60+ Most Useful WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts to Improve Productivity

WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts for Visual Editor: 

WordPress offers a slightly extended version of TinyMCE editor. It appears on the "Visual" tab in your WordPress page or post editor. It is a very compact rich text editor with some basic formatting buttons.

1.1 WordPress Shortcuts for Plain Text Formatting

These shortcuts are very common and used by various other applications outside of WordPress as well. For example, Microsoft Office application.

These are basically generic keyboard shortcuts that most modern operating systems and software will understand. Since these are also used by the WordPress editor as well, you can save a lot of time just by memorizing only these 10 shortcut keys.

Note: For Windows/Linux you must use “CTRL + letter”, whereas for Mac you have to use “Command (⌘) + letter”.

c = Copy

v = Paste

a = Select all

x = Cut

z = Undo

y = Redo

b = Bold

i = Italic

u = Underline

k = Insert/edit link

1.2 WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts for Advanced Actions: 

If you have mastered the above keys, then there are lot more WordPress shortcuts that can even boost your speed of writing.

Note: If you are using Windows/Linux, you will need to press Alt + Shift and then press the corresponding letter. And if you are working on a Mac, you’ll need to press Shift + Option along with these letters.

n = Check Spelling (This requires a plugin.)

l = Align Left

j = Justify Text

c = Align Center

d = Strikethrough

r = Align Right

u = Unordered List

a = Insert link

o = Ordered List

s = Remove link

q = Quote

m = Insert Image

w = Distraction Free Writing mode

t = Insert More Tag

p = Insert Page Break tag

h = Help

x = Add/remove code tag

1 = Heading 1

2 = Heading 2

3 = Heading 3

4 = Heading 4

5 = Heading 5

6 = Heading 6

9 = Preformatted

1.3 WordPress Shortcuts to Do Advanced Formatting 

Learning this list below will give you on the fly access to some of the frequently used formatting option. These are not just keyboard shortcuts; instead, these are patterns can you can type before writing a line to get the desired formatting.

* = Start an unordered list

-  = Start an unordered list

1. = Start an ordered list

1) = Start an ordered list

## = H2

### = H3

#### = H4

##### = H5

###### = H6

>  = transform text into blockquote

--- = Add Horizontal line

`  ..`   = Transform text into code block

WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts for Comment Moderation: 

If you run a popular blog where users put lots of comments on your posts, you can use these shortcuts to save a lot of time while moderating comments.

2.1 How to Enable Shortcut Feature for Comment Moderation?

Shortcuts to browse and moderate comments were first introduced in WordPress version 2.7. However, till the latest release, this feature is not enabled by default.

To turn this feature on you need to go to "Users ⇒ Your Profile", and then tick the box "Enable keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation". Now head to the comment area and you are good to go with the keyboard shortcuts.

2.2 Comment Navigation Shortcuts  

To navigate or scroll through the comments, you only have to remember two shortcut keys: j and k.

j: Let’s you select a comment. For the first time, it will select the oldest comment (the comment at the top). Thereafter, you can use the j key to move and select the next comment. i.e. - moving the current selection downwards. Please note that the j key will also take you to the next page of comments when you reach the bottom of a comment moderation page (if available).

k: You can also use k to select the first comment (bottom-most comment). After that, when you press k to move up the current selection. If you reach the top of a comment page, pressing k will take you to the previous page (if available).

2.3 WordPress Comment Moderation Shortcuts  

Once you have selected a comment by navigating to it, you can perform the following actions by simply pressing the below-described letters of your keyboard:

a = APPROVE your currently selected comment

d = DELETE the comment or moves it to the TRASH

e = Navigates the EDIT screen

q = Activates QUICK EDIT for rapid inline editing

r = Initiates an inline REPLY

s = Marks the comment as SPAM

u = UNAPPROVE the comment so it goes back into moderation

z = RESTORE current comment from the trash.

2.4 WordPress Shortcuts for Comment Bulk Actions  

These eight WordPress shortcuts will let you perform actions on multiple selected comments for a speedy response.

x = You can use x to select the current comment

Shift+x = You can check all of the boxes

Shift+a = APPROVES the selected comments

Shift+d = DELETES all the selected comments

Shift+s = Marks all the selected comments as SPAM

Shift+t = Moves all the selected comments to the TRASH

Shift+z = Restores all the selected comments from the TRASH