Contao Manual > Administration area > Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts

To speed up the workflow when working with Contao, there are several keyboard shortcuts in the back end that allow you to call up certain commands directly. For example, the Save button is always located at the end of an input form, so that it can only be clicked with the mouse when the page is completely scrolled down.

Normally, this is not a problem, because when filling out a form you work from top to bottom. But if you later want to change only a single value at the beginning of the form, the button is not accessible without scrolling. In this case, you are able to access the keyboard shortcut [Control]+[Option]+[s] [Alt]+[Shift]+[s] [Alt]+[s] even without scrolling to the destination.

General keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts are available in Contao:

Shortcut	Button	Explanation
`[Control]+[Option]+[h]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[h]` `[Alt]+[h]`	Home	Go to the home page of the back end.
`[Control]+[Option]+[q]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[q]` `[Alt]+[q]`	Quit	Quit the current back end session (log out).
`[Control]+[Option]+[b]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[b]` `[Alt]+[b]`	Back	Go back to the previous page.
`[Control]+[Option]+[n]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[n]` `[Alt]+[n]`	New record	Create a new record.
`[Control]+[Option]+[e]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[e]` `[Alt]+[e]`	Edit multiple	Switch to the “edit multiple” mode.
`[Control]+[Option]+[f]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[f]` `[Alt]+[f]`	Front end preview	Open the front end preview in a new browser window.

Keyboard shortcuts in edit mode

The following abbreviations are also available in edit mode:

Shortcut	Button	Explanation
`[Control]+[Option]+[s]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[s]` `[Alt]+[s]`	Save	Saves the current form.
`[Control]+[Option]+[c]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[c]` `[Alt]+[c]`	Save and close	Saves the current form and redirects to the previous page.
`[Control]+[Option]+[n]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[n]` `[Alt]+[n]`	Save and new	Saves the current form and creates a new record.
`[Control]+[Option]+[d]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[d]` `[Alt]+[d]`	Save and duplicate	Saves the current input form and duplicates the record.
`[Control]+[Option]+[e]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[e]` `[Alt]+[e]`	Save and edit	Saves the current form and redirects to the child records view, e.g. when creating style sheets.
`[Control]+[Option]+[g]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[g]` `[Alt]+[g]`	Save and go back	Saves the current form and redirects to the parent page, e.g. from a content element to the article tree.

Keyboard shortcuts in “edit multiple” mode

Further abbreviations are added in “Edit multiple” mode:

Shortcut	Button	Explanation
`[Control]+[Option]+[s]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[s]` `[Alt]+[s]`	Edit multiple	Edits all selected fields in “edit multiple” mode.
`[Control]+[Option]+[d]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[d]` `[Alt]+[d]`	Delete multiple	Deletes all selected records in “edit multiple” mode.
`[Control]+[Option]+[c]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[c]` `[Alt]+[c]`	Copy multiple	Duplicates all selected records in “edit multiple” mode.
`[Control]+[Option]+[x]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[x]` `[Alt]+[x]`	Move multiple	Moves all selected records in “edit multiple” mode.
`[Control]+[Option]+[v]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[v]` `[Alt]+[v]`	Override multiple	Overrides all selected records in “edit multiple” mode.
`[Control]+[Option]+[a]` `[Alt]+[Shift]+[a]` `[Alt]+[a]`	Generate aliases	Regenerates the alias of all selected records in “edit multiple” mode.
`[Shift]`	Select several check boxes	Selects several check boxes by holding down the shift key in “edit multiple” mode.

Click to edit

You can edit elements by clicking them, without having to use the edit icon. The following actions are supported:

Windows:

[Ctrl] + click: edit the element
[Ctrl] + [Shift] + click: edit the element’s children

macOS:

[Cmd] + click: edit the element
[Cmd] + [Shift] + click: edit the element’s children

Windows:

[Ctrl] + click: edit the element
[Ctrl] + [Shift] + click: edit the element settings

macOS:

[Cmd] + click: edit the element
[Cmd] + [Shift] + click: edit the element settings

Keyboard shortcuts under Windows, Linux and Mac

The described shortcuts should work on your current browser, but might be different on other operating systems or browsers. See this article for an overview of which key combination to press on which operating system and browser.