EtherPK User Docs

Keyboard Shortcuts

Which keys work in EtherPK depends on where the keyboard focus is. App keys work anywhere in an open graph. Most of them keep working while you type in a text box such as the search box, but Ctrl+Alt+K does nothing there. Editor keys act at the cursor, and what they do depends on the kind of line the cursor is on: a bullet or task, a code block, the frontmatter, or other text. A Kanban board, the find box and the command menu have keys of their own, which work while the focus is in them.

Apart from Ctrl+K, Ctrl+/, Ctrl+Alt+K and the find keys, app keys use Alt so that they do not clash with the browser's Ctrl keys. The app handles the find keys only while a document is in front and no dialog is open. Otherwise Ctrl+F opens the browser's own find. Outside document text, the browser gets any Ctrl key that this page does not list. In document text, the standard text editing keys also work, such as Ctrl+Shift+K to delete a line.

On a Mac, press Cmd where this page says Ctrl and Option where it says Alt, unless a row gives its own Mac keys. For the Alt keys in the app keys table, Option might not work. The app matches those keys by the character you type, so they do nothing on a Mac keyboard layout where Option and the key together type a character, such as ∆ for Option+J.

Keyboard shortcuts card

The keyboard shortcuts card lists the keys you can use in EtherPK. Because it shows every app key the app binds, including the ones extensions add, it matches the version you are running. Press Ctrl+/ (Cmd+/ on a Mac) to open it. In the desktop layout, the Keyboard shortcuts button at the right end of the toolbar opens it too. To close it, press Escape or select Close.

The Keyboard shortcuts button, outlined, among the buttons at the right of the toolbar

On a phone, the buttons in the command bar take the place of most editor keys. See EtherPK On A Phone for more information.

App keys

Key What it does Page
Alt+J Open today's journal entry. Journal Entries
Ctrl+K or Alt+F Open Search. Search
Alt+G Bring the Graph Sidebar to the front. The Graph Sidebar
Alt+N Open quick notes, with the cursor in the box. Quick Notes
Alt+B Bring Backlinks to the front. Backlinks
Alt+T Bring the Tasks view to the front. The Tasks View
Alt+M Bring the Graph View to the front. Desktop layout only. The Graph View
Alt+L Show or hide the left sidebar.
Alt+R Show or hide the right sidebar.
Alt+P Open Settings at the Publish tab. Publish Settings
Alt+Shift+P Publish again: the publication you last published from this device, or the only one in the graph.
Alt+S Turn spell check on or off. Spell Check
Alt+A Open Agent Chat below the line the cursor is on. Agent Chat
Alt+= and Alt+- Make the document text one step larger or smaller.

Alt+G, Alt+N, Alt+B, Alt+T and Alt+M never hide a sidebar, so pressing one a second time leaves its tab in front. If you have closed the tab, the key brings it back. To show or hide a whole sidebar, use Alt+L and Alt+R.

Because spell check and text size belong to the device, Alt+S, Alt+= and Alt+- change them in every graph on this device and on none of your other devices.

Your documents save as you type, so Ctrl+S has nothing to save, and the app blocks it to keep the browser from opening its Save dialog. In the Theme editor, Ctrl+S saves the theme file (Theming A Published Site).

Alt+M and Alt+A come from the Graph View and Agent Chat extensions. Switching an extension off removes its keys and its command menu rows (Extensions).

Find and replace

Use Ctrl+F to search a long document, because the browser's own find cannot see lines that the editor has not drawn yet.

Key What it does
Ctrl+F Find in this document.
Ctrl+H (Cmd+Option+F on a Mac) Find and replace in this document.
F3 or Ctrl+G Go to the next match.
Shift+F3 or Ctrl+Shift+G Go to the previous match.

In the find box, Alt+C and Alt+W turn match case and whole word on or off. Alt+R does the same for regular expressions there, instead of showing or hiding the right sidebar. In the find field, Enter and Shift+Enter go to the next and previous match. In the replace field, Enter replaces the current match and moves on to the next one, and Ctrl+Alt+Enter replaces every match.

On a phone, open the find box from the Find and replace row in the command menu. See Find And Replace for more information.

Outliner

Outliner keys work on bullet and task lines and on any further lines inside a block. Tab, Shift+Tab, Alt+Up and Alt+Down indent, outdent or move the whole block: the line, its further lines and every block nested under it. A merge with Backspace or Delete moves the lower block's text up onto the line above. Its children keep their indentation, and the merge is refused if a child would end up two or more levels below the block it joins. See Outliner Blocks for more information.

Key What it does
Tab Indent the block one level, under the block above it.
Shift+Tab Outdent the block one level. At the top level, remove the bullet.
Enter Start a new block below, at the same level. At the end of a block that has children, the new block becomes its first child.
Shift+Enter Start a new line inside the block.
Ctrl+Enter Leave the outline and start a prose line below it.
Alt+Up and Alt+Down Move the block up or down, past the whole neighbouring block.
Ctrl+. Fold or unfold the children under the block.
Ctrl+Shift+Enter Cycle the task state: plain bullet, open task, done task.
Backspace at the start of a block Merge the block onto the block above.
Delete at the end of a block Pull the block below up onto this line.
Ctrl+Shift+V (Cmd+Option+Shift+V in Safari) Paste as plain text, with every line kept in this block. A normal paste of several lines puts each line in its own block.

On a prose line (one without a bullet), Tab adds a bullet and Ctrl+Shift+Enter turns the line into a task (Tasks).

Code blocks

Inside a code block (Code Maths And Diagrams), Enter keeps you in the block while the cursor is on the opening fence or a line of code, and Ctrl+Enter takes you out.

Key What it does
Enter Start a new line inside the block, at the indent of the opening fence.
Tab and Shift+Tab Indent or outdent the code by two spaces.
Ctrl+Enter Leave the block for a new bullet when the block is inside a bullet, or for a prose line otherwise.
Three backticks, then Enter Complete the code block, with the cursor on its middle line.

Frontmatter

These keys apply while the cursor is in the frontmatter (Titles Aliases And Frontmatter).

Key What it does
Enter Start a new line at the same indent, or the next item of a list. After a key with no value, such as aliases:, start the new line one level in.
Ctrl+Enter Start a new line one level out. In a list, the new line is outside the list.
Tab and Shift+Tab Indent or outdent by two spaces.
Ctrl+A Select the frontmatter lines, or the text below them, depending on where the cursor is.

Text and links

Key What it does
/ Open the command menu.
[[ Pick a document to link to (Pages And Wikilinks).
Alt+Enter on a link Open the page it names.
Ctrl+Alt+Enter on a link Open the page in the pane to the right.
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Enter on a link Open the page in the pane below.
Shift+F10 or Menu Open the menu for the link or the misspelt word at the cursor. Elsewhere on a line, open the line menu.
Ctrl+Alt+K (Control+Option+K on a Mac) Bookmark the line, or remove its bookmark (Bookmarks).
# on a task line Add a task tag.
* _ ~ = [ ( or ` over a selection on one line Wrap the selection (Formatting Text).
Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I or Ctrl+Shift+H Bold, italicise or highlight the selection, or remove that formatting.
Ctrl+Z Undo.
Ctrl+Y (Cmd+Shift+Z on a Mac) Redo. On Linux, and in a synced graph on Windows, you can also redo with Ctrl+Shift+Z.

Escape closes an open menu or list first, and then the find box. With nothing open, it leaves the editor, so the next Tab moves the focus on instead of indenting.

Kanban boards

Board keys work while a card has the keyboard focus (Kanban Boards).

Key What it does
Up and Down Go to the next or previous card in the lane.
Left and Right Go to the nearest card in the next lane that has cards.
Alt+Left and Alt+Right Move the card one lane.
Alt+Up and Alt+Down Move the card one priority section.
Enter Open the task in the task editor.
Ctrl+Z Undo the last board move.
Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y Redo the board move.

Command menu

Type / at the start of a word to open the command menu. Because it opens only there, you can type and/or, dates and web addresses as usual. It also stays closed in a code block, in the frontmatter and inside [[. Once it is open, type to filter the rows, move the highlight with Up and Down, and press Enter or Tab to run the highlighted row. Escape closes the menu and keeps what you typed.

The menu shows only the rows that apply at the cursor, so if a row is missing, it does not apply there.

Row What it does Page
Search, Find and replace Open Search, or the find box.
Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow Insert a link to that day's journal entry.
Upload asset Insert an image or a file. Images And Files
Lock protected documents, Unlock protected documents, Protect this document, Remove protection from this document Lock or unlock the protected documents on this device, or encrypt or decrypt this page. Protected Documents
Template Insert one of the templates in the graph. Templates
Table Insert a table. Tables
Map Insert a map. Maps
Open Kanban, Graph Kanban Open a board for the page at the cursor, or for the whole graph. Kanban Boards
Reset workspace Ask you to confirm, then close every tab and restore the sidebars.
Install EtherPK Install EtherPK as an app on this device. Listed while the browser can install EtherPK and it is not yet installed. Installing EtherPK As An App

Context menus

Right-click a document, a line or a link to open its menu. On a phone, long-press instead, except on a line, where a long press selects text. In the editor and on a Kanban card, Shift+F10 and the Menu key open the menu as well.

Menu Opens on Rows
Document menu A document tab, a favourite, a recent, a row of All documents Add to favourites or Remove from favourites, Rename…, Protect…, Remove protection… or Unlock…, Publish…, Add frontmatter…, Delete…
Document menu, extra rows A document tab Find in document, Show Backlinks, Open Kanban Board, Show in Graph View, Open Map View, Show Tasks, Copy name to clipboard
Line menu A line Copy agent instruction on a task line, Bookmark line (or Remove bookmark and Edit label…), Paste

The line menu has no Cut or Copy. To cut or copy, right-click inside a selection, or hold Shift to get the browser's menu. For the tab menu, see Tabs And Panes.

  • Bookmarks
    • To bookmark the line the cursor is on, press Ctrl+Alt+K (Control+Option+K on a Mac), or type / and choose Toggle bookmark in the command menu. On a phone, use the command menu. With a mouse, you can also click in the margin to the left of a line. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • EtherPK On A Phone
    • Both layouts show the same graphs, documents and editor. Only the controls around the editor are in different places. With a hardware keyboard, the Keyboard Shortcuts work in the phone layout too.
  • Find And Replace
  • Formatting Text
    • Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) to undo. To redo, press Ctrl+Y on Windows and Linux, or Cmd+Shift+Z on a Mac. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • Glossary
    • | command menu | The menu of commands that opens when you type /. | Keyboard Shortcuts |
    • | keyboard shortcuts card | The card that lists every key EtherPK uses. | Keyboard Shortcuts |
  • Journal Entries
    • A bar such as Scroll down for 2026-09-20 loads its day when you select it, press Enter on it, or scroll down while the whole bar is in view. On a touch screen, you can also swipe up. Tab indents the text and never reaches the bar, so to load an older day from the keyboard, type / and choose Show older entry. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • Kanban Boards
    • From the keyboard, Alt+Left and Alt+Right move a focused card one lane and keep its priority, and Alt+Up and Alt+Down move it one section within its lane. On a Mac, press Option instead of Alt. For every key on a board, see Keyboard Shortcuts.
  • Maps
  • Outliner Blocks
  • Pages And Wikilinks
    • With the cursor in a link or right beside it, press Alt+Enter (Option+Enter on a Mac) to open the link, and Shift+F10 or the Menu key to open the link menu. On a desktop, Ctrl+Alt+Enter (Cmd+Option+Enter on a Mac) opens the page in the pane to the right, and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Enter (Cmd+Option+Shift+Enter on a Mac) opens it in the pane below. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • Planned Features
  • Publish Settings
    • Alt+P opens Settings on the Publish tab. Alt+Shift+P publishes again to the same folder or repository without opening a dialog. It uses the publication you last published from this device, or the only one in the graph. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • Quick Notes
    • Select Move all to today's journal, above the text box, to move every note into today's journal entry. The app then opens the entry, and the list is empty. You can also run Move quick notes to today's journal from the command menu. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • Spell Check
    • Press Alt+S to turn spell check off, and again to turn it back on. You can also type /spell in the editor and choose Spell check: turn off or Spell check: turn on. The Check spelling as I type checkbox on the Spelling tab controls the same setting. For the full list of keys and command menu rows, see Keyboard Shortcuts.
  • Tabs And Panes
    • The same menu also has Copy name to clipboard and, in a graph kept in a folder on your computer, Copy full file path to clipboard. See Local Graphs for more information. For the rows that act on the document itself, see Keyboard Shortcuts.
  • Titles Aliases And Frontmatter
  • Using AI Agents With Your Notes
    • Type /Agent on a line of a document and choose Agent in the command menu, or press Alt+A. Both open the same chat, beneath the line, or beside the dot if the bullet is empty. On a Mac, use /Agent, because Option+A types a character. See Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.
  • Your First Graph