Shortcut Reference

Ariv is designed to keep your hands on the keyboard. Nearly every action has a shortcut, and most of them can be customized to fit the way you work.

This page lists every keyboard shortcut in the app, organized by category. Mac shortcuts use Cmd, Windows shortcuts use Ctrl, and the Ariv interface automatically adapts to show the correct modifier for your platform.

Global shortcuts

These shortcuts work even when Ariv is minimized or running in the background. They trigger a floating overlay on top of whatever you’re currently doing.

Action	Mac	Windows	Notes
Quick Capture	Cmd+Shift+N	Ctrl+Shift+N	Opens the Quick Capture overlay
Scratchpad Jot	Cmd+Shift+J	Alt+Shift+J	Appends text to the Scratchpad

Tip

Global shortcuts are the fastest way to get a thought into Ariv. You don’t need to switch windows or find the right note — just press the shortcut, type, and get back to what you were doing.

File

Action	Mac	Windows	Notes
New Note	Cmd+N	Ctrl+N	System shortcut, not customizable
Quick Capture	Ctrl+Shift+N	Ctrl+Shift+N	Global shortcut
Search Notes	Cmd+O	Ctrl+O	Opens the note search dialog
Daily Note	Cmd+D	Ctrl+D	Opens or creates today’s Daily Note
Find in Files	Cmd+Shift+F	Ctrl+Shift+F	Search across all notes in your vault
Insert Template	Cmd+Shift+T	Ctrl+Shift+T	Insert a template into the current note

Navigation

Action	Mac	Windows	Notes
Command Palette	Cmd+P	Ctrl+P	Search and run any command
Open Settings	Cmd+,	Ctrl+,	Opens the settings panel
Go Back	Cmd+[	Ctrl+[	Navigate to the previous note, not customizable
Go Forward	Cmd+]	Ctrl+]	Navigate to the next note, not customizable

Note

Go Back and Go Forward work like browser history. Each time you open a note, it’s added to your navigation stack. These shortcuts let you move through that stack without reaching for the mouse.

View

Action	Mac	Windows	Notes
Toggle Sidebar	Cmd+E	Ctrl+E	Show or hide the left sidebar
Toggle Right Bar	Cmd+R	Ctrl+R	Show or hide the right sidebar
Split Right	Cmd+\	Ctrl+\	Open a second editor pane to the right
Split Down	Cmd+Shift+\	Ctrl+Shift+\	Open a second editor pane below
Focus Primary Pane	Cmd+1	Ctrl+1	Move focus to the left/top pane
Focus Secondary Pane	Cmd+2	Ctrl+2	Move focus to the right/bottom pane

Tip

Use Cmd+\ (or Ctrl+\) to open a split view, then Cmd+1 / Cmd+2 to jump between panes without touching the mouse. This is a fast way to reference one note while writing another.

Editor

Action	Mac	Windows	Notes
Save Note	Cmd+S	Ctrl+S	Not customizable. Notes also auto-save.
Bold	Cmd+B	Ctrl+B	Toggle bold on selected text
Italic	Cmd+I	Ctrl+I	Toggle italic on selected text
Undo	Cmd+Z	Ctrl+Z	Undo the last edit
Redo	Cmd+Shift+Z	Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo the last undone edit
Find in Note	Cmd+F	Ctrl+F	Search within the current note
Replace	Cmd+H	Ctrl+H	Find and replace within the current note

Panels

Action	Mac	Windows	Notes
Toggle Outline	Cmd+Shift+O	Ctrl+Shift+O	Show or hide the document outline panel
Toggle Scratchpad	Cmd+.	Ctrl+.	Show or hide the Scratchpad panel

Weekly Review

These shortcuts are only active when you’re in Weekly Review mode. They let you triage notes quickly using arrow keys.

Action	Key	Notes
Keep Active	→ (Right arrow)	Mark the note as active and move to the next
Archive	← (Left arrow)	Archive the note and move to the next
Skip	↑ (Up arrow)	Skip this note without changing its status
Delete	↓ (Down arrow)	Delete the note and move to the next

Note

Weekly Review shortcuts are the same on both Mac and Windows since they use arrow keys rather than modifier combinations.

Customizing shortcuts

You can change most keyboard shortcuts in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts. Open settings with Cmd+, (or Ctrl+,), then navigate to the Keyboard Shortcuts section.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Some shortcuts are read-only. System-level shortcuts like Cmd+N (New Note), Cmd+S (Save), Cmd+[ / Cmd+] (Back/Forward) cannot be changed. These are marked as “readonly” in the settings.
• Conflict detection. If you assign a shortcut that’s already used by another action, Ariv warns you about the conflict. This prevents situations where pressing a key does something unexpected.
• Platform-aware display. The settings panel shows shortcuts using the correct symbols for your platform — Cmd on Mac appears as the ⌘ symbol, while Windows shows Ctrl.

Tip

If you’ve customized shortcuts and want to start fresh, you can reset individual shortcuts to their defaults from the Keyboard Shortcuts settings panel.

---

Related: Vim Mode — Use Vim keybindings in the editor | Quick Capture — Capture thoughts without leaving your workflow