Keyboard and mouse shortcuts — Snipdeck docs

This is the shortcut reference for Snipdeck, grouped by where you use each one: capturing snips, the global hotkeys, the gallery, and the annotation and collage editors. For the reasoning behind the capture model, see Capture shortcuts; this page is for quick lookup.

How to read this page

Snipdeck has three kinds of shortcuts:

Capture gestures: a held modifier plus a left-mouse drag. These decide what happens to the snip you draw. Available on Windows and GNOME.
Global hotkeys: keyboard shortcuts that work from anywhere, even when Snipdeck is not focused. Available on both platforms.
In-window shortcuts: keys that work inside a specific Snipdeck window, such as the gallery or the annotation editor.

Modifier keys are written in code formatting: Win, Super, Ctrl, Shift, Alt. On Linux the Win key is called Super.

Capture (mouse + modifier)

The modifiers must be held before and during the drag.

Windows	GNOME	Floating snip	Clipboard	Added to gallery
`Win` + drag	`Super`+`Alt` + drag	Yes	—	Yes
`Win`+`Ctrl` + drag	`Super`+`Alt`+`Ctrl` + drag	Yes	Yes	Yes
`Win`+`Alt` + drag	No gesture	—	Yes	—
`Win`+`Shift` + drag	`Super`+`Alt`+`Shift` + drag	—	—	Yes
`Win`+`Ctrl`+`Shift` + drag	`Super`+`Alt`+`Ctrl`+`Shift` + drag	—	Yes	Yes

The GNOME gestures come with Snipdeck’s GNOME Shell extension and are active only while Snipdeck is running. On GNOME, keeping Super+Alt held lets you take several snips in a row.
Clipboard-only capture has no gesture on GNOME; use the Ctrl+Alt+Shift+X hotkey.
Linux desktops other than GNOME have no capture gesture; use the hotkeys or the New button in the gallery.
Esc cancels a capture while you drag.

Freeze-first capture

Shortcut	Platform	What it does
`Win`+`Shift`+`Space`, then drag	Windows	Dims and freezes the screen, then lets you select on the still image

The next left-drag draws the region on the frozen image; you do not need to keep holding Win for that drag. Linux has no separate freeze key: the hotkeys and the New button already start by freezing the screen.

For a full walkthrough of the matrix and freeze-first capture, see Capture shortcuts.

Global hotkeys

Snipdeck registers five global hotkeys that work from any application. The defaults are the same on both platforms:

Default hotkey	Action	`settings.json` key
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Shift`+`A`	New snip	`hotkey_snip`
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Shift`+`C`	New snip and copy to clipboard	`hotkey_snip_clip`
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Shift`+`X`	Clipboard only (not added to the gallery)	`hotkey_clip_only`
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Shift`+`G`	Open the gallery	`hotkey_gallery`
`Win`+`Alt`+`H` (`Super`+`Alt`+`H` on Linux)	Show / hide all on-screen snips	`hotkey_toggle_visibility`

On Windows, the capture hotkeys arm the next drag; on Linux, they freeze the screen and you select the region on the still image.

Changing the hotkeys

Where you change them depends on the session:

Windows and Linux on X11: edit the hotkey_* keys in settings.json and restart Snipdeck.
Wayland: the desktop owns global shortcuts. Snipdeck proposes the hotkeys above only on first launch, and you approve them in a system dialog. To change them afterwards, use your desktop’s keyboard settings; there, the hotkey_* keys are only Snipdeck’s proposal and the desktop has the final say.

In settings.json the format is modifier tokens joined by +, ending in a key. Modifiers can also be written without separators: CtrlAltShift+A, Ctrl+Alt+F12, or WinAlt+H.

The recognized modifier tokens are Ctrl (or Control), Shift, Alt, and Win (also accepted as Super, Cmd, or Meta). Keys can be letters A–Z, digits 0–9, function keys F1–F12, or named keys such as Space, Enter, Delete, Insert, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, and PrintScreen. See Settings for the full key reference.

Tray

Action	What it does
Tray icon → New Snip	Starts a capture. On Windows it arms a one-shot drag without holding `Win`; on Linux it freezes the screen
Tray icon → Show Snipdeck	Brings the gallery window to the front

The gallery

These work in the main Snipdeck window (the gallery).

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl`+`F`	Jump to the search box
`Esc` (in the search box)	Clear the search
`Esc` (with a menu or panel open)	Close the menu or panel

Text you type in the search box is matched against OCR text, window info, monitor, and path. The Filter panel, Sort, and the S / M / L card size are mouse-driven; see Gallery and search for details.

Right-clicking a gallery card (or a floating snip) opens the menu with Copy, OCR + Clipboard, OCR + Translate, Annotate, Share, Transform, Crop, Hide from screen, and Delete. These are mouse-driven rather than keyboard shortcuts.

The annotation editor

Open the editor by right-clicking any snip and choosing Annotate. Inside the editor, these keys are active:

Shortcut	Action
`Esc`	Close the editor without saving; if you have drawn anything, it asks before discarding
`Ctrl`+`Z`	Undo the last stroke
`Ctrl`+`Y`	Redo

Undo, redo, and clear are also buttons in the editor’s toolbar. For tools, the color wheel, size and opacity sliders, and zoom, see Annotation editor.

The collage editor

The collage editor combines several snips into one image.

Shortcut	Action
`Esc`	Cancel and close the collage editor

See Collage editor for arranging cells and saving the result.

How to read this page

Capture (mouse + modifier)

Freeze-first capture

Global hotkeys

Changing the hotkeys

Tray

The gallery

The annotation editor

The collage editor

See also