panel; from there you can remove a shortcut, or give the key to the command chosen in the list.
• A list of commands. Search by Wabcut's name, Premiere's name, the group or a shortcut (typing "Ctrl+K" finds Add Edit). A filter shows app-wide commands, all panels or one panel. Commands Wabcut doesn't run yet are dimmed.

To give a command a new key:

1. Find the command in the list.
2. Click + on its row and press the new keys. Esc cancels.
3. If another command in the same place already uses those keys, Wabcut asks first. Choose "Reassign" to take the keys from that command, as Premiere does, or "Cancel".

Changes work straight away. You can also remove a shortcut with the × on its keycap, drag a command from the list onto a key in the map, or use the reset arrow on a changed row to put that command back to its default. Wabcut warns you when a panel shortcut would take over an app-wide one on the same keys, for example "While the Timeline has focus, “Clear” runs instead".

Some commands have no key by default, as in Premiere: "Record Voice-over", "Remove Attributes…", and the gaming moves "Slow-mo at Playhead" and "Punch-in at Playhead". A key you give a moment also shows next to it under the timeline's "Moments" button and in a clip's "Moments" menu. Commands added by extensions are listed under "Extensions", with no key until you give them one.

Choose a key set#

The key set list has:

• "Premiere Pro (default)": Premiere's default keys, unchanged.
• "Wabcut": Premiere's keys with three changes. Ctrl+Y also redoes (on Windows). Backspace ripple-deletes in the Timeline, as in DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, and Alt+Backspace still does too. The Timeline's "Clear" therefore loses Backspace; Delete still clears everywhere.
• Your own sets. "Save as a new key set…" keeps your current keys under a name.

Wabcut remembers the set you chose, and the editor says "modified" when your keys differ from it. "Reset" puts every key back to Premiere Pro's defaults.

When you first start Wabcut, the welcome's "Your keys" page offers the same choice: "Premiere Pro defaults", or "Import my key set (.kys)…" for your own Premiere shortcuts.

Import a Premiere key set#

First save your key set in Premiere Pro: choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and save your set. Premiere saves it as a .kys file.

1. In Keyboard Shortcuts, choose "Import…".
2. Choose the .kys file.

The key set is merged into your current keys, as Premiere's own import does. Every command the key set mentions gets exactly its shortcuts (or none, if it has none there); commands it doesn't mention keep theirs. A report names the Premiere commands that have no Wabcut equivalent and counts the commands that changed.

• A Mac key set can't be used on Windows or Linux, or the other way round.
• Key sets saved by Premiere Pro 25 and 26 have been checked. If a newer Premiere saves a different layout, Wabcut refuses the file instead of guessing.
• A key Wabcut can't read, for example one saved with a non-US keyboard layout, is skipped with a warning, and that command keeps its current keys.

"Export…" saves your changes as a .json file, and "Import…" reads it back. Wabcut can't save a .kys file for Premiere yet.

Practise with the Keyboard Trainer#

1. Choose Help > "Keyboard Trainer…". It is also on the last page of the welcome and in Settings > "Keyboard".
2. Choose a category: "Editing", "Clipboard", "Markers", "Trim", "Playback", "Tools", "Timeline" or "Multicam".
3. Press Enter to start. Wabcut names an action; press its shortcut.
4. Press Esc to close the trainer.

The trainer asks for the keys of your current key set, so an imported or changed key is the one you practise.

Render In to Out#

Since 0.1.1, Enter (or "Render In to Out" in the sequence menu) renders preview files of the range between In and Out, or of the whole sequence when there are no marks. Use it for heavy stretches that don't play smoothly.

• The files go next to the project, in a folder called "<project> Preview Files".
• The monitor then plays the rendered file for that range. An edit in the range makes it play live again until you render again.
• A pill in the title bar shows the progress. Click it, or press Enter again, to stop.
• The Enter key on the number pad works too.

Keys kept for later#

Wabcut's shortcut tables follow Premiere's, including commands Wabcut doesn't run yet. Their keys are kept for later, as in Premiere, and do nothing for now. In Keyboard Shortcuts those commands are dimmed.

Earlier 0.1 versions kept some tool keys for later. They all work now:

• H (Hand) and Z (Zoom) since 0.1.1;
• R (Rate Stretch), P (Pen), T (Type), G (Audio Gain) and Shift+G (Audio Channels) since 0.1.2.

When a key does nothing#

• You're typing. In a text field, letters, arrows and Enter go to the field. Ctrl shortcuts the field doesn't use, such as Ctrl+S, still work.
• A menu or dialog is open. Editing shortcuts don't run until it closes.
• Your keyboard isn't a US layout. Shortcuts on punctuation keys assume a US layout and may not match on others. The keyboard map shows a US keyboard too.

Shortcuts on a Mac#

The macOS preview uses Premiere's macOS defaults. That is a table of its own, not the Windows keys with Cmd swapped in. Most Ctrl shortcuts use Cmd, and Alt becomes Opt, but some differ:

Menus and tooltips show the Mac symbols, such as ⇧⌘K.

The full tables, with the source of every key, are in the developer docs: Keymap.