Keyboard shortcuts

The editor's keys work while the canvas has them — not while you type in a field or a dialog, menu or list is open. Save and Open work from a field too. The menus and the right-click menu show each key beside its command, written the way your computer writes it.

On a Mac, ⌘ takes the place of Ctrl and ⌥ (Option) of Alt; Shift is ⇧. On a German keyboard Ctrl is Strg and Shift Umschalt.

Tools

The Shapes tool, Lettering, Monogram and the Catalogue have no key. Hold Space and drag to pan with any tool, or drag with the middle mouse button.

Files and editing

File ▸ New has no key in the browser: browsers keep Ctrl+N for a new window. Copy and Paste stitch settings take their keys only while something is selected.

Selecting and arranging

Arrange, cut out and combine shows what Combine, Break apart and the other commands do.

The mouse with a key held

The mouse wheel zooms about the pointer, faster with Ctrl; with Shift it pans sideways. On a trackpad, two fingers pan and a pinch zooms. A double-click goes one level deeper each time — into a group, then into a shape's nodes; Esc backs out.

Editing nodes

While a shape's nodes are edited — double-click it:

Shift-click, or Ctrl-click (⌘-click on a Mac), adds a node to the selection or drops it, and a frame dragged on empty canvas selects every node in it. While nodes are edited, Shift+C and Shift+S set the node type instead of centring and showing only the selection. Drawing and editing explains the node types. A machine file's stitches have needle points instead of nodes: the same keys move and delete the selected stitches, Shift+J connects two runs across the jump between them, and a drag on empty canvas draws a lasso instead of a frame (Touch up a machine file).

Drawing lines, cutting and building shapes

With the Pen, S switches Smooth on or off for the points you place next: a smooth click gives a curve through the points. In the Pen's Satin column mode, Enter after the first side goes on to the second, and Backspace before the second side's first point goes back to the first (Draw lines and curves). A guided fill's guide line, selected in the Stitch view with the Select tool, takes a point where you double-click it, and Delete removes the point you clicked, as long as two are left. With the Shape Builder, hold Alt and click or drag to remove regions. When you type into a text on the canvas, Enter or Esc finishes it and Shift+Enter starts a new line. Esc also cancels the colour pipette and closes the right-click menu.

Zoom

They work on the design canvas, not while only the Simulation is shown. Click the percentage in the zoom bar to type a zoom, and press Enter.

The stitch preview

In Simulation, click the handle of the bar under the preview, then:

The field beside Play shows the stitch the needle is at: type another number and press Enter to go there, or Esc to put the number back. The colour block's field on the second row does the same with a block number, going to where that colour begins (Step to a stitch or a colour).

Fields and lists

• In a number field, ↑ and ↓ change the value a step, with Shift ten steps. Enter applies what you typed; in a length field Esc puts back what was there.

• In the Layers and Sewing order panels, Shift-click selects the rows from the one you clicked last, and Ctrl-click (⌘-click) adds or drops one.

• In a text's Names list, ↑ and ↓ show each name on the canvas, Home and End the first and the last.

• On the right rail's left edge, ← and → make the rail wider or narrower, Home and End as narrow or as wide as it goes.