Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts save a trip to the menus for the things you do every day. Here’s every Varlig shortcut, grouped by what you’re doing, written the way the menus show them. Pick up the few you’ll use most, and come back for the rest.

Symbol	Key	Symbol	Key
⌘	Command	⌃	Control
⌥	Option	↩	Return
⇧	Shift	⌫	Delete

Notes and windows

Action	Shortcut	Menu
New note	⌘N	File
New note in a new window	⌥⌘N	File
New note in a new tab	⌃⌘N	File
Today’s note	⌃⌘T	File
This week’s note	⌃⇧⌘T	File
Save	⌘S	File
Open a Markdown file	⌥⌘O	File
Open a folder	⌃⌘O	File
Import notes	⇧⌘O	File
Export notes	⇧⌘S	File
Print note	⌘P	File
Empty Trash	⇧⌘⌫	File
Pin or unpin note	⇧⌘P	Note
Duplicate note	⇧⌘D	Note
Restore note from Trash	⇧⌘R	Note
Copy link to note	⌥⇧⌘L	Note
Copy note identifier	⌥⇧⌘I	Note
Open the main window	⌘\	View
Settings	⌘,	Varlig
Undo / Redo	⌘Z / ⇧⌘Z	Edit

Finding and moving around

Action	Shortcut	Menu
Quick Open a note, tag or section	⌘O	File
Quick Open a tag	⌥⇧⌘O	File
Search all notes	⇧⌘F	Edit
Find in note	⌘F	Edit
Find and replace	⌥⌘F	Edit
Back	⌘[	View
Forward	⌘]	View
Previous day / Next day	⌃⌘[ / ⌃⌘]	View
Previous week / Next week	⌃⌥⌘[ / ⌃⌥⌘]	View
Finish editing and leave the note	⌘↩	Format

These are in View › Go To.

Section	Shortcut
All Notes	⌥⌘1
Untagged	⌥⌘2
Todo	⌥⌘3
Today	⌥⌘4
Locked	⌥⌘5
Pinned	⌥⌘6
Journal	⌥⌘7
Review	⌥⌘8
Archive	⌥⌘9
Trash	⌥⌘0

Layout and view

Action	Shortcut
Show Editor Only	⌃1
Show Notes and Editor	⌃2
Show Tags, Notes and Editor	⌃3
Toggle Style Bar	⇧⌘Y
Toggle Statistics	⇧⌘I
Toggle Table of Contents	⇧⌘A
Toggle Backlinks	⇧⌘B
Toggle Highlights	⇧⌘H
Zoom In	⌘+
Zoom Out	⌘−
Actual Size	⌘0

Text formatting

With nothing selected, a style shortcut applies to what you type next. With the cursor inside a style, it removes it.

Action	Shortcut
Bold	⌘B
Italic	⌘I
Underline	⌘U
Strikethrough	⇧⌘U
Highlight	⇧⌘M
Heading 1 to 6	⌘1 to ⌘6
Quote	⇧⌘T
Inline code	⌥⌘C

Lists, lines and sections

Action	Shortcut
Bulleted list	⌘L
Numbered list	⇧⌘L
Todo	⌘T
Tick or untick a todo	⌘.
Shift line left	⌥⌘←
Shift line right	⌥⌘→
Move line up	⌥⌘↑
Move line down	⌥⌘↓
Delete to the start of a line	⌘⌫
Fold or unfold a section	⌘’

Heading, list, todo and quote shortcuts switch the lines back to ordinary text when they already have that formatting.

Inserting

Action	Shortcut
Calculation block	⌘Y
Code block	⌃⌘C
Table	⌥⌘T
Link	⌘K
Open link	⇧⌘K
Note link	⌘D
Footnote	⇧⌘E
Line separator	⌥⌘S
Attach files	⇧⌘V
Date and time	⇧⌘7
Date	⇧⌘8
Short date	⇧⌘9
Time only	⇧⌘0

Tables

Use these while you’re typing in a table cell.

Action	Shortcut
Next cell, or add a row at the end	Tab
Previous cell	⇧Tab
Cell below, or add a row at the end	↩
Back to the note	Escape or ⌘↩
Add a row below	⌃⌘↓
Add a column after	⌃⌘→
Delete the row	⌃⌘⌫
Delete the column	⌃⇧⌘⌫
Select cells from this one	⇧ and an arrow key, or ⇧-click
Copy, cut or clear the selected cells	⌘C, ⌘X or ⌫

Keys while you write

Key	What it does
↩ in a list or quote	Continues it. On an empty item, steps out one level.
Tab / ⇧Tab	Indents or outdents list items and code by two spaces.
`#`, `[[` or `:`	Opens suggestions for tags, note titles or emoji.
Escape in a calc block	Suggests function names.
Space on a picture	Previews the picture.

In a suggestion list, use ↑ and ↓ to move, ↩ or Tab to choose, and Escape to close. Suggestions need Autocomplete tags, wiki links and emoji turned on in Settings › General.

The whole list, in the app

Help › Keyboard Shortcuts opens a searchable window with every shortcut, grouped by the menu it belongs to. Type part of a command to filter it.

Shortcuts inside Varlig are fixed; to change one, use System Settings as described below.

Shortcuts that work from any app

Settings › General › Keyboard shortcuts has three global shortcuts: Open Varlig, Create a new note and Show scratchpad. Show scratchpad starts as ⌃Space; the other two you record yourself. They work even when you’re in another app, so you can capture a thought the moment you have it. Each needs ⌘ or ⌃.

On macOS 26 and later, Varlig also has a Quick Capture control for Control Center and the menu bar. It brings Varlig forward with a new note, ready to type. Add it when you edit the controls in Control Center.

Open System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › App Shortcuts, add Varlig, and type the menu item’s name exactly as it appears in the menu, such as Highlight. The new shortcut appears in the menu. Inside the editor, Varlig’s own formatting keys may still work too.

Siri and the Shortcuts app

Varlig’s actions also appear in the Shortcuts app on your Mac, and five of them work with Siri straight away. Name a note in the phrase to go straight to it:

Action	Ask Siri	What it does
Create Note	“Create a note in Varlig”	Makes a note from text.
Open Note	“Open Groceries in Varlig”	Opens the note.
Get Note Text	“Read Groceries in Varlig”	Says the note as you’d read it, up to about a thousand characters, and returns its Markdown to a shortcut.
Append to Note	“Add to Groceries in Varlig”	Adds text to the end of the note.
Search Notes	“Search Varlig”	Finds notes with Varlig’s search, filters included.

Siri knows the titles of up to 20 of your notes; for any other, say “Open a note in Varlig” and name it when Siri asks. In the Shortcuts app, Find Notes finds notes with a tag, notes containing some text, or both, and other actions pin, archive or trash a note, change its tags, open a tag or sidebar section, get or add attachments, export a note and back up the library. Every one of them brings Varlig forward.

A password-protected note is never offered, found or read, even while it’s open, and while Varlig is locked Siri knows none of your notes. On iPhone and iPad, see Shortcuts and Siri.